When American forces killed 9/11 terrorist Osama bin Laden a little over a year ago, he was not hiding in some mountain cave in Afghanistan. Rather, he was nesting comfortably in a large house in neighboring Pakistan’s military nerve center. The house was exceedingly close to what is termed Pakistan’s version of West Point.
That raised some painful questions, the most obvious one being: Was the government of U.S. “ally” Pakistan truly as dumbfounded as it purported to be that bin Laden was hiding virtually in plain sight — or was it directly or indirectly aiding his concealment?
While that question has never been answered to everyone’s satisfaction — not by a long shot — we now have clear reason to suspect that bin Laden is not held in quite so low esteem in Pakistan as he is in the United States.
A 48-year-old Pakistani doctor helped the United States track down bin Laden through a complicated sting. And now the doctor has been slapped with a 33-year sentence in his home country — for high treason.
He is guilty of “acting against the state,” according to the tribal court that tried him.