Gerald
07-12-11, 05:28 AM
The CIA ran a fake vaccine programme in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad to try to get a DNA sample from the family of Osama Bin Laden, media reports say.
The Guardian newspaper says CIA agents recruited a Pakistani doctor there to organise the vaccination drive. The paper says he has since been arrested.
The CIA has refused to comment on the report, which comes as tensions run high between Islamabad and Washington.
The al-Qaeda chief was killed in a US commando raid on his compound on 2 May.
Relations between Pakistan and the US have plummeted since the raid with many in the US questioning how the fugitive could live undetected for years in a Pakistani cantonment town so close to the capital.
As part of extensive preparations for the raid that killed Bin Laden, CIA agents recruited senior Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad where it believed he was hiding, said the Guardian report.
Although the vaccine team is said to have gained access to the compound, they failed to get any DNA samples, the paper says.
There has been no comment on the report as yet from Pakistani officials.
'DNA match'
The "project" was started in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, the paper said.
According to the report, the CIA launched the campaign after it tracked down a Bin Laden courier to the compound in the town of Abbottabad.
Before launching an operation on the compound, US officials wanted to match DNA samples from people living in the compound with a sample they had from his sister, the report said.
The newspaper says "it is not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed".
Separately, the New York Times also cited an unnamed US official who said that a vaccination programme was set up as a ruse in the town, because the CIA was struggling to learn whether Bin Laden was truly hiding in the compound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14117438
Note: 12 July 2011 Last updated at 10:04 GMT
The Guardian newspaper says CIA agents recruited a Pakistani doctor there to organise the vaccination drive. The paper says he has since been arrested.
The CIA has refused to comment on the report, which comes as tensions run high between Islamabad and Washington.
The al-Qaeda chief was killed in a US commando raid on his compound on 2 May.
Relations between Pakistan and the US have plummeted since the raid with many in the US questioning how the fugitive could live undetected for years in a Pakistani cantonment town so close to the capital.
As part of extensive preparations for the raid that killed Bin Laden, CIA agents recruited senior Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad where it believed he was hiding, said the Guardian report.
Although the vaccine team is said to have gained access to the compound, they failed to get any DNA samples, the paper says.
There has been no comment on the report as yet from Pakistani officials.
'DNA match'
The "project" was started in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, the paper said.
According to the report, the CIA launched the campaign after it tracked down a Bin Laden courier to the compound in the town of Abbottabad.
Before launching an operation on the compound, US officials wanted to match DNA samples from people living in the compound with a sample they had from his sister, the report said.
The newspaper says "it is not known whether the CIA managed to obtain any Bin Laden DNA, although one source suggested the operation did not succeed".
Separately, the New York Times also cited an unnamed US official who said that a vaccination programme was set up as a ruse in the town, because the CIA was struggling to learn whether Bin Laden was truly hiding in the compound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14117438
Note: 12 July 2011 Last updated at 10:04 GMT