Pakistan May Seek To Trade Hero Who Led U.S. to Osama For “Lady Al Qaeda”

Pakistan is preparing a proposal to swap the doctor who helped
the CIA pinpoint Usama bin Laden for a notorious female neuroscientist
and suspected Al Qaeda operative being held at a federal prison in
Texas, FoxNews.com has learned.

The exchange would involve Dr. Shakil Afridi, the pro-America doctor
whose vaccination ruse helped establish the terror kingpin’s presence in
an Abbottabad compound prior to the Navy SEAL raid that killed him, and
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Siddiqui is a U.S.-trained neurosurgeon who left
Massachusetts after 9/11 and resurfaced in Afghanistan where she was
arrested for trying to kill U.S. soldiers.

Khalid Sheikh Muhammed told U.S. authorities Siddiqui was an Al Qaeda
courier and operative. A State Department spokesman acknowledged that
Pakistan has been eager to get Siddiqui extradited, but said no deal is
in the works.

“The government of Pakistan requested her transfer to Pakistan in
2010,” spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. “However we are not aware of a
recent request from Pakistan to discuss her case, nor the case of
Afridi.”

Siddiqui is currently serving a sentence of 86 years at a maximum
security prison in Fort Worth, Texas. She has denied the charges and
role with Al Qaeda.

A Pakistani Interior Ministry official who requested anonymity told
FoxNews.com the prisoner exchange is still being drafted. The official
said it would take at least a month before the newly formed task force
constituted by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan can
finalize an agreement to present to the Obama administration and discuss
the terms of a deal.

Though a formal extradition agreement between Pakistan and U.S. does
not exist, former Pakistani President Pervaiz Musharraf has been accused
of secretly handing over several alleged terrorists during his
nine-year term.

A Pakistani TV network claims to possess confidential documents in
which the U.S. demands that Pakistan admit Siddiqui is a terrorist and
that the sentence she was given in the U.S. was justified. Such
declarations, if actually requested, would be key to any potential swap
to assure she serve the remainder of her sentence in Pakistan. 

However, reports in Pakistan say the government there is reluctant to
release Afridi, especially without the U.S. acknowledging what
Pakistani officials say is his illegal conduct. He was sentenced by a
tribal court to 33 years in jail without the possibility of bail on
widely disputed charges of colluding with terrorists.

Imran Khan, a cricket legend-turned politician whose PTI political
party has autonomy in northwest Pakistan, said that in order for a
prisoner swap to work there must be a mutual agreement to label
prisoners ‘terrorists’ or ‘traitors,’ calling Afridi a “collaborator of
illegal U.S. activities in Pakistan.”