A Pakistani Injustice

Ever since the attacks on 9-11, we've relied on allies to assist us in combating al Qaeda, not just our European and Asian allies supplying troops and material, but countries in the region. We've noted over time that Pakistan has allied itself with us when convenient (requesting more food and financial aid), but is culturally and viscerally allied with extremists, including al Qaeda affiliates Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network, often through the offices of its intelligence service, the ISI.

Now, in a gratuitous slap at the U.S., a Pakistani tribal court has sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison for providing indirect assistance that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden last May. Although he was convicted of "treason", he never spied against his country, as an American official noted:

“He was asked only to help locate Al Qaeda terrorists, who threaten Pakistan and the U.S. He helped save Pakistani and American lives.”

The U.S. will do what it can to either get Dr. Afridi released, or his sentence drastically reduced, but the damage to a good man has been done, and the signal has been sent that nuclear-armed Pakistan is increasingly hostile to our interests in the region.