Save the Children has strongly reacted to allegations that it supported the CIA in its efforts to find Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
“A section of the press on Thursday cited allegations that Save the Children was involved with the CIA and Dr Shakeel Afridi in their effort to locate Osama bin Laden. We categorically deny these allegations,” it said in a statement on Friday.
There is absolutely no truth to these allegations and there is no concrete evidence to support them, the organisation said.
“We reiterate, Save the Children has never conducted a vaccination campaign in Abbottabad or in any other part of the country nor has provided any support to any other individual or organisation to carry out any vaccination campaign, the statement said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2012.
COMMENTS (18)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
thanks this opost
let Taliban Save the children with money given by the donors in Pakistan rather than the people of US
As a student of development communications, i did my research with this organization during my thesis in 2010. At that time they had just initiated their response program for flood effected areas that later turned out to be the biggest relief program as highlighted and acknowledged by media itself. Now if we are after these international organizations, shall we expect that Pakistan will take care of the emergencies (one is already being foreseen in couple of weeks) on its own?
This denial won't help - as names of SC staff have been published in NYTs months back" just move on with the organization and its good work without foreign staff.
secondly the rage shd be towards CIA don't understand why it is towards the govt of Pakistan?
Lastly foreign staff in INGOs should not play games which humanitarian agencies should technically not play - it hurts in in such games.
NGOs provide perfect cover to spies.....specially USAID everyone knows that
I don't know what is true all I know is that I have seen this NGO work for children in my home town and they have provided education when there were no schools in Swat after the battle in 2009 and shelter to people when Swat was destroyed by floods and information to poor, illiterate parents on how to protect their children after locals were living in tent colonies after 2010 and all I have to say about this whole affair is to let the NGOs do their work because we have more faith in them when a catastrophe hits rather than our authorities that haven't done much for us.
I have been reading about these allegations against Save the Children for the last few days and it is pure disturbing because they were the first ones to reach my village in the 2010 floods and even when the government was not bothered about us, they were able to rescue and help my people. How is suddenly the most important question whether or not a NGO is a spy, why are we not answering why OBL was in Pakistan because as a Pakistani 2nd May was a dark day for me not because OBL was dead but because the most wanted murderer in the world was in my country!!! Shameful!!
I have seen Save the Children's work and what they have done for the children in this country is truly brilliant! It is just so sad that the government is attacking the NGOs to cover up its own failures!! They might close down the NGO and in a split second take away education and health facilities from millions of poor children that Save the Children is providing to because the government is too busy with the war on terror to see that Pakistani children are living in the gutter! Na khud kuch karo na dosroon ko karnay dou! pathetic!
Pakistan is the only country that believes that by harming itself, it somehow helps it. Just like rioters. "We're going to break our own stuff and then you'll be sorry!"
OK I'll bite -- if this NGO is a secret arm of the CIA then why deport just the foreigner's - why not shut down the entire operation? This appears to be a classic Pakistan blunder - decision based on emotion rather than logic - no proof provided but plenty of xenophobic nonsense to appeal to the bias against foreigners - ultimately ending up making Pakistan look shabby.
The organization has been working in PAK for 34 years. Give them some credit. Looks like elements in PAK does not want things to move forward.
First eject the TTP and Haqqani, they are more troublesome than the save the children staff.
Oh yes CIA will issue a certificate that whether it's our agency or not......Gooood thing get rid of all these fake NGOs......
It is so sad to see that a paranoid establishment denying it's people basic facilities which should have been given by the state because it's own negligence. The state should first answer what was OBL doing in Pakistan instead of putting blame on a doctor and an NGO !!! Shame on us.
'Save the Skin' now you mercenaries!
Agree@Shafqat Ali Khan
Ofcourse. Its not that they are openly gonna admit that they work for CIA
blah blah blah!!!!
Its a big question mark for the Save the children that why this perception was developed only for them, I mean dozens of INGOs are working in Pakistan and no one dare to blame them or put such an allegations on them.................