Opinion Maker

US President Franklin D Roosevelt once remarked of Nicaragua's dictator, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

By Dr Shahid Qureshi

As much as I love people from US for being simple, caring and kind at the same time I hate them for being so ignorant for not knowing what are their governments doing around the world i.e. killing innocent people. In reality Americans are deliberately starved and kept ignorant about how they are perceived around the world? Some of their moves are quite childish and lack maturity i.e. the US response on the sentencing of Dr Shakeel Afriidi a Pakistani national US agent. Dr Shakeel Afridi is sentenced 33 years for spying and helping US in the Abbottabad Operation in which Osama bin Laden was allegedly killed and US stopped $ 33milion aid to Pakistan. He could have been easily exchanged at some point in future after granting him US citizenship and Pakistan is not an enemy country of the USA? There are hundreds and thousands of Shakeel Afridis walking around in Pakistan? US criticise the arrest and sentencing of Pakistani national Shakeel Afridi but would not release Jonathan Pollard (former US and now an Israeli citizen) for spying for Israel a US friendly country? 

On the other hand when Indians have sent bodies of Pakistani prisoners some Pakistanis in the elite are dying in the on sided love of ‘Indian aman kee asha’. No one knows if they are ‘paid to be loved’ or doing for free as some of them use to be ‘straight’. Dr Shakeel Afriidi, Jonathan Pollard and Sarbjeet Singh are spies and sentenced by the court of law. The only way they could be released is either they are pardoned by the President or exchanged. USA is not willing to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard on any grounds? But Indians are expecting Pakistan to release Sarvbjeet Singh and US want Dr Shakeel Afridi to be released and go scot free. 

1. Sarbjit has confessed that worked for India’s foreign intelligence agency (RAW) and had set off five blasts in Lahore’.
2. Four Prime Ministers and three Presidents of Israel have all personally requested Jonathan Pollard's release from the Presidents of the US.
3. Why elite Pakistani human rights Ansar Burney, Asma Jhangir, I A Rehman have not protested for ‘Dr Afia Siddiqui’s handover to the US, and asked for her release?

Sarabjit Singh had confessed his involvement in the bomb blasts according to the court record. Pakistan has TV broadcast a confession by Singh in September 2005, in which he said, ‘he worked for India’s foreign intelligence agency (RAW) and had set off five blasts in Lahore’.

Sarabjit was arrested by the Pakistani security officials for the killings of 14 innocent people in bombings. Pakistani government had released more than 100 Indian prisoners since the coalition government came to power.

The way Zardari government dying in one-sided love with the Indians as Musharraf; it seems they will sell everything our ancestors fought for. It seems they are in a hurry to finish the job? When was the issue of transit trade to Afghanistan from India discussed, in cabinet or parliament? When India is blocking Pakistan’s water, Mr Zardari is giving them trade transit? If President Zardari thinks that India is not a threat to Pakistan then he must be immediately removed from the Presidency for ‘mental incapacity’, as he himself admitted having suffering from irreversible and untreatable shrinking of brain disease ‘dementia’?

Since 2005 anti-Pakistan right wing Indian ‘Star TV’ was running a campaign for the release of an Indian spy and terrorist Surbjiit Singh imprisoned for various bombings and killing and injuring of innocent men, women, and children in Pakistan. Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard a former US Navy analyst serving his life sentence in US prison. US has refused to release Jonathan Pollard who is now an Israeli Citizen and spied for Israel for ten years. Pollard only spied for US’s closet friend but Surbjiit Singh was involved in the killings of innocent people in Pakistan. If people who conspired to kill President Musharraf could be hang why an enemy spy and terrorist should go free for the crimes against Pakistan?

Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence imposed on an Indian spy and terrorist for a bombing that killed four people in 1990, court officials said on 27th September 2005. The court rejected an appeal by Sarabjit Singh, whose relatives in India along with the government have called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to review the case.

It was the last of four petitions filed by Singh relating to different cases including terrorism and espionage. The Supreme Court dismissed the other three. The appeal related to Singh's conviction on terrorism charges by a lower court for a July 1990 bomb blast in Lahore in which a woman and three men were killed.

On the other hand in November 1985, the FBI arrested Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, on charges of selling classified material to Israel. Pollard was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. His wife, Anne, got five years in jail for assisting her husband.
Immediately upon Pollard's arrest, Israel apologized and explained that the operation was unauthorized. "It is Israel's policy to refrain from any intelligence activity related to the United States," an official government statement declared, "in view of the close and special relationship of friendship" between two countries. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres stated: "Spying on the United States stands in total contradiction to our policy."

In November 1995, Israel granted Jonathan Pollard Israeli citizenship. This publicly signalled to the US, Israel's willingness to accept full responsibility for Pollard. On May 12, 1998, Israel formally acknowledged Jonathan Pollard was an official Israeli agent. This fact wiped out any remaining doubt about Jonathan Pollard's motives. Being an official agent is, by definition, the polar opposite of being a mercenary. In the same May 12, 1998 statement, the Government of Israel publicly acknowledged full responsibility for Jonathan Pollard, and indicated its commitment to his immediate repatriation to Israel. Four Prime Ministers and three Presidents of Israel have all personally requested Jonathan Pollard's release from the Presidents of the US. Each one pledged to be personally responsible for their agent who has now served 15 years in prison under harsh conditions, and who has fully expressed his remorse. “Israel has officially acknowledged for the first time that an American Jew, Jonathan Pollard, who was arrested in the United States 13 years ago, was one of its spies”, reported BBC on 12th May 1998. Pollard, a former intelligence analyst for the United States Navy, is serving a life sentence in North Carolina for passing classified military documents to Israel. Until now, the Israeli authorities had always denied that Pollard was working under their direction.

The admission came in a statement from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office, and acknowledged that he was handled by high- ranking officials in a scientific relations bureau. "In light of this fact, the State of Israel acknowledges its obligation to Mr Pollard and is ready to accept full responsibility accordingly,' the statement said.

It said that Pollard had agreed to drop a petition pending in Israel’s Supreme Court asking for a formal recognition that he was indeed an agent in exchange for the announcement.” I am relieved, thankful, and honoured," Pollard's wife Esther told the Associated Press news agency by telephone from her home in Toronto, Canada. The admission came on the eve of a visit by Mr Netanyahu to the United States to meet Jewish leaders and the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Israeli media reported that a government committee set up by Mr Netanyahu was working out a plan to recognise Pollard as a spy and work for his release.

Several government ministers have visited Pollard in jail this past year, raising speculation that the government was taking his case more seriously. Pollard has been granted Israeli citizenship and his lawyer believes the public acknowledgment will help chances for a pardon. In November 1985, while on the run from the US authorities, Pollard sought refuge at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, but was refused entry. Mrs Pollard has said the information her husband gave Israel over a decade ago was about the build-up of arms in neighbouring countries that some American officials did not want Israel to have. On 24th August 2004 CNN reported, ‘The FBI has evidence that a person who has been working at high levels in the Pentagon may be a spy for Israel, senior U.S. officials have confirmed to CNN reported on 28th August 2004. The alleged "mole" working for Israel could have been in a position to influence Bush administration policy toward Iran and Iraq, one of the officials said.

Ansar Burney as interim Human Rights Minister, campaigned for the release of another Indian prisoner arrested and convicted for spying, declared his real identity as a spy in a press conference in India soon after his release.
Irony is we have not heard any protests from Ansar Burney, Asma Jahangir, I A Rehman, Imtiaz Alam and other human rights activists regarding the illegal detention without trial and handover of ‘Dr Afia Siddiqui’ to the US?

“US president Franklin D Roosevelt once remarked of Nicaragua's dictator, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." So when a later Somoza (the son of our son of a bitch) was overthrown in 1979, we spared no effort until Nicaragua was ours again. When President Carter saw that the younger Somoza's days were numbered, he tried to ease him out of power, unaware that retired CIA agents were providing him with further weaponry. Carter's plan was to keep Somoza's private army, the National Guard, in power, while Somoza escaped to enjoy his $900 million fortune”.

Nicaragua: The CIAs Greatest Hits by Mark Zepezauer. US need not worry as Dr Afridi will be free soon because there is no shortage of Samozas in Pakistan?

'Our Son of a Bitch' Dr Shakeel Afridi? , 9.0 out of 10 based on 8 ratings