Ponce
5th March 2011, 08:55 AM
Page 2
Against this backdrop, the Raymond Davis incident proved to be a flashpoint. People were enraged, firstly, because an American killed two Pakistanis in cold blood, secondly, because the US administration instead of showing any remorse, began bullying Pakistani government for having arrested Davis and investigating the murder and pressurizing it to release him forthwith, and thirdly, because it once again brought into focus the threat to Pakistan’s security at the hands of the ill-reputed Blackwater and DynCorp.
Coming as it did at a volatile time when the Arab world is rocked by uprisings against corrupt and incompetent US-backed autocracies and when the need for a similar revolution in Pakistan is being openly encouraged by the civil society leaders who draw a parallel with conditions in those countries, the Davis episode has proven to be extremely dicey for Zardari government. On the one hand its tail is being twisted by Washington and on the other the people are ready to lynch it if it succumbs to Washington’s pressure. Prime Minister Gilani admitted this when he said his government is between the devil and the deep sea.
Concerns About Pakistan’s Security
Again into focus is the issue of dangers to Pakistan’s security at the hands of US defense contractors who deploy spies, murderers, terrorists, thugs and rogues under the guise of diplomats to render illegal service for money, including kidnapping, torture, murder, sabotage, etc., acts that the US Constitution prohibits the US government to engage in.
In Pakistan, Blackwater operatives have long been reported to be positioned. Jeremy Scahill, author of the NYT Best Seller Blackwater, in his article “The Secret US War in Pakistan” states: “At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan.”
It is now believed that Davis, 36, a former US Special Forces operative, is either a CIA agent or an employee of a mercenary firm — possibly Xe, the reincarnation of Blackwater. Jeff Stein, quoting Fred Burton, a veteran of the State Department’s counter-terrorism Security Service, wrote in the Washington Post on January 27, that Davis may have been involved in intelligence activity, either as a CIA employee under embassy cover or as a contract worker at the time of the shootings. Burton, who currently works with Stratfor, a Texas-based “global intelligence” firm, even speculates that the shootings may have been a “spy meeting gone awry,” and not, as US Embassy and State Department officials claim, a case of an attempted robbery or car-jacking.
Or was it that Davis was on an official job and felt threatened by the motorcyclists whom he thought to be intelligence agents tracking his activities whom he could not shake off and hence killed them? Perhaps he had crossed the red line and feared being exposed.
Blackwater affiliates are said to be honeycombed with CIA, US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Pentagon and State Department in conducting a variety of operations. It is also perceived by the people and the media to be involved in supporting the agenda of destroying the fabric of Pakistan’s nationhood through suicide bombings, fanning religious extremism and supporting nationalist and separatist movements, using Pakistanis whose loyalties are up for sale.
There is a strong belief that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terror groups are acting as the front for the American contractors assigned the job of destabilizing Pakistan. Information coming out of foreign office says that Zardari buckled under US pressure and personally authorized visas to hundreds of dubious Americans in connivance with Haqqani, an American stooge of a Pakistani Ambassador in Washington, bypassing the foreign office and the verification process. Raymond Davis is apparently one such case.
Zardari’s Woes
Rising political temperature caused the government’s coalition partners to distance themselves from Zardari for fear of public backlash. Then there was a hostile media coupled with rightist-led nationwide rallies, which had the potential of getting out of hand, which demanded Davis’s trial.
The Americans showed poor understanding of Pakistan’s ground realities and of the limitations of Zardari government, who is seen as an American poodle. Condescending American attitude and information that Davis was neither a diplomat nor entitled to immunity, evoked hostile response across the country. All this unnerved Zaradri.
In the middle of this debate, the situation took another dramatic turn when the 18-year old widow of one of the slain persons committed suicide because she saw no chance of getting justice and every chance of this American getting away with murder. Her last words on her death bed were: “I want justice done. I want blood for blood”.
This left Zardari and his ilk with no choice but to perforce abandon their earlier position on immunity and, denying that they were under American pressure, publicly took the stand that Davis’s case is for the courts to decide. But the foreign office still not publicly stated the correct position on the immunity issue, in the hope that some way would eventually be found to oblige the US.
Is There A Way Out?
Currently there is an impasse. The people would not accept any compromise. The Americans now need to act more sensibly and back off to let the temperature cool down. Threats would further worsen an already bad situation. John Kerry, a more seasoned and soft spoken politician, has already been here offering belated condolences and expressing remorse at the loss of life, but has had no success.
Suggestions have been floated that the provision in Pakistani law — blood money in exchange for pardon by the family, could be explored though this has already been rejected by the family which is also under pressure to stand firm on Davis’s prosecution. The president also has the powers to grant pardon to a convict, but only after the whole process of law has taken its course. Nothing can be achieved in a hurry. The Americans overplayed their cards and now need to show patience, whatever the cost.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168708.html
Against this backdrop, the Raymond Davis incident proved to be a flashpoint. People were enraged, firstly, because an American killed two Pakistanis in cold blood, secondly, because the US administration instead of showing any remorse, began bullying Pakistani government for having arrested Davis and investigating the murder and pressurizing it to release him forthwith, and thirdly, because it once again brought into focus the threat to Pakistan’s security at the hands of the ill-reputed Blackwater and DynCorp.
Coming as it did at a volatile time when the Arab world is rocked by uprisings against corrupt and incompetent US-backed autocracies and when the need for a similar revolution in Pakistan is being openly encouraged by the civil society leaders who draw a parallel with conditions in those countries, the Davis episode has proven to be extremely dicey for Zardari government. On the one hand its tail is being twisted by Washington and on the other the people are ready to lynch it if it succumbs to Washington’s pressure. Prime Minister Gilani admitted this when he said his government is between the devil and the deep sea.
Concerns About Pakistan’s Security
Again into focus is the issue of dangers to Pakistan’s security at the hands of US defense contractors who deploy spies, murderers, terrorists, thugs and rogues under the guise of diplomats to render illegal service for money, including kidnapping, torture, murder, sabotage, etc., acts that the US Constitution prohibits the US government to engage in.
In Pakistan, Blackwater operatives have long been reported to be positioned. Jeremy Scahill, author of the NYT Best Seller Blackwater, in his article “The Secret US War in Pakistan” states: “At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan.”
It is now believed that Davis, 36, a former US Special Forces operative, is either a CIA agent or an employee of a mercenary firm — possibly Xe, the reincarnation of Blackwater. Jeff Stein, quoting Fred Burton, a veteran of the State Department’s counter-terrorism Security Service, wrote in the Washington Post on January 27, that Davis may have been involved in intelligence activity, either as a CIA employee under embassy cover or as a contract worker at the time of the shootings. Burton, who currently works with Stratfor, a Texas-based “global intelligence” firm, even speculates that the shootings may have been a “spy meeting gone awry,” and not, as US Embassy and State Department officials claim, a case of an attempted robbery or car-jacking.
Or was it that Davis was on an official job and felt threatened by the motorcyclists whom he thought to be intelligence agents tracking his activities whom he could not shake off and hence killed them? Perhaps he had crossed the red line and feared being exposed.
Blackwater affiliates are said to be honeycombed with CIA, US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Pentagon and State Department in conducting a variety of operations. It is also perceived by the people and the media to be involved in supporting the agenda of destroying the fabric of Pakistan’s nationhood through suicide bombings, fanning religious extremism and supporting nationalist and separatist movements, using Pakistanis whose loyalties are up for sale.
There is a strong belief that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terror groups are acting as the front for the American contractors assigned the job of destabilizing Pakistan. Information coming out of foreign office says that Zardari buckled under US pressure and personally authorized visas to hundreds of dubious Americans in connivance with Haqqani, an American stooge of a Pakistani Ambassador in Washington, bypassing the foreign office and the verification process. Raymond Davis is apparently one such case.
Zardari’s Woes
Rising political temperature caused the government’s coalition partners to distance themselves from Zardari for fear of public backlash. Then there was a hostile media coupled with rightist-led nationwide rallies, which had the potential of getting out of hand, which demanded Davis’s trial.
The Americans showed poor understanding of Pakistan’s ground realities and of the limitations of Zardari government, who is seen as an American poodle. Condescending American attitude and information that Davis was neither a diplomat nor entitled to immunity, evoked hostile response across the country. All this unnerved Zaradri.
In the middle of this debate, the situation took another dramatic turn when the 18-year old widow of one of the slain persons committed suicide because she saw no chance of getting justice and every chance of this American getting away with murder. Her last words on her death bed were: “I want justice done. I want blood for blood”.
This left Zardari and his ilk with no choice but to perforce abandon their earlier position on immunity and, denying that they were under American pressure, publicly took the stand that Davis’s case is for the courts to decide. But the foreign office still not publicly stated the correct position on the immunity issue, in the hope that some way would eventually be found to oblige the US.
Is There A Way Out?
Currently there is an impasse. The people would not accept any compromise. The Americans now need to act more sensibly and back off to let the temperature cool down. Threats would further worsen an already bad situation. John Kerry, a more seasoned and soft spoken politician, has already been here offering belated condolences and expressing remorse at the loss of life, but has had no success.
Suggestions have been floated that the provision in Pakistani law — blood money in exchange for pardon by the family, could be explored though this has already been rejected by the family which is also under pressure to stand firm on Davis’s prosecution. The president also has the powers to grant pardon to a convict, but only after the whole process of law has taken its course. Nothing can be achieved in a hurry. The Americans overplayed their cards and now need to show patience, whatever the cost.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article168708.html