CIA says will halt vaccination campaigns in spy operations

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reacted to a 2013 letter protesting the way the agency had used three years ago to hunt al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

According to Press TV citing The Washington Post, the spy agency used an immunization survey in Pakistan as a cover in its hunt for bin laden in 2011. The White House has now promised that the CIA will never again use a vaccination campaign in its operations.
The deans of 12 US public health schools wrote a letter to President Barack Obama in January 2013 to protest the precedent set when the CIA used Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani surgeon, to seek information about bin Laden under the guise of conducting a hepatitis immunization survey in the northwest city, where the agency claimed it later killed the al-Qaeda leader in a raid.
Last week, Lisa Monaco, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, informed the deans that the CIA will no longer conduct such campaigns, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Monday.