Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Raymond Davis saga: A revisit and it's geopolitical connections

I think it's quite clear to everyone by now that Raymond Davis was a spy in Pakistan, though the nature of his mission is still disputed amongst people.
Even the guardian leaked his true status and so did the American government. Anyone wishing to contest this can take it up with the American government.

There were many claims that the men he shot and killed were ISI agents or were hired by the ISI to keep a tab on him. I do not find this claim believable. For one this is not a professional way to spy on anybody by following them while they can see you. And how do we know that they were even following him? I had maintained in my earlier post on the whole affair that I believe their paths to have coincided with Mr Davis', giving him the wrong impression that they were following him.

Secondly, if Davis knew who they were and planned to shoot them, why in public space where everyone could see instead of leading them to a remote location before killing them? It all adds up to my claim that he killed them out of the false impression that they were going to attack him by surprise and he fired out of panic. Unless the shootings were a distraction to divert attention to himself while his accomplices escaped.

He photographed them after killing them. That was most likely to uncover their identities and as to why they were "following" him. Perhaps he suspected them to be spies too.

Would any professional spy agency send it's members or hire people to spy on someone who can clearly see them and clearly knows that they're there? Does that even fit the definition of spying at all?

But in the whole saga I am amazed that the media, political activists/analysts, columnists and others did not raise the most suspicious point on how Davis came to posses the weapon he shot and killed the two men with?

Especially a Glock type pistol that is not a popular weapon of choice in Pakistan from my experience.
I was a young boy when there was an attempt on my father's life. Ever since he had police guards assigned to protect him at our house in Karachi for about two years which is when I developed an interest in guns.

Observing the different types of weapons used in Pakistan including the police and ordinary civilians as well as the military, nowhere to my knowledge are the series of guns used by Raymond Davis popular selections in Pakistan. Such a type is used in Western countries, mainly by the police and special forces.

Even reports of Americans being spotted in Pakistan with M-4 rifles and Glock pistols as used in Davis' case becomes the center for suspicion in that whole saga. Where do these armed Americans in Pakistan including Davis at that time get the weapons from?

They could not have brought them in through the airports. It is unlikely they had them locally manufactured as the guns they had are not popular models in the Pakistani gun market.

No one to my knowledge who was involved in or covered the issue touched upon this question of where the guns and ammunition and even the spying equipment came from. I stated in my earlier post on the whole affair and wish to do so again that the Afghans are behind this.

The only way they could bring their weapons and spying equipment illegally into the country is from their NATO bases in Afghanistan. It is not only Americans. About over a year ago, employees of the Dutch embassy in Islamabad were caught by rangers carrying hand grenades and sub-machine guns.
They were released upon intervention from the American embassy and their friends in the police force who ordered the officers to let them go.

I linked the series of reports in one of my earlier posts on Raymond Davis that in one case an Afghan national had been seen in Pakhtunkhwa traveling with American soldiers carrying M-4 rifles.
The Afghans have been and possibly still are smuggling weapons and other equipment for American agents in Pakistan across the border.

Even the referenced Wikipedia coverage of the whole affair cited police claims that Raymond Davis' GPS records showed he went to Pakhtunkhwa. This is probably where he met with Afghan spies who supplied him with the illegal weapons and equipment found on him by police. It is also there that he probably received information from these Afghan spies.

Afghanistan is the sworn enemy of Pakistan and will do anything it can to create havoc and damage in Pakistan. Afghans have hated Pakistan from it's independence being the only country on Earth to vote against it's entry into the UN. Their constant temptation to take our western provinces of Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan away from us is the main force behind the disaster in our region. That's where it all started.

The Afghans will never change their stance towards us until we return them "their lands" and will constantly meddle in Balochistan and assist Americans in their illegal covert operations in Pakistan by smuggling weapons, spyware and other illegal items for the Americans who would probably not be able to bring them in otherwise.

Until Pakistanis wake up to the Afghan menace, we may still see/hear of incidents of Americans carrying spying equipment and other items that threaten our sovereignty.
Or even worse after the discovery of Davis to keep a lower profile, they may get Afghans to do their dirty work for them since the Afghans will be less noticeable intruders amongst us.

There were many reports that came out several times for years prior to the incident in Lahore about people in Pakhtunkhwa killing Afghans suspected of being spies for the Americans.

Pakistanis fail to realize that despite many of them living in our country, most Afghans hate us and our country to the core.

While Hamid Karzai and his government badmouth and blame Pakistan for everything, their people live in our country and assist NATO in illegal covert operations. Not only that, but I recall seeing a picture posted online of a billboard in Balochistan set up by Afghan immigrants showing a map of "greater Afghanistan" depicting Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa as provinces of their country.

Until Pakistanis realize the kind of problems the Afghans will pose to our country, we can expect to see more armed foreign spies with weapons which will most likely keep coming from NATO bases in Afghanistan.
We Pakistanis have to stand up to Karzai and Afghanistan and force an international acceptance on the Durand Line.

Then there's also another extremely suspicious case in the whole saga that nobody else to my knowledge raised questions on. According to a news coverage at the house of one of the victims, right after the wife of Faizan Haider committed suicide in protest, the family claimed that a group of Westerners tried to break into their house and threatened to bomb their entire community if they did not drop the case against Raymond Davis.

Who were these Westerners? Why did the media not give any attention to the family member's claim? Why was he not asked to come to a TV studio and describe these suspicious Westerners assuming he was not lying about their existence?

Why did not the media or analysts or authorities raise any questions at all on who these menacing Western men were and the last direction they were seen heading in?

Assuming the relatives spoke the truth about these men and their threats, I would also assume these Westerners were able to communicate in Urdu and possibly Punjabi with the relatives of the victims since English is not spoken nor understood by most of the Pakistani population except for the upper middle class and the elite class.

Davis was also said to have been fluent in Urdu and in Pashto. He was a spy that much is clear. Mostly spies learn the language of the countries they work in at maximum fluency. But again there are things I disagree with mostly on the nature of his operations. There were speculations that he and possibly others associated with him were supplying religious extremists in Pakistan with weapons and sophisticated material to further fuel the instability in the country.

I don't find these speculations quite realistic, though I'm prepared to be proven wrong since everything now days turns out to be a dramatic irony.
I believe Davis was on a sting operation and trying to contact militant groups to see how they could be reached. He was in an attempt to bait them out of their hiding.

And as I mentioned in another post on him, the whole shooting incident in Lahore ruined everything. No professional spy allows their enemy to see him/her or shoots them in broad daylight in front of so many witnesses. Davis fired out of the impression that he was going to be attacked, which uncovered the whole mission.

Davis was also photographing nuclear and military installations in Pakistan since that is now a main cause of concern for the West and they clearly want to see Pakistan disarmed.
They fear the whole nuclear program because of the rise in extremism in Pakistan and possibly because Pakistan's nuclear arsenal poses a threat to their imperial agenda.

Also strange and suspicious was a media report of a man (don't remember his name) claiming Davis had been following him for weeks before the Lahore shootings. According to the report, he had been unlawfully detained in America due to a name similarity with a wanted terrorist.
After the mistake was realized and he was released, he tried to sue the then Bush administration and claimed he was being threatened by American intelligence agencies.

He then fled to Pakistan and got a job at a hospital in Lahore. This is where he claimed that he was being followed by unknown Westerners and recognized Davis as one of them. But mysteriously this report was published and soon after disappeared.

It's also in my belief that had Davis not been a spy and an ordinary marine guard from the US diplomatic mission (not that American marines in Pakistan are permitted to carry weapons), the Americans would not have been so desperate to get him out. But fearing he would leak out the CIA's secret activities in Pakistan, Barack Obama himself had to come out in the media to declare him a "diplomat" and called for his release.

But in the whole drama we displayed anger (and rightfully so) at the prospect of seeing an armed Westerner kill two of our people in their own country.
And even more outrageous was he was released. At the most the Pakistani government could have demanded all unregistered CIA operatives turn themselves in return for Davis's release.

As bad enough we failed to -and still have- to conclude or even guess how exactly did he manage to bring in all the illegal belongings found on him including the guns and ammunition.

We failed also because we fail to realize just what a serious problem the Afghans pose to us. The one country who's citizens live in our country and curse us day and night and do to our people on a regular basis what Raymond Davis did in Lahore on January 27, 2011.

The one country that refused to recognize our sovereignty since our independence and regularly call for it's destruction while their citizens walk freely in our country, doing as they please as if it were their own country.

I don't want to be mistaken as trying to mix the Davis factor with my hatred for the Afghan Mellat and trying to draw more people towards my case.
I am not trying to connect this all to the Davis factor out of emotion, but because I feel I see the reality for what it is.

How else then did this trigger-loose killer and others like him manage to bring in the weapons and spying equipment into the country without getting caught?
Why did he not just buy a locally manufactured gun instead? Because he would be suspected at the moment of the purchase and it would also mean the death of the whole spy mission(s).

With hatred for America on the rise in Pakhtunkhwa in the era of drone attacks, there's no way Davis could have bought weapons from there without attracting attention.
And even if he had contacts that would purchase the weapons on his behalf, it would be most likely the gun(s) used in the Lahore killings would be a T-T pistol or an AK-47 or MP5K or even a .222 rifle.

Those are the most commonly used weapons in Pakistan, not Glock pistols or M-4 rifles as other American "diplomats" have been caught with in the country.

And if he bought locally manufactured weapons, Davis would have been caught with those, but he wasn't. If he wanted gunsmiths in Pakhtunkhwa to create a duplicate Glock pistol, he would need to produce an original copy for them to duplicate. And who knows, perhaps he had a spare weapon(s) locally produced in case he lost one.

But again to have the duplicate produced where did he get the original? As mentioned before, the type of gun he used to kill the two men are not commonly used in Pakistan, but in the West they are found all over.
I could be entirely wrong in my conclusions, but the evidence does not point towards anywhere but Afghanistan.

The Afghans could be the only source of smuggling these weapons and other equipment across the border. Afghanistan, a main factor behind the insurgency in Balochistan is more than happy to help in anti-Pakistan covert operations. And unless Pakistan steps up it's commitment to expel all Afghans from the country and seal off the border, the weapons and spyware may perhaps continue to come in but be used much more secretively.

Karzai pledged that Afghanistan won't be a base for the Baloch insurgency but why believe him when just about every statement he and his government make are openly pitted against Pakistan?
Even websites run by Afghans on Afghan politics and history are filled with nothing but lies and propaganda in regards to Pakistan.

Some other thoughts I wanted to share in this post. Irfan Husain, a well known fifth columnist in Pakistan immediately jumped to defend Davis when writing a column on the issue.
He shared the opinion that if it was a Saudi government employee the outcry would be far less if any. He had a point. But he and those like him fail to realize two things.

1) Saudis are the most mistrusted by Pakistanis out of all Arabs. Even amongst other Arabs, they are strongly despised. Many Pakistanis are wary of the treatment our expatriates get in their country and even of the way they are treated in Haj/Umrah trips.
Pakistanis are also wary of the Saudi royal family and it's involvement in Pakistani politics, especially the funding of Wahabbi terrorist activities.

2) The kind of wary and dislike felt by Pakistanis towards Saudis is nothing in comparison to the West for a reason. The Saudis are not involved in direct attacks on Pakistan such as the drone attacks or their troops attempting to cross into Pakistan and attack Pakistani civilians as the Americans did in 2008. All the damage the Saudi government causes in Pakistan is mostly secretive and unknown to most Pakistanis.

The Americans are quite open and have nothing to hide about the drone attacks that kill scores of civilians. That is the main factor behind the imbalance of emotions felt in Pakistan towards the West and the Arab world. Because the Americans are so open about the harm they do that only an enemy would convey such a message.

Another noticeable thing in the saga was why the families were made parties to the case or why the prosecutor wasted time petitioning the court for the most unrealistic requests such as making the US government a party to the case.

The only way that could happen to my understanding is if he had committed the crimes under direct orders of the American government, which could be in the espionage crime and possibly the crime of possessing illegal weapons and only if found to be ordered to kill his victims in cold blood as he did.

And if the case was valid to make the American government a party to it, was the Lahore high court the right place to file it?
All three crimes he committed were valid enough to be tried under the Punjab judiciary and could have been conducted without the involvement of the victims' families.

Even the consulate car accident that killed Ibadur Rehman had to be tried separately since Davis was not driving the car that crushed him.

The only way to involve Ibadur's death in Davis' case would be to prove the driver killed him on purpose under Davis' orders or influence. I cannot think of any way to have those incidents be brought into Davis' would-be prosecution by law or how many others were made party into a case of the law against a lawbreaker.

While mentioning the consulate car and it's occupants who were involved in the death of Ibadur Rehman, I also believe the Pakistani government had a role in smuggling them out of the country under some sort of deal which was part of the same deal as releasing Davis or a similar deal struck between the American and Pakistani governments.

There is no way they could have escaped through the border or through the airports without being caught. It was quite plain to me after how the government and the courts had no serious intention of arresting them since they made no proper effort to catch them or dispatch a law enforcement team to await them when they would exit the consulate.

I have little doubt the Pakistani government approved their departure after a satisfying deal was promised to the military and the intelligence service.

But adding the drivers as parties to Davis's murder case would not be possible since they did not commit the murders. They should have been instead charged with reckless driving and manslaughter after killing Ibadur Rehman. The prosecuting lawyer filed so many petitions to the point he annoyed the judge who outburst and told him to stop wasting the court's time on unnecessary petitions.

Davis committed clear cut murder in Pakistan so the case had to be between him and the state. If the family members of the victims wanted to sue him for damages, there should have been a separate case filed between him and the families. But for the crimes of murder, possessing illegal weapons and espionage, the would-be case should have been entirely between him and the state of Pakistan.

Outside the case and the entire geopolitical circumstances surrounding this mysterious saga that came and went (or is still not yet over since we may see more surprises in the days, months and/or years to come), I have a lot more to question.

Prior to the shootings in January, there had been rumors spreading for a few years of foreign private security agencies from America operating in Pakistan amongst journalists, news agencies, the religious right and others.

Yet in their outcry and history of violent activities, none of these political parties or religious organizations attempted to try and search out or conduct investigations into the whereabouts of these alleged private military agencies.

Even Jamaat-i-Islami and other religious organizations with their mysterious funds and large sums of money, none of them bothered to hire detectives or organize witch hunts for these alleged secret operatives like Raymond Davis.

Even during and after the entire drama that unfolded, it became entirely probable that the rumors were entirely correct on Blackwater/XE services and possibly others operating in Pakistan.
Yet in all the cries on these activities none of these organizations have attempted to locate or try to uncover the activities.

Even with Imran Khan and Jamaat decrying the shameful release of Davis and claiming that thousands of others like him were still operating in the country, why was there never a witch hunt or even an attempt to conduct one across the country? I find that suspicious.

I once saw some video footage posted on YouTube by Ahmed Qureshi's "paknationalists" group which showed some buildings in the outskirts of Lahore with tightly shut black gates with high walls, and if I remember correctly barbed wiring on top of them. According to the video makers, these buildings and some facilities were occupied by private American militias.

Again, knowing their history of violence and militancy, why did not any of the religious groups lift a finger against these suspected bases of foreign military contractors?

Why no attempt by any organization to try and enter these buildings to learn for themselves? After all these organizations and political parties are most outspoken against the alleged presence of Blackwater/XE and other foreign agencies directly operating in the country, so why no action?

Even during Davis' detention in Kot Lakhpat jail, why were there no protests to my knowledge launched against him around the jail areas? The masses staged giant demos across Pakistan, but why none near the area he was held to mount the pressure, especially by Jamaat and the rest of the religious right?

Or even widespread claims that many drones launching attacks in Pakhtunkhwa originating from suspected bases in Balochistan, no attempt or even suggestion was made by the religious right to locate and dismantle these bases. Why?

The base pictured below is a satellite image apparently taken from Google Earth and was released in 2009 by news agencies. According to them it is of Shamsi air base in Balochistan which hosted American predator drones used for targeted bombings in Pakhtunkhwa: (click on image to enlarge)

If it is true why no action the whole time by anyone in Pakistan to have the American presence removed or even investigate the base?
Why did any religious organization not take any action against the base or even utter a word of public protest against the alleged presence of Americans in it the whole time?

Perhaps claims of their linkage with America and the CIA are after all correct? Hard to believe or maybe it's a bit of both or neither.
But without a doubt the shootings in Lahore and the discovery of Raymond Davis has opened up a lot of alerts on possibilities as to what may be going on and the reports of Western spies in Pakistan are entirely credible.

But at the same time, it makes it very difficult to separate exaggerated conspiracy theories from more credible instances of spies and/or false flag operations. As a closely related example, the 911 attacks were without doubt not done by Arab Al-Queda terrorists as the Americans allege.

The evidence goes entirely against the American government's official claims such as the cockpit voice recordings picking up the terrorist ringleader Muhammed Atta's voice from the cabin. Anyone familiar with planes knows that aircraft recordings only record voices of the pilots through the microphone used to communicate with air traffic control (ATC) as well as the pilots' input throughout the flight into the aircraft's auto system, if the aircraft has one.

That is just one piece of evidence in a whole lot of others that only suggest the attacks were false flag operations by some hidden forces in the American government/military or perhaps the entire American government was fully aware of it.

But then some political analysts even within America claim that Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queda are actually working with the CIA. Here is where it's difficult to buy such rumors. I do believe that Bin Laden was behind terrorist attacks against American installations in the Middle East and Asia as well as Africa.

Most of Islamic radicalism in the 21st century can be owed to Western/Zionist imperialism across the world.

I believe Al-Queda and the Taliban were the main irritant in America's agenda to access energy rich Central Asia and that they were behind most of the attacks the Americans allege, which is why 911 was a pretext to go into Afghanistan, take out Al-Queda and try to spread across the Middle East as well. It's when conspiracy theories are conjoined with evidence of false flag operations that the situation becomes confusing to understand.

Only more revelations will lead us closer to the truth on the whole geopolitics.

Readers who wish to view my other posts on Raymond Davis can do so by clicking here and here.

No comments:

Post a Comment