Re: Dr Afridi gets 33 years imprisonment
Spying against Cuban freedom fighters (or Cuban terrorists) was against the official interest of USA, and thus the person spying was spying against the official interest of USA, so USA can classify them as traitors if they were Americans.
But if someone was spying on people about whom America has no national interest or their spying do not harm American (official) interest, than those spying won’t be considered traitors or their action illegal.
For instance, if Afridi spying on OBL was against official interest of Pakistan then one can say that Afridi was working against Pakistan and thus can be prosecuted as traitor. But as the thing was, Pakistan itself was looking for OBL and to spy on OBL was not against Pakistan (official) interest, hence Afridi cannot be considered as doing anything illegal.
Actually, Afridi action was similar to what American spy firm ‘Broadsheet’ did for Pakistan in USA, locating Pakistani wanted corrupts in USA and reporting their whereabouts to Pakistan.
For instance, if I am living in USA and you want to locate me than you can take help of your American friend or hire American firm to locate me. Well, if you want to know what I am doing in USA than you can ask your friend or hire someone to do spying on me. In both cases, America would not prosecute your friend or people you employed on spying charges … because in both cases your friend or firm you hired are not hurting American national interest.