Vaccination drives used by CIA to spy on others

[GostHacked]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cia-vows-never-again-to-use-vaccinations-as-cover-to-spy-after-polio-outbreaks-1.1828493

WASHINGTON -- A top White House official has assured the deans of prominent U.S. public health schools that the CIA will no longer use vaccination programs as cover for spying operations. The agency used the ruse in targeting Osama bin Laden before the U.S. raid that killed him in 2011.

Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, wrote to the deans of 13 public health schools last week, saying that the CIA has agreed it would no longer use vaccination programs or workers for intelligence purposes. The agency also agreed to not use genetic materials obtained through such programs.

CIA up to it's old tricks again.

The CIA's use of a polio vaccine program to spy on bin Laden's compound undercut Obama's own high-profile speech to the Muslim world in 2009, in which he touted U.S. efforts to slash the growth of polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. With Obama administration assurances, Muslim scholars in two international groups issued religious decrees urging parents to vaccinate their children.

Speaking out both sides of the mouth. Puts the whole vaccine drive in a different light knowing some of the motives and players behind the scenes. If they did that abroad, you can bet the CIA used vaccine programs in the US to spy on it's own citizens.

[Michael Hardner]

How can you be sure ? Isn't the bar tilted the other way, ie. if they do it to their own citizens then they do it abroad ? Also, how is this 'old tricks' ? Do you mean admitting that something was being done is old tricks ?

[Boges]

Is this more Anti-Vaxer crap?

[GostHacked]

Is this more Anti-Vaxer crap?

Good thing you read the article. That is one very informed statement.

[cybercoma]

Is this more Anti-Vaxer crap?

No, but I can see anti-vax imbeciles grabbing ahold of this story and saying they don't want to support their kids' immune systems because it's all a secret CIA ploy to collect DNA data on Americans and use it for nefarious purposes. The even more bat-guano crazy amongst them will go so far as to claim the CIA is implanting children through vaccines.

[Shady]

I think it's a mistake to end the program. It's how Bin Laden was found. Plus, people got vaccinated. Win-win.

[cybercoma]

I think it's a mistake to end the program. It's how Bin Laden was found. Plus, people got vaccinated. Win-win.

They're announcing that they're stopping the program because people in those places will stop getting vaccinated. With this tactic exposed, it threatens the eradication of polio. And besides, for all we know they're saying that they're going to stop the program just so that they can continue the program and people will continue to get vaccinated.

[Wilber]

It's a shame they would put the eradication of a killer disease in jeopardy. Was Bin Laden really important enough to justify such a risk?

Edited May 20, 2014 by Wilber

[Moonlight Graham]

1. The CIA are bunch of assholes

2. I don't even believe the CIA will stop this program.

Speaking out both sides of the mouth. Puts the whole vaccine drive in a different light knowing some of the motives and players behind the scenes. If they did that abroad, you can bet the CIA used vaccine programs in the US to spy on it's own citizens.

Maybe not everyone, we don't know that, but it's virtually certain they've used this technique on some select US citizens.

[Wayward Son]

I think it's a mistake to end the program. It's how Bin Laden was found. Plus, people got vaccinated. Win-win.

This Scientific American article from last year explains why the CIA program was a terrible idea that will have consequences that may last for decades.