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[ChairmanPoo]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/23/2813786/pakistan-hands-33-year-sentence.html

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15971610,00.html

[miauw62]

Wait...
So this basically mens that pakistan supports al quada?

[RedKing]

Wait...
So this basically mens that pakistan supports al quada?

This is a newsflash? 

But no, it's because he essentially acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign power (the US). We'd do the same if, for example, a US citizen helped the Cuban government track down and kill a Cuban dissident in Miami. The fact that Pakistan is ostensibly an ally doesn't necessarily change that basic formula (see Jonathan Pollard: US citizen who spied for Israel; currently serving a life sentence about 50 miles away from me).

[ChairmanPoo]

It's kind of bad that the US goverment disclosed that he had helped them, though. They basically threw him to the sharks.

I do think his behavior as a doctor was unethical*, though, so I'd support some disciplinary measure in that regard

*Meaning, arranging a fake vaccination campaign to dig for info is unethically deceiving your patients, and puts future bona fide vaccination campaigns in danger.

[Johnfalcon99977]

So basically whats going on is the American Government being the American Government again?

[Theoboldi]

Am I the only one who read the title as "Doctor Who helped in OBL's capture, gets 33 years sentence"? That would have been a much better story.

[nenjin]

Wait...
So this basically mens that pakistan supports al quada?

For about the last decade. The Pakistani government says and does one thing while its agencies and military do another.

[RedKing]

So basically whats going on is the American Government being the American Government again?

No, more that the Pakistani government is being the Pakistani government. Which is to say, posturing and doing stupid shit to please the anti-American street opinion while privately coming to the US and saying "MOAR MONEY PLZ".

Am I the only one who read the title as "Doctor Who helped in OBL's capture, gets 33 years sentence"? That would have been a much better story.

I totally read the same thing at first. Which would be an infinitely better story. Especially when he jumps in the TARDIS and jumps 33 years and a day forward, only to discover on his arrival that al-Qaeda is working with the Cybermen and that Osama bin Laden was actually a rogue Time Lord who has regenerated and is using the Hand of Talanda to engineer an interdimensional jihad.

[Leafsnail]

I don't think the US government is in any position to lecture people about stupid treason charges.  The guy definitely broke the letter of the law even if they probably should've made an exception for him.

[Loud Whispers]

Am I the only one who read the title as "Doctor Who helped in OBL's capture, gets 33 years sentence"? That would have been a much better story.

It was the capital D. There is only one Doctor.

[Knight of Fools]

Note to self: When spying for a foreign power, request extraction as part of the deal. Money does me no good in jail.

...Seriously, why didn't he get the heck out of there? It's not like something that big was just going to fly under the radar.

[sneakey pete]

I am not 100% sure of the circumstances, but the reason may be that someone decided to mention how they confined that it was bin laden, therefor showing the world that he was involved, and all of a sudden he went from just carrying on with the rest of his life to being charged for treason.

Just because someone is involved with the intelligence agencies of a country to help them with something, does not mean that their end goal is to move to said country.

[Knight of Fools]

It might be a good idea if your actions involve a foreign covert agency, a remote chance of being found out, and/or your actions could be construed as anti-nationalistic. Performing a medical campaign under a false pretense to give information to the United States in a country that doesn't like the USA very much? I can't really blame them for imprisoning him, because if I were a government I'd do the same thing. Someone who has secretly given information to a foreign agency could very well do the same thing again.

Of course, things were pretty screwy with Osama Bin Laden sitting pretty in Pakistan anyways, so they might just be lashing out some good old blind anger. The sheer embarrassment of that happening right in their backyard might have prompted imprisoning the guy rather than any wholesome reason.

[palsch]

I'm going to assume that this anonymous government lawyer doesn't speak for the administration;

it’s possible that others may have made this point (which seems obvious to me) but I haven’t seen it.  Imagine the tables turned—that a doctor in the U.S. cooperated with the Iranian Government to provide information that led to the killing of an Iranian dissident in the U.S. by the Quds Force. There’s no doubt that this conduct would violate U.S. law, at least in the event that the doctor knew who he was providing information to. Even if the doctor couldn’t be prosecuted for conspiring in the killing, it’s a clear violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, of a sort that is routinely prosecuted in the U.S. Thirty three years is a long time, but there have been Cuban spies in the U.S. who have gotten pretty long terms for FARA violations. Hey, espionage is a dirty game.

But I doubt the administration would be as frank about things.

[lordcooper]

Am I the only one who read the title as "Doctor Who helped in OBL's capture, gets 33 years sentence"? That would have been a much better story.

No, you're really not.

That whole operation was a clusterfuck anyway.