Saturday, February 20, 2010

Blackwater in Pakistan?

Many familiar with Pakistan would know of the rumors that have been spreading for over a year on the presence of Blackwater (now known as XE) in Pakistan.
There's a huge hysteria amongst Pakistanis and the Pakistani media that Blackwater is openly operating in Pakistan.

Apparently their operations include renting/buying houses and/or apartments in residential areas of major Pakistani cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar. Rumors are spreading that they are harassing and intimidating locals living in the areas that they are staying in and carrying out illegal assassinations on wanted Al-Queda/Taliban suspects in Pakistan.

According to me, these rumors are far-fetched. Knowing Blackwater/XE's bad history in Iraq and Afghanistan, their possible presence in Pakistan has triggered these false rumors and hysteria.
There were claims that started out with Blackwater/XE possibly being assigned to protect the American embassy and consulates in Pakistan.

The fact that Pakistan is full of armed locals, both individuals and various groups from illegal drug gangs to Islamists, Blackwater/XE would not last very long if it operated the way it is rumored to.

The most likely scenario is that Blackwater/XE is hired to protect the American diplomatic missions in Pakistan, but still within embassy grounds, resulting in these false rumors due to their bad human rights records in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps they are also trying to target Taliban/Al-Queda suspects in Pakistan- by hiring local mercenaries to do the job for them. As I stated earlier, there's no way a foreign army can go on a killing rampage in a country like Pakistan without attracting the attention of armed locals, both citizens and authorities, that outnumber them millions to one.

This video discusses in detail of the operations of American security agencies through the help of local Pakistani mercenaries:

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