blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/robcrilly/100137827/how-the-cias-fake-aid-projects-put-real-humanitarian-workers-at-risk-in-pakistan/
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Rob Crilly
Rob Crilly is Pakistan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. Before that he spent five years writing about Africa for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor from his base in Nairobi.


How the CIA's fake aid projects put real humanitarian workers at risk in Pakistan
By Rob Crilly World Last updated: February 16th, 2012
22 Comments Comment on this article

A fake vaccination programme was used to track Bin Laden (Photo: AP)
You don't need to be a cynic of US overseas aid to know that cash is generally directed to those countries in which Washington has a clear foreign policy objective: Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan are among the top recipients. But perhaps more shocking is the increasing evidence of the way in which the US has been exploiting aid operations as cover for CIA agents and black ops.
Last year it emerged that a Pakistani doctor had set up a fake vaccination programme in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad as a ruse to obtain DNA from members of Osama bin Laden's family. Dr Shakeel Afridi and his family have since disappeared into custody.
Now, a new book claims that the US used the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir as cover to send intel officers into Pakistan posing as aid and construction workers. They were tasked with gathering information on al-Qaeda members and their Pakistani handlers.
As if aid workers in Pakistan did not already have enough to cope with. American charities in particular have long been suspected of habouring Blackwater staff or CIA agents. Local newspapers with close links to Islamabad spies have delighted in falsely revealing NGO offices as hubs of covert intelligence networks. Now they will be able to say: "We told you so."
As Charles Kennedy and Justin Sandefur point out in a post on the Center for Global Development Blog…
First, fake aid and fake aid workers are worse than nothing from a development perspective. Rumors that vaccination drives were actually a Western plot have been rife before – and distrust of aid workers as agents of neo-imperialism is as old as aid itself. It is a lot harder to run a successful development project without any trust. And, of course, running an aid project when it is assumed you are a spy can be dangerous.
Second, fake aid is a risky strategy from a military and diplomatic perspective as well, because it can undermine the goal of winning hearts and minds. While beneficiary goodwill helps development projects run smoothly, building that goodwill is the whole point of aid as a weapons system or a diplomatic tool. Deceiving beneficiaries undermines trust and thus the hearts and minds mission – at least if they find out about the deception.
Not only will these secret programmes put brave aid workers in harm's way, but they will add to the culture of mistrust and suspicion that currently characterises relations between Pakistan and the US.
Tags: aid, CIA, intelligence, Islamabad, Pakistan, spies

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Saturday 20 June 2015 | Blog Feed | All feeds
Website of the Telegraph Media Group with breaking news, sport, business, latest UK and world news. Content from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and video from Telegraph TV.

Home
Video
News
World
Sport
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Home»News
BLOGS HOME » NEWS » WORLD » ROB CRILLY
Rob Crilly
Rob Crilly is Pakistan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. Before that he spent five years writing about Africa for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor from his base in Nairobi.


How the CIA's fake aid projects put real humanitarian workers at risk in Pakistan
By Rob Crilly World Last updated: February 16th, 2012
22 Comments Comment on this article

A fake vaccination programme was used to track Bin Laden (Photo: AP)
You don't need to be a cynic of US overseas aid to know that cash is generally directed to those countries in which Washington has a clear foreign policy objective: Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan are among the top recipients. But perhaps more shocking is the increasing evidence of the way in which the US has been exploiting aid operations as cover for CIA agents and black ops.
Last year it emerged that a Pakistani doctor had set up a fake vaccination programme in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad as a ruse to obtain DNA from members of Osama bin Laden's family. Dr Shakeel Afridi and his family have since disappeared into custody.
Now, a new book claims that the US used the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir as cover to send intel officers into Pakistan posing as aid and construction workers. They were tasked with gathering information on al-Qaeda members and their Pakistani handlers.
As if aid workers in Pakistan did not already have enough to cope with. American charities in particular have long been suspected of habouring Blackwater staff or CIA agents. Local newspapers with close links to Islamabad spies have delighted in falsely revealing NGO offices as hubs of covert intelligence networks. Now they will be able to say: "We told you so."
As Charles Kennedy and Justin Sandefur point out in a post on the Center for Global Development Blog…
First, fake aid and fake aid workers are worse than nothing from a development perspective. Rumors that vaccination drives were actually a Western plot have been rife before – and distrust of aid workers as agents of neo-imperialism is as old as aid itself. It is a lot harder to run a successful development project without any trust. And, of course, running an aid project when it is assumed you are a spy can be dangerous.
Second, fake aid is a risky strategy from a military and diplomatic perspective as well, because it can undermine the goal of winning hearts and minds. While beneficiary goodwill helps development projects run smoothly, building that goodwill is the whole point of aid as a weapons system or a diplomatic tool. Deceiving beneficiaries undermines trust and thus the hearts and minds mission – at least if they find out about the deception.
Not only will these secret programmes put brave aid workers in harm's way, but they will add to the culture of mistrust and suspicion that currently characterises relations between Pakistan and the US.
Tags: aid, CIA, intelligence, Islamabad, Pakistan, spies

Share
475
290
167

18

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White House gag shows that Twitter is no place for jokes
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213 Comments
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August 21st, 2014 17:55
153 Comments
Dinner in a riot zone: the Ferguson Burger Bar and More
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114 Comments


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