Firstly I want to touch upon Pakistani involvement in Middle Eastern affairs in the past.
As many know, this is not the first time Pakistan has been involved in the Middle East. During the Arab-Israeli wars, many Pakistani pilots volunteered to fight alongside Arab pilots. They were not sent by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) or by the Pakistani government, but by their own free will.
Many Pakistani Pan-Islamists naturally saw this as a heroic act. Sadly for them, most people of the Middle East are unaware of this "heroic" act and could not care any less for Pakistanis.
I had maintained all along that Pakistan should keep out of Middle Eastern affairs. But it was explained by the other Pakistanis to me that these pilots went by their own free will and the Pakistani government was not involved.
One Pan-Islamist Pakistani went as far as to ask me who was I to judge the decision of the pilots. Firstly, these pilots took a great chance with their lives by engaging in combat with the Israelis. Also these were amongst Pakistan's best pilots and could have been killed.
Thankfully they all made it back alive, but had they not, we would have had a hard time replacing them when needed for any upcoming war with India or some other hostile power.
That's one negativity about letting our fighter pilots, who have an obligation to their country first, giving themselves away like some free fighting tools.
Secondly with the fact that these men went voluntarily without any involvement of the Pakistani government or military, what's wrong with it this time?
None of the alleged Pakistani mercenaries in Bahrain are going at the behest of the Pakistani government. They are fighters hired by private firms, so why are Pakistanis protesting this time?
Because it's the same as I wrote in my other posts. Pakistanis live in worship of Arabs and other peoples of the Middle East. They endorse our pilots going and risking their lives for them, but not to control them or fight them.
It's funny how Pan-Islamist Pakistanis are rallying for Arab rights by putting on their hijabs and demonstrating their Arab worship. Do they not know these uprisings in the Middle East are for Arab human rights, not meant for the Pakistanis whom are regarded by many racists in the Arab world as "subhumans."
Racism amongst Middle Eastern nations, both Arab and non-Arab goes back centuries. Why is it a surprise that Saudi Arabia was the last country to abolish slavery? Why is it a surprise much of the outcry in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan is saved for Palestinians and Iraqis but not for the innocent black Muslims being persecuted in Sudan by Arab racists?
Do these Pan-Islamist Pakistanis not realize while Arabs are demonstrating and rioting for their own human rights, most couldn't waste even a second thinking about Pakistanis.
When was the last time we saw a pro-Kashmiri/Pakistani rally anywhere in the Middle East? Why did we not see a single protest in the Arab world or anywhere in the Middle East when General Musharraf suspended Pakistan's judiciary?
Why did we not see any protests against the American government in the Middle East over Raymond Davis' crimes in Lahore?
Simply because Pakistanis are not seen as brotherly Muslims by Middle Easterners and are in the same category as the third world Africans, Muslim or not.
The Arab populations are rallying for their own rights, not for yours. These same Arab citizens have had racist attitudes towards Pakistanis for decades and regularly attack and beat non-Arab migrants particularly from Africa and Asia.
These are the kind of people who's rights you're rallying for. Pan-Islamism has completely blinded out Pakistanis to the realities of Middle Eastern and Afghan racism as I explained in my other posts.
Also mentioned in another post of mine, whenever I address racism from Middle Easterners towards Pakistanis, the typical response I get from fellow Pakistanis is "but not all of them are like that."
The use of Pakistanis to control anti-government movements in Bahrain and elsewhere has not prompted the same question inside the minds of Arab racists who hate an entire nationality/ethnicity due to the actions of a few.
What they are dealing with in this case are former soldiers, not mere shy, helpless civilians from the working class.
This has only amplified their racism and they shamelessly assualted a Pakistani worker as an act of "vengeance."
As the news article states, the man had nothing to do with the security forces but was attacked anyway because his crime was being the same ethnicity/nationality as the mercenaries being imported to control them.
What Pakistanis don't realize is that the revolts in the Arab states are for Arab rights. Not for the "subhuman" Berbers in the North African states or the Negros of those countries.
The same is true for the Gulf Arab states. The people rallying there are rallying for their own selfish interests, not for the "subhuman" expatriates from Africa and Asia. The attack on that Pakistani worker is just one of many unreported examples of Arab racist attacks against Pakistanis.
But as usual, everything that occurs in the Middle East is twisted and depicted by Pakistan's Arab-worshiping Pan-Islamists into an issue of the entire Muslim world.
It's also interesting to note the strong disapproval coming from many in Pakistan's Shia minority as their masters in Tehran have disproved of anyone meddling in their proxy wars.
Many of Pakistan's Shia minority live in worship of Iran and Iranian society. They make pilgrims to Iran and often live in imitation of Persians.
In another post of mine on Pakistan's identity crisis, I explained in detail how Pakistan's Pan-Islamitization tears apart our people into Arab-worship mainly by our Wahabbi segments and Iranian-worshiping by our Shia segments.
While mentioning Arab and Middle Eastern racism, it is not so clear cut as many try to portray it. Especially Arab relations with African Negros, both Arabic speaking and non-Arabic speaking.
While the history of Arab racism and brutality against black people (in this case I mean people of Saharan African origin and not people in general of black complexion) goes back hundreds or even thousand of years, there are cases of race mixing according to what I read.
Also the employment of many blacks in Arab society such as law enforcement to pilots in the aviation industry should be noted.
If one is a poor black worker from a Subsaharan African country, he/she is usually treated with disrespect. But if it is an Arabic speaking African, the hatred is much less, but still there.
At the same time a black person carrying citizenship of a Western country will also be treated with less hate than of one carrying his/her own nationality.
Also notable is that Arabic speaking blacks/negros often imitate other Arabs when it comes to racism against non-Arab speakers. The Arab-Negro relationship is difficult to explain and too long to discuss in this post.
But with all that being written, I want to go back to my original question. Should Pakistani mercenaries be in Bahrain? I state yes, but for a different reason which is to protect our citizens from racist attacks by Arab and Persian supremacists.
This could also be a good chance to regain the trust of our Baloch population which constitute much of the Pakistani expatriate community in the Gulf but are now under the threat of Arab/Persian supremacists.
Many of them are in the law enforcement and one was even killed. The recruitment of Pakistanis could be of great assistance to the Baloch population working in the law enforcement there.
Though they might not be hired for all that but to suppress "human rights," it is not really such as I just pointed out. Human rights in the Arab world means human rights for Arabs from aggression by non-Arabs in Palestine and Iraq. It is not for the "subhuman" Asians and Negros, Berbers and other non-Arabs.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Daily Express News Story
Daily Express News Story
The above link further indicates an Afghan hand in the American spy network(s) in Pakistan. Though a little outdated, it still confirms what I've been claiming all along in my Raymond Davis posts.
The above link further indicates an Afghan hand in the American spy network(s) in Pakistan. Though a little outdated, it still confirms what I've been claiming all along in my Raymond Davis posts.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
My shame and dismay on the release of Raymond Davis
I eagerly awaited news on the trial of Raymond Allan Davis, or so he is known as, which was scheduled for today only to be hit by the shock and dismay of the news of his release.
The only thing I have to be pleased about is that Pakistanis who share my grief and dismay over the decision. It only makes me want to repeat my views on making capital punishment unconditional in Pakistan.
Though I never favored Raymond Davis being executed for murder since he knew too much and his knowledge would be valuable in uncovering illegal covert operations in Pakistan, I still favor that punishment for murderers in normal circumstances.
We have mostly our medieval laws to blame for the release. As I write this, I also share the frustration of the family of Ibadur Rehman, the forgotten victim struck down by the US consulate car which supposedly raced to rescue Davis, though there are claims that his action was actually a diversion to help the car escape.
In the entire drama, little attention was paid to the victim who lost his life by the US consulate car driver. Will his family be compensated too? But more than anything, I am dismayed how our own laws were used against us and at the sudden "settlement."
Even if Raymond Davis was acquitted for murder and fined for the possession of an illegal weapon, he was not charged for espionage. There are also the sudden explosion of rumors of what happened to the families of the two men he shot to death.
One rumor that puzzled me was their decision to move to America and further rumors claimed the plane that took Davis out of Lahore carried the family members as well. I can only guess they were walking into a trap and will be kept hidden in America to prevent them from raising their voices on the issue again.
There is also the problem of fifth columnists mainly from the Muhajir upper class who have always had a pro-Western/Indian/Brahman stance on almost every issue and have been calling for his release. The well known fifth columnist Irfan Husain defended him right away, claiming his victims to be robbers involved in an incident prior to the shootings.
He also arrogantly dismissed the claims of Davis being a spy as "conspiracy theories."
Even when the West admitted that he was indeed a CIA agent, he vigorously defended Davis. Mr Husain also suddenly seemed to know the Vienna Conventions and started repeating the American stance on the conventions when even legal experts and those with an education in law defined the terms of the conventions straight forwardly.
Nor did Irfan Husain take into account the witnesses' claims that the man shot the victims in the back as also revealed by the autopsy from the police. The news of Davis' release will be music to our vicious anti-Pakistan fifth column.
I also wouldn't be surprised if some of these upper class Muhajir Indophiles started screaming that in India Davis would have been prosecuted and received capital punishment.
The saddest part is the only strongest outspoken people against Raymond Davis were our religious right. While we stay silent on various incidents involving foreign diplomats/embassy officials, it is the religious right that everyone is left to turn to because we are silent on the propaganda and threats facing our country.
One positive outcome I can hope from this is the ISI and military got the information they needed from Davis to safeguard our sovereignty from foreign spies.
Reports claimed that Davis was in tears upon his release, a possible indication that he was interrogated with force in prison, so we can remain hopeful he was not released without gain and his victims did not die in vain.
The other positive outcome is that the shooting incident has finally woken our people and security forces of foreigners breaking our laws and carrying illegal weapons. All the reports I read of Westerners being detained in the aftermath of the Davis crisis were out of mere suspicion. Should even one of them be caught for even carrying weapons or spy ware, they can be sure it's the end for them; especially after the outcry of the incident involving Davis.
Another important question is, what of the other fifty five Americans who the ISI claims disappeared into Pakistan and entered on visa entry prior to their knowledge? Their names were apparently released but nothing is yet confirmed on their whereabouts.
Today is truly a day to feel sorrow for every patriotic Pakistani such as myself. I felt the pain of dismay and helplessness over his release. The minimum satisfactory condition of his release to me would be the release of Dr Affia Saddiqui.
This is the one day my spirit and heart stand with every Pakistani no matter religious or secular in my support to protest the foul release and insult to our country.
I truly hope the ones amongst us responsible for his sudden release are brought to justice and our people stay 'awake' for any further times involving spies or foreigners breaking our laws.
People also predicting an Egypt-style "revolution" against a corrupt government we ourselves elected can rule out that possibility and go to sleep. The people always blame the government for everything yet keep electing them, be it Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto or Asif Zardari.
Even if the current government is removed from office, it won't be as if they came into power by force. While mentioning the government, I read rumors during Davis' detention that the PPP and civilian parties are in a secret effort to bring foreign private mercenaries into the country to try and break the power of the military, which they have always seen as an obstacle to their own corrupt agendas.
That probably explains the ISI's claims they were completely unaware of Raymond Davis or the mysterious issuance of visas to so many Americans without their approval. This is not to suggest the military is much cleaner than the corrupt civilian governments, especially in domestic policies.
But at the same time, I do not wish for efforts to be wasted on debating his release in courts or these violent street protests that injure people and cause damage to property. None of this will bring back the killers of the three people who lost their lives. The only best solution in sight is if our people are still willing to take up the issue, it should be taken up with Interpol and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the Americans had threatened to take it there during Davis' detention.
And the only people really capable of taking it there are our lawyers (both in Pakistan and in Britain), judges and politicians as well as other members of the government.
As I mentioned in another post, I am no fan of Imran Khan, but I stand with him entirely on this issue and convey my full support to him in his upcoming protests against the release of this killer-spy. Let all us Pakistanis at home and around the world unite in public and in cyberspace to pledge our joint moral stand on this issue.
پاکستان زندآباد
Post update:
I embed these videos in support of Imran Khan's rallies. But as mentioned I do not share Tehreek-e-Insaf's religious and main political sentiments,nor do I appreciate the use of English words in Urdu, our sacred national language. But never should we forgive this shameful release of a confessed killer:
The only thing I have to be pleased about is that Pakistanis who share my grief and dismay over the decision. It only makes me want to repeat my views on making capital punishment unconditional in Pakistan.
Though I never favored Raymond Davis being executed for murder since he knew too much and his knowledge would be valuable in uncovering illegal covert operations in Pakistan, I still favor that punishment for murderers in normal circumstances.
We have mostly our medieval laws to blame for the release. As I write this, I also share the frustration of the family of Ibadur Rehman, the forgotten victim struck down by the US consulate car which supposedly raced to rescue Davis, though there are claims that his action was actually a diversion to help the car escape.
In the entire drama, little attention was paid to the victim who lost his life by the US consulate car driver. Will his family be compensated too? But more than anything, I am dismayed how our own laws were used against us and at the sudden "settlement."
Even if Raymond Davis was acquitted for murder and fined for the possession of an illegal weapon, he was not charged for espionage. There are also the sudden explosion of rumors of what happened to the families of the two men he shot to death.
One rumor that puzzled me was their decision to move to America and further rumors claimed the plane that took Davis out of Lahore carried the family members as well. I can only guess they were walking into a trap and will be kept hidden in America to prevent them from raising their voices on the issue again.
There is also the problem of fifth columnists mainly from the Muhajir upper class who have always had a pro-Western/Indian/Brahman stance on almost every issue and have been calling for his release. The well known fifth columnist Irfan Husain defended him right away, claiming his victims to be robbers involved in an incident prior to the shootings.
He also arrogantly dismissed the claims of Davis being a spy as "conspiracy theories."
Even when the West admitted that he was indeed a CIA agent, he vigorously defended Davis. Mr Husain also suddenly seemed to know the Vienna Conventions and started repeating the American stance on the conventions when even legal experts and those with an education in law defined the terms of the conventions straight forwardly.
Nor did Irfan Husain take into account the witnesses' claims that the man shot the victims in the back as also revealed by the autopsy from the police. The news of Davis' release will be music to our vicious anti-Pakistan fifth column.
I also wouldn't be surprised if some of these upper class Muhajir Indophiles started screaming that in India Davis would have been prosecuted and received capital punishment.
The saddest part is the only strongest outspoken people against Raymond Davis were our religious right. While we stay silent on various incidents involving foreign diplomats/embassy officials, it is the religious right that everyone is left to turn to because we are silent on the propaganda and threats facing our country.
One positive outcome I can hope from this is the ISI and military got the information they needed from Davis to safeguard our sovereignty from foreign spies.
Reports claimed that Davis was in tears upon his release, a possible indication that he was interrogated with force in prison, so we can remain hopeful he was not released without gain and his victims did not die in vain.
The other positive outcome is that the shooting incident has finally woken our people and security forces of foreigners breaking our laws and carrying illegal weapons. All the reports I read of Westerners being detained in the aftermath of the Davis crisis were out of mere suspicion. Should even one of them be caught for even carrying weapons or spy ware, they can be sure it's the end for them; especially after the outcry of the incident involving Davis.
Another important question is, what of the other fifty five Americans who the ISI claims disappeared into Pakistan and entered on visa entry prior to their knowledge? Their names were apparently released but nothing is yet confirmed on their whereabouts.
Today is truly a day to feel sorrow for every patriotic Pakistani such as myself. I felt the pain of dismay and helplessness over his release. The minimum satisfactory condition of his release to me would be the release of Dr Affia Saddiqui.
This is the one day my spirit and heart stand with every Pakistani no matter religious or secular in my support to protest the foul release and insult to our country.
I truly hope the ones amongst us responsible for his sudden release are brought to justice and our people stay 'awake' for any further times involving spies or foreigners breaking our laws.
People also predicting an Egypt-style "revolution" against a corrupt government we ourselves elected can rule out that possibility and go to sleep. The people always blame the government for everything yet keep electing them, be it Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto or Asif Zardari.
Even if the current government is removed from office, it won't be as if they came into power by force. While mentioning the government, I read rumors during Davis' detention that the PPP and civilian parties are in a secret effort to bring foreign private mercenaries into the country to try and break the power of the military, which they have always seen as an obstacle to their own corrupt agendas.
That probably explains the ISI's claims they were completely unaware of Raymond Davis or the mysterious issuance of visas to so many Americans without their approval. This is not to suggest the military is much cleaner than the corrupt civilian governments, especially in domestic policies.
But at the same time, I do not wish for efforts to be wasted on debating his release in courts or these violent street protests that injure people and cause damage to property. None of this will bring back the killers of the three people who lost their lives. The only best solution in sight is if our people are still willing to take up the issue, it should be taken up with Interpol and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the Americans had threatened to take it there during Davis' detention.
And the only people really capable of taking it there are our lawyers (both in Pakistan and in Britain), judges and politicians as well as other members of the government.
As I mentioned in another post, I am no fan of Imran Khan, but I stand with him entirely on this issue and convey my full support to him in his upcoming protests against the release of this killer-spy. Let all us Pakistanis at home and around the world unite in public and in cyberspace to pledge our joint moral stand on this issue.
پاکستان زندآباد
Post update:
I embed these videos in support of Imran Khan's rallies. But as mentioned I do not share Tehreek-e-Insaf's religious and main political sentiments,nor do I appreciate the use of English words in Urdu, our sacred national language. But never should we forgive this shameful release of a confessed killer:
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Taking the wrong measures in the aftermath of Raymond Davis's crimes.
In the aftermath of the January 27 shootings in Lahore, there has been a country-wide crackdown on foreigners- particularly Westerners in Pakistan.
But this crackdown has been taken slightly out of proportion and I feel now westerners are going to suffer from this sudden excuse for harshly arresting/detaining people for the slightest reasons.
This American man below Gary Brooks Faulkner committed three major crimes in Pakistan and got away scott-free, yet an American and Swiss citizen were recently detained for the pickiest reasons.
Gary Brooks Faulkner was arrested in Pakistan in June 2010. According to sources he brought in swords and knives in his baggage which went undetected. This was one crime he committed for possessing illegal weapons. His second crime was not declaring these items to customs.
Police caught him red handed with guns he purchased in the country. He was also caught carrying Christian literature and claimed that he was "told by God" in a dream that it was his duty to hunt down and kill Bin Laden.
The man could have been convicted and prosecuted for two counts of illegal weapons possession and not declaring them to customs.
He was released upon being declared insane by doctors and did not even receive a criminal record or a fine. But according to family members he was not insane and actually believed in everything he claimed.
What's more is this individual was already jailed once before in America which is a display for his violent personality. Here was a religious fanatic posing a threat to public safety and broke the law, yet we let him leave Pakistan on the basis that he was insane.
If it was such, he should have been put away in a Pakistani mental institution until his claim would be retracted by him in a bid to get himself out and charges could be laid against him.
Imagine an Islamic fundamentalist from Pakistan in America or Denmark carrying illegal weapons and telling authorities that he had been instructed by God in a dream to kill anti-Islamic cartoonists.
He would probably be put away in Guantanamo Bay before even being given access to a lawyer.
But we didn't do anything. I am not just referring to our corrupt, confused and reckless government, but our people as well. Following the shooting incident in Lahore, the idea of releasing Davis was out of the question due to the public outrage and backlash that it could bring. It was really the public pressure that kept him held by us.
However, this man Gary Brooks Faulkner committed a similar crime of carrying illegal weapons and there was zero public pressure on him. In the aftermath of the incident involving Raymond Davis, the government has suddenly gone trigger happy in arresting westerners for the pickiest reasons.
Aaron Mark DeHaven (pictured above) is arrested and put on trial for the sole reason living on an expired visa.
I don't wish to be misunderstood and seen as advocating foreigners overstaying beyond their permit. But here's a man who is not yet shown to have committed any serious crime yet instead of simply being issued a legal notice or being put on surveillance, he is jailed.
Next a Swiss citizen in Balochistan is jailed simply for having improper documents and visiting a restricted area without permit:
Authorities are right to detain and question him. But to send him to jail? Imagine the impact this will bring on tourists who want to visit our country but are too scared out of fear for accidentally going into restricted areas.
With Gary Brooks we were presented with a rare opportunity to send a strong message to the West that we would not tolerate their citizens coming to our country and breaking the law. Carrying items like Gary Brooks did posed a serious threat to public safety.
Here was a man who had no secrets of breaking the law and his intention to walk around armed or of withholding information about his swords and knives from customs.
Instead we let him go and punish people on small charges of overstaying their visa or not having a special permit.
If Aaron Mark DeHaven is a spy like Raymond Davis since he was working for a private security agency, then charge him for espionage, but to detain him over a visa issue? It was raised in some news articles that there were hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in America overstaying their visas.
My main point is that we are suddenly turning from being too soft on Westerners to being too harsh and prejudiced. Gary Brooks is the man who should have been jailed and charged. This would have gone as a strong warning to all those American marines who sometimes take their weapons outside embassy grounds and harass locals. This would tone down anti-American sentiment in Pakistan while at the same time safeguarding our laws and sovereignty.
But this crackdown has been taken slightly out of proportion and I feel now westerners are going to suffer from this sudden excuse for harshly arresting/detaining people for the slightest reasons.
This American man below Gary Brooks Faulkner committed three major crimes in Pakistan and got away scott-free, yet an American and Swiss citizen were recently detained for the pickiest reasons.
Gary Brooks Faulkner was arrested in Pakistan in June 2010. According to sources he brought in swords and knives in his baggage which went undetected. This was one crime he committed for possessing illegal weapons. His second crime was not declaring these items to customs.
Police caught him red handed with guns he purchased in the country. He was also caught carrying Christian literature and claimed that he was "told by God" in a dream that it was his duty to hunt down and kill Bin Laden.
The man could have been convicted and prosecuted for two counts of illegal weapons possession and not declaring them to customs.
He was released upon being declared insane by doctors and did not even receive a criminal record or a fine. But according to family members he was not insane and actually believed in everything he claimed.
What's more is this individual was already jailed once before in America which is a display for his violent personality. Here was a religious fanatic posing a threat to public safety and broke the law, yet we let him leave Pakistan on the basis that he was insane.
If it was such, he should have been put away in a Pakistani mental institution until his claim would be retracted by him in a bid to get himself out and charges could be laid against him.
Imagine an Islamic fundamentalist from Pakistan in America or Denmark carrying illegal weapons and telling authorities that he had been instructed by God in a dream to kill anti-Islamic cartoonists.
He would probably be put away in Guantanamo Bay before even being given access to a lawyer.
But we didn't do anything. I am not just referring to our corrupt, confused and reckless government, but our people as well. Following the shooting incident in Lahore, the idea of releasing Davis was out of the question due to the public outrage and backlash that it could bring. It was really the public pressure that kept him held by us.
However, this man Gary Brooks Faulkner committed a similar crime of carrying illegal weapons and there was zero public pressure on him. In the aftermath of the incident involving Raymond Davis, the government has suddenly gone trigger happy in arresting westerners for the pickiest reasons.
Aaron Mark DeHaven (pictured above) is arrested and put on trial for the sole reason living on an expired visa.
I don't wish to be misunderstood and seen as advocating foreigners overstaying beyond their permit. But here's a man who is not yet shown to have committed any serious crime yet instead of simply being issued a legal notice or being put on surveillance, he is jailed.
Next a Swiss citizen in Balochistan is jailed simply for having improper documents and visiting a restricted area without permit:
Authorities are right to detain and question him. But to send him to jail? Imagine the impact this will bring on tourists who want to visit our country but are too scared out of fear for accidentally going into restricted areas.
With Gary Brooks we were presented with a rare opportunity to send a strong message to the West that we would not tolerate their citizens coming to our country and breaking the law. Carrying items like Gary Brooks did posed a serious threat to public safety.
Here was a man who had no secrets of breaking the law and his intention to walk around armed or of withholding information about his swords and knives from customs.
Instead we let him go and punish people on small charges of overstaying their visa or not having a special permit.
If Aaron Mark DeHaven is a spy like Raymond Davis since he was working for a private security agency, then charge him for espionage, but to detain him over a visa issue? It was raised in some news articles that there were hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in America overstaying their visas.
My main point is that we are suddenly turning from being too soft on Westerners to being too harsh and prejudiced. Gary Brooks is the man who should have been jailed and charged. This would have gone as a strong warning to all those American marines who sometimes take their weapons outside embassy grounds and harass locals. This would tone down anti-American sentiment in Pakistan while at the same time safeguarding our laws and sovereignty.
Friday, February 11, 2011
More on Pakistan's fifth column
I did an earlier post on the fifth column which I urge readers to see. This post covers the same subject but in a little more detail on how they operate. The fifth column of Pakistan promotes self-hatred to such a level that would constitute treason by law in most other countries. Their tactic is to defame Pakistan under the false guise of secularism and freedom of expression.
They try to appear as educated intellectuals and use their celebrity status to try and make people believe their word is the truth when it's a pack of lies especially when they provide no evidence to support it.
Well known examples of these are when most notable fifth columnists such as Pervez Hoodbhoy and Ahmed Rashid accuse the Pakistani government of being behind terrorist attacks in India and training terrorist outfits, they provide not a single specific training location, nor do they mention who exactly is conducting the alleged training exercises.
Ahmed Rashid is a well known book seller and a celebrity in the Western and Indian media due to his Paki-bashing publications. Often he is cited as a source for terrorism having it's roots in Pakistan just as he was cited by Matt Waldman when he created a bogus report on Pakistan training Taliban insurgents by simply repeating claims of Taliban detainees himself. When questioned by a BBC reporter on weather the claims of the Taliban detainees could be trusted, Waldman jumped to cite Ahmed Rashid as if the man's word is unquestionable.
Pervez Hoodbhoy is often considered the ringleader of the fifth column. He has a strange double standard of denying accusations against India being a sponsor in the Baloch insurgency while on the other hand blaming the ISI for being behind terrorist attacks in India without providing any evidence.
It is not just outright lies he promotes against the Pakistani state amongst his other pro-Brahmanist peers, but also implants his false ideas into the minds of Pakistani youth.
Hoodbhoy and the rest of the fifth column also have a tactic of putting on a false sense of persecution as "defenders of truth."
Anyone who tries to challenge them is depicted as a Zaid Hamid loving Islamic fundamentalist who can't accept the truth and is simply brainwashed by state sponsored propaganda.
Though I have not seen it, there are widely circulated claims of a video in which both Pervez Hoodbhoy and Imran Khan are at a talk show and Hoodbhoy is asked by Imran weather he is with or against Pakistan.
Imran tries to expose Hoodbhoy for who he really is which is when Hoodbhoy reacted by accusing Imran of physically assaulting him. This is the kind of false persecution Hoodbhoy often puts on.
There was also another case in which I read of Ayesha Jalal. Ayesha Jalal is another fifth columnist who studied in America and uses her American certification as "proof" of her knowledge of the truth.
She often publishes falsified history of the subcontinent being "partitioned" by the British and is often paraded by the Indian propaganda media against Pakistan.
There was a quote I read somewhere by her of when asked why many other Pakistanis don't study history like her, she claimed that Pakistanis don't like history because they can't accept the truth.
What's recognizable amongst the fifth columnists is that they tend to mix facts with their lies to make their message appear more truthful. Weather it is Pervez Hoodbhoy making brief mentions of Pakistan's overpopulation crisis or Ayesha Jalal pointing out that Pakistan joining America's war in Afghanistan was to avoid isolation as the whole world sided with America right after 9/11.
This makes it only more difficult and confusing for those who are not well read enough in history and politics.
Even more recognizable traits of the fifth column is their constant condemnation of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and try to depict it as if it was built for nothing. They ravage on and on about the country's nuclear program and make it appear as though demonic. Never once do these people talk about other countries' nuclear programs.
Only when pressured through questioning about why they stay silent on India's nuclear weapons program (which is the main reason behind Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and it's expansion), they claim they are against it, yet never utter a single word of protest against it otherwise the way they protest against Pakistan's nuclear program.
The fifth columnists of Pakistan also try to protect themselves and their reputation by creating human shields of brainwashed Pakistani youth.
With some popularity and 'drones' (people who blindly follow a person or ideology they admire without question) they appear themselves and their opinions to be widely accepted hence any kind of intervention by the government or other is seen as an attempt on suppressing modern thinking and free speech.
Anyone who tries to counter them is projected by their followers as an Islamic fundamentalist. Good examples are the way Ahmed Qureshi and his compatriots have tried to expose Pervez Hoodbhoy and his hive of fifth columnists who use Islamabad University as their base of operations.
But because of Ahmed Qureshi's previous links to Zaid Hamid, he is constantly branded as an ISI agent though I see no evidence of that.
I am also no fan of Imran Khan but his attempt to stand up to the fifth column only highlights his bad reputation by the drones of Pervez Hoodbhoy and others.
Pervez Hoodbhoy tries to appear as some wise old mentor by promoting physics and other science events. This in my view is nothing more than trying to increase his reputation. The fifth column claim they want the best for Pakistan but he (Hoodbhoy) and his fellow fifth columnists have openly stated especially abroad on Pakophobic seminars organized by various anti-Pakistan lobbies that they are against Pakistan and hate their Pakistani citizenship.
Hoodbhoy's drones try to make him appear as some wise inspirational hero very much like Zaid Hamid and his followers.
Anyone who tried to oppose Zaid Hamid before his scandal with the mullahs was suspected of treason.
Hoodbhoy and Zaid Hamid are nothing more than two opposite sides of the same coin. Pervez Hoodbhoy tries to fill Pakistanis with self-hatred and love for the Indian government's policies while Zaid Hamid during his popularity tried to fill Pakistanis with Wahhabi like Pan-Islamist, pro-Arab feelings.
A favorite base of operations for Pakistan's fifth columnists are educational institutions in Punjab which are probably the best in the entire subcontinent. This is where they try to gain an audience and solicitude our most brilliant youth to be their parrots.
Already Islamabad University has been hijacked by the fifth column as a base of operations and has the most known members including Hoodbhoy, Asma Jahangir and other notable fifth columnists who regularly speak there.
This again is very similar to Zaid Hamid and his campaigns to gain followers before his scandal where he'd speak conspiracy theories and spread religious hatred.
It is important for Pakistanis to be aware of their country's fifth column and how they work under the false guise of secularism. On the one hand they claim to be advocates of secularism, on the other hand Asma Jahangir meets with a Hindutva fundamentalist Bal Thackeray who is suspected of being behind the 2002 Gujarat Massacres.
This only harms the idea of secularism in Pakistan and gives a completely false impression of it, only causing people in our country to fear and resent it.
But as I mentioned before, when countering the fifth column and their propaganda, one has to be careful of not turning to Islamist elements such as those of Zaid Hamid's likes. Ahmed Qureshi made that mistake and that may have permanently damaged his reputation.
The truth must be the strongest weapon against liars and traitors, not another group of liars and traitors.
They try to appear as educated intellectuals and use their celebrity status to try and make people believe their word is the truth when it's a pack of lies especially when they provide no evidence to support it.
Well known examples of these are when most notable fifth columnists such as Pervez Hoodbhoy and Ahmed Rashid accuse the Pakistani government of being behind terrorist attacks in India and training terrorist outfits, they provide not a single specific training location, nor do they mention who exactly is conducting the alleged training exercises.
Ahmed Rashid is a well known book seller and a celebrity in the Western and Indian media due to his Paki-bashing publications. Often he is cited as a source for terrorism having it's roots in Pakistan just as he was cited by Matt Waldman when he created a bogus report on Pakistan training Taliban insurgents by simply repeating claims of Taliban detainees himself. When questioned by a BBC reporter on weather the claims of the Taliban detainees could be trusted, Waldman jumped to cite Ahmed Rashid as if the man's word is unquestionable.
Pervez Hoodbhoy is often considered the ringleader of the fifth column. He has a strange double standard of denying accusations against India being a sponsor in the Baloch insurgency while on the other hand blaming the ISI for being behind terrorist attacks in India without providing any evidence.
It is not just outright lies he promotes against the Pakistani state amongst his other pro-Brahmanist peers, but also implants his false ideas into the minds of Pakistani youth.
Hoodbhoy and the rest of the fifth column also have a tactic of putting on a false sense of persecution as "defenders of truth."
Anyone who tries to challenge them is depicted as a Zaid Hamid loving Islamic fundamentalist who can't accept the truth and is simply brainwashed by state sponsored propaganda.
Though I have not seen it, there are widely circulated claims of a video in which both Pervez Hoodbhoy and Imran Khan are at a talk show and Hoodbhoy is asked by Imran weather he is with or against Pakistan.
Imran tries to expose Hoodbhoy for who he really is which is when Hoodbhoy reacted by accusing Imran of physically assaulting him. This is the kind of false persecution Hoodbhoy often puts on.
There was also another case in which I read of Ayesha Jalal. Ayesha Jalal is another fifth columnist who studied in America and uses her American certification as "proof" of her knowledge of the truth.
She often publishes falsified history of the subcontinent being "partitioned" by the British and is often paraded by the Indian propaganda media against Pakistan.
There was a quote I read somewhere by her of when asked why many other Pakistanis don't study history like her, she claimed that Pakistanis don't like history because they can't accept the truth.
What's recognizable amongst the fifth columnists is that they tend to mix facts with their lies to make their message appear more truthful. Weather it is Pervez Hoodbhoy making brief mentions of Pakistan's overpopulation crisis or Ayesha Jalal pointing out that Pakistan joining America's war in Afghanistan was to avoid isolation as the whole world sided with America right after 9/11.
This makes it only more difficult and confusing for those who are not well read enough in history and politics.
Even more recognizable traits of the fifth column is their constant condemnation of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and try to depict it as if it was built for nothing. They ravage on and on about the country's nuclear program and make it appear as though demonic. Never once do these people talk about other countries' nuclear programs.
Only when pressured through questioning about why they stay silent on India's nuclear weapons program (which is the main reason behind Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and it's expansion), they claim they are against it, yet never utter a single word of protest against it otherwise the way they protest against Pakistan's nuclear program.
The fifth columnists of Pakistan also try to protect themselves and their reputation by creating human shields of brainwashed Pakistani youth.
With some popularity and 'drones' (people who blindly follow a person or ideology they admire without question) they appear themselves and their opinions to be widely accepted hence any kind of intervention by the government or other is seen as an attempt on suppressing modern thinking and free speech.
Anyone who tries to counter them is projected by their followers as an Islamic fundamentalist. Good examples are the way Ahmed Qureshi and his compatriots have tried to expose Pervez Hoodbhoy and his hive of fifth columnists who use Islamabad University as their base of operations.
But because of Ahmed Qureshi's previous links to Zaid Hamid, he is constantly branded as an ISI agent though I see no evidence of that.
I am also no fan of Imran Khan but his attempt to stand up to the fifth column only highlights his bad reputation by the drones of Pervez Hoodbhoy and others.
Pervez Hoodbhoy tries to appear as some wise old mentor by promoting physics and other science events. This in my view is nothing more than trying to increase his reputation. The fifth column claim they want the best for Pakistan but he (Hoodbhoy) and his fellow fifth columnists have openly stated especially abroad on Pakophobic seminars organized by various anti-Pakistan lobbies that they are against Pakistan and hate their Pakistani citizenship.
Hoodbhoy's drones try to make him appear as some wise inspirational hero very much like Zaid Hamid and his followers.
Anyone who tried to oppose Zaid Hamid before his scandal with the mullahs was suspected of treason.
Hoodbhoy and Zaid Hamid are nothing more than two opposite sides of the same coin. Pervez Hoodbhoy tries to fill Pakistanis with self-hatred and love for the Indian government's policies while Zaid Hamid during his popularity tried to fill Pakistanis with Wahhabi like Pan-Islamist, pro-Arab feelings.
A favorite base of operations for Pakistan's fifth columnists are educational institutions in Punjab which are probably the best in the entire subcontinent. This is where they try to gain an audience and solicitude our most brilliant youth to be their parrots.
Already Islamabad University has been hijacked by the fifth column as a base of operations and has the most known members including Hoodbhoy, Asma Jahangir and other notable fifth columnists who regularly speak there.
This again is very similar to Zaid Hamid and his campaigns to gain followers before his scandal where he'd speak conspiracy theories and spread religious hatred.
It is important for Pakistanis to be aware of their country's fifth column and how they work under the false guise of secularism. On the one hand they claim to be advocates of secularism, on the other hand Asma Jahangir meets with a Hindutva fundamentalist Bal Thackeray who is suspected of being behind the 2002 Gujarat Massacres.
This only harms the idea of secularism in Pakistan and gives a completely false impression of it, only causing people in our country to fear and resent it.
But as I mentioned before, when countering the fifth column and their propaganda, one has to be careful of not turning to Islamist elements such as those of Zaid Hamid's likes. Ahmed Qureshi made that mistake and that may have permanently damaged his reputation.
The truth must be the strongest weapon against liars and traitors, not another group of liars and traitors.
Monday, February 7, 2011
How the Raymond Davis affair is connected to the so-called "new Great Game" in Eurasia and how Pakistan should handle the situation.
Author's note: The reason why I have put some words in quotation marks is because it is referred to as such though some including I see it as a matter of survival for governments and countries. This post may be updated to fill in missing details and/or make corrections.
I want to start this geopolitical post by covering the incident in Lahore and my personal theories on what exactly happened based on all the sources that I have come across.
Though I could be wrong, I believe the entire incident was triggered by a misunderstanding.
I first thought of Raymond Davis in pictures of his court appearance to be a poor chap caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, but further evidence reported by various news sources make me believe the opposite, that he was on a spy mission. Consider the following points:
-Unconfirmed but various sources claim he could converse in Urdu the national language of Pakistan. Now certain sources claim he lived in Pakhtunkhwa and spoke fluent Pashto as well.
-He carried an unregistered weapon more particularly a 9mm Glock pistol. As uncertain as I am, my understanding is that these type of weapons are not popular in Pakistan. Even though local manufacturers can easily replicate them, local choices are mostly AK-47s and T-T pistols. Even amongst military divisions, this widely American used gun is not popular in Pakistan.
-The autopsies reveal that both men were shot in the back, ruling out the possibility that they were advancing towards him.
-Various sources claim Davis to have military training background and a history of working for the FBI.
-The equipment recovered from his car pictured here included GPS navigation, wireless phone tracking devices, binoculars as well as maps of sensitive bases/installations in Multan, Lahore and others.
-Sources also claim him to have been in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If one is to put these points together, Davis-or whatever his actual name may be-fits the perfect description of an undercover agent.
As many claim, I do believe that Faizan Haider and his brother Fahim were innocent since no criminal records were found on them and the weapon found on them was registered. Faizan and Fahim did indeed go to court with Faizan armed to protect himself from being a targeted witness in a family dispute that killed his brother about a month earlier.
Anyone familiar with Pakistan would know how complicated and dangerous family and tribal feuds can be. Those also familiar with the country would know how life threatening being a witness in a court can be as there have been cases of assignations on court witnesses even right after stepping out of the courtroom.
Police sources claimed that Faizan for this reason had registered his gun for the purpose of self-protection.
I believe when Fahim and Faizan exited the courtroom, Faizan carried his handgun to protect himself from any possible attack. As they left the court he kept his gun in handy in case an attack was waiting to happen.
As they continued their way on the motorbike to the hospital to attend to a relative, their path coincided with Raymond Davis', giving him the impression that they were following him.
At the signal light, Davis discovered Faizan's gun as the two men rode past him in the traffic red light.
When Faizan's gun was showing, it caused Davis, who was behind them, to panic thinking that his suspicion on them following him were correct and that he was about to face a surprise attack.
Upon this Davis opened fired out of the impression that he was defending himself from this surprise attack- and that's when his cover was blown.
From there Davis called for help and the SUV as we all know that came to aid him killed a third person as a result of reckless driving in a bid to save him. Since the vehicle turned back, Davis attempted to flee the scene which according to sources is standard operating procedure for American embassy and consulate employees in case of problems.
This is my perception of what happened in Lahore. But then there are many important questions to follow regarding Raymond Davis and the nature of this incident.
Most importantly where did Davis get the gun he shot the two men with? It was not registered according to local authorities nor is it a popular weapon of choice in Pakistan to my knowledge. So how exactly did he bring it into the country? Surely not through the airport where he'd be caught by security officials.
Thinking of this question brought back to my mind a specific incident described in these reports of armed foreigners; particularly Westerners carrying weapons which are also not popular choices in Pakistan as per their models.
One of those reports describes an incident in which Americans carrying M-4 machine guns and 9 MM Glock pistols- very similar to the type used by Davis. Again these weapons are not commonly manufactured nor often used in Pakistan perhaps due to copyright issues under international law or them being expensive weapons not affordable to most customers in a poor third world country.
That incident is just like the one we saw in Lahore of Americans mysteriously bringing weapons through the borders of Pakistan going undetected.
But the most notable incident amongst those reports which my attention was brought back to is of Americans caught by police in Pakhtunkhwa carrying M-4 rifles which also makes a brief mention of an Afghan national accompanying them without a visa.
To me this makes the answer quite clear. That the Americans are secretly transporting their weapons across the border from their bases in Afghanistan into Pakistan with the help of Afghans.
Smuggling is a well known activity which takes place across the Afghan-Pakistani border. Illegal items from drugs to others are constantly smuggled out of Afghanistan going undetected. This practice has been going on for many decades perhaps even before the Afghan wars began.
Now American weapons for Americans in Pakistan are also being smuggled with the help of Afghans since Pakistan does not issue rights or licenses to foreigners to carry weapons except in extremely rare and special cases.
Why Afghans would help Americans is something Pakistanis have failed to and still fail to understand. Afghanistan has always had an enmity towards Pakistan right from the time of it's independence in 1947. Till present day nothing has changed. It's this enmity that is the root of most political problems in Central Eurasia (I say Eurasia because it involves most of Europe and most of Asia) though I also think Western governments have been trying to take advantage of the situation in order to gain access to Central Asia's rich energy resources.
Pakistanis have failed to understand Afghan hostility towards their country and even fail to even acknowledge it's existence because they are blinded by the curtain of Pan-Islamism and the false belief that Muslims can never hate Muslims.
To understand this enmity and the whole geopolitical turmoil our region today faces, we have to take a look backwards in time.
Afghanistan is a country where tribalism and ethnic ultra-nationalism have always thrived. Most of the violence in the country is much owed to this ethnic and tribal nationalism. Since it's founding in 1747 AD, Afghanistan was ruled by ethnic Pakhtuns who have had a bad history with the other ethnic groups in the country.
Afghanistan's history of ethnic and tribal honor codes seek violence as a means of solving disputes.
Throughout much of it's history, Afghanistan's majority Pakhtuns have managed to keep the non-Pakhtun populations intact mostly through the use of brutal force.
And though there is tension amongst the non-Pakhtun ethnic groups of the country, they have stood united against what they see as a common enemy. At the same time, the ruling Pakhtun elites sought to "reunite" with their fellow ethnic Pakhtuns across the border.
Since Afghanistan has mostly always been under Pakhtun rule, these nationalist Pakhtun leaders tried to use the same force on the Pakistani government as a means of seizing Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan from Pakistan with their claim of the Durand Line Treaty being invalid as it divides Pakhtuns and Baloch through artificial borders.
These claims are nothing but false and are discussed in detail in this and this article.
Various Afghan regimes weather the royal family or the pro-Soviet communist regimes have sought to take these regions away from Pakistan through force.
However, being militarily inferior, they failed. This only further incited their hatred for Pakistan and their inability to take what they saw as "their lands."
Under the communist regimes, Afghanistan enjoyed military and political ties to the Soviet Union which stood by Afghanistan's false claims over Pakistani territory.
At many times Soviet built planes were used by the Afghan air force to breach into Pakistan's airspace and military confrontations were frequent.
To rid Soviet support to Afghanistan, the Pakistani government sought to topple the communist regime in Kabul via radical Islamist proxies who were already leading uprisings against the communist regime.
The USA saw this as a positive move as it too sought the downfall of pro-Soviet regimes around the world. China also welcomed this move as it had it's own share of historical feuds with the Soviet Union. With the anti-communist uprisings in Afghanistan slowly falling out of control, the communist Afghan regime sought the Soviet Union's military intervention to secure their control over the country.
Reluctantly, the Soviets planned a temporary occupation of Afghanistan with two main objectives:
1) Dispose of Hafizullah Amin the then prime minister who had been enforcing communist practices in the country through the use of brutal force which only gave popularity to anti-government uprisings.
After Amin was disposed of, they planned on installing a new dictator who would be more flexible and keep the country communist through social reforms instead of unpopular, forceful methods.
2) Getting rid of American/Arab/Pakistani backed Islamist rebels who threatened the rule of their communist allies in the country.
In December 1979, the Soviet Union sent it's forces into Afghanistan which is when the whole mess leading to today's political climax began.
The first objective was easily met and Amin was killed, but the second objective was costly and could not be achieved due to the strong support the Afghan Mujahideen received from the West, from Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world.
Following the Soviet Union's departure in 1989 and even after it's downfall, the situation in Afghanistan intensified. The United States seeing it's objectives in Afghanistan had been met disengaged itself from the politics of that region.
But the instability gave advantages to the other ethnic groups of the country who sought to free themselves of Pakhtun domination. In doing so they forged an alliance best known as the Northern Alliance.
The Northern Alliance composed of ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and some Hazaras, received backing from Turkey, Iran, the Russian Federation and India. Fearing that the Northern Alliance was relying on it's arch-rivals for support and slowly turning Afghanistan as their (India, Russian Federation, Iran) proxy state, the Pakistani government sought to support the Pakhtun Taliban who it felt would neutralize the proxies of it's enemies.
The Taliban controlled much of Afghanistan until 2001. Under the Taliban much of the drug production was diminished. Also during this time many militant groups most notably Al-Queda set up bases in Afghanistan. Al-Queda had a history of hitting American installations throughout the world but the Taliban refused to handover their leaders.
Then the 911 attacks occurred. America claims it to be the work of Al-Queda, though I personally feel it was the work of secret elements in the American government and the invasion of Afghanistan was a means of creating a new route to Central Asia's rich oil reserves and getting rid of Al-Queda once and for all.
After the fall of the Soviet Union many oil rich republics in Central Asia sought to export their energy and enhance their economies.
The West also was keen on this and wanted to buy their energy resources, however Central Asia is a landlocked region and all paths leading out of it were blocked by countries hostile to the West. The Russian Federation in the northwest, the Islamic Republic or Iran in the south and Taliban controlled Afghanistan also in the south.
If I'm not mistaken, Pakistan was keen on becoming a transit zone for Central Asian goods and resources to the world since it would be profitable to it's economy.
The West thought of it as a long process and should start soon which is why I feel they are in Afghanistan today.
But their presence has not made things much better for themselves and others except for some stability. The worst part is they have empowered tribalist, ultra-nationalistic Pakhtuns who don't want to share their power with other ethnic groups.
And if things cannot get anymore worse, NATO has tried to forge a government between arch-rival Tajiks and Pakhtuns who do not want to work together and are fighting each other for dominance. Across Afghanistan ethnic violence between Pakhtuns and non-Pakhtuns is still occurring, only adding more to the instability of the country and the region.
The current NATO occupation has only put most things back on square one and that is semi-literate, tribalist Pakhtuns are back in power and only have the same objective: Take Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa away from Pakistan.
This is not to suggest that Tajiks are anymore favorable to Pakistan than much of the Pakhtun population. The Tajiks despise Pakistan and the Pakhtuns whom they see as Pakistan's puppets. Additionally the Tajiks maintain good cultural, linguistic and political ties with the Shia regime in Iran which too is hostile towards Sunni majority Pakistan. The Pakhtuns despise the Tajiks as they see them as "foreigners" in Afghanistan and they despise Pakistan for holding on to what they see as "their lands."
Weather the royal family or the communists up till the present Afghan regimes, each one has had the prime objective of controlling Pakhtunkhwa (then known as NWFP) and Balochistan.
So how does this all connect to Raymond Davis and the incident in Lahore? Going back through my post, I mentioned Afghans helping Americans smuggle their weapons into Pakistan and help them in their covert spy missions because they are hostile towards Pakistan and see it as an enemy illegally occupying "their lands."
Americans are sending their citizens for both security and covert operations. Various reports claim American "diplomats" in sensitive areas of Pakistan. The West fears that the rising instability in the region makes Pakistan's nuclear weapons a threat to international security.
In this post, I covered the false media hysteria behind Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists. I also stressed in this post that Pakistan should not sign any nuclear disarmament treaties that would make it a hostage to foreign aggression.
The prime objective must be to gain maximum knowledge on the country's nuclear arsenal and the Afghans would be more than happy to help. Creating problems for Pakistan has been the main objective for every Afghan government.
What Pakistan can do to deal with the situation:
-In regards to armed foreigners in the country, Pakistan needs to step up it's case to NATO that it will not tolerate foreigners carrying illegal weapons on it's soil.
Right after the Lahore incident, the government should have summoned the ambassador in Islamabad and lodged a public protest as it did in 2008 when NATO troops illegally crossed into Pakistan.
Additionally, Pakistan needs to impose a ban on foreigners moving in between cities on the ground. The movement of foreign nationals through sparsely populated provincial areas will make their activities and movements difficult to monitor.
All domestic movement in between cities by foreign nationals should be by local airlines.
Currently the US embassy does use Beechcraft type planes for transporting their staff within Pakistan. These Beechcraft series planes seen here are marked in the same livery as the two famous American presidential transport Boeing 747-200s which are famously known for their call sign Air Force One. What are the chances of transporting spies and illegal items on those Beechcraft planes? This is why I think they should be restricted to flying on local airlines. If they fear flying with normal passengers due to anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, then they should charter their flights.
By imposing such a restriction on domestic movement by foreigners, the Pakistani government and military should issue strict warnings of legal consequences for those who fail to comply.
The Vienna conventions do not permit foreigners, diplomats or others, to violate the laws of the host country therefore it's important to stress that foreigners be barred from breaking traffic laws and carrying illegal weapons.
Should diplomats and other embassy employees fail to comply with Pakistan's weapons restrictions, the rangers should be made to create blockades around diplomatic enclaves and ensure anyone exiting is not armed or carrying any suspicious items.
Any foreigner exiting the enclaves should be made to identify themselves and the purpose of their movements.
Such restrictions should not be difficult for the Western governments to comply with.
Recently Poland came up with a new referendum making espionage a crime in the country by foreigners. Pakistan needs to pass on the same referendum and adopt capital punishment for spies weather locals or foreigners. Pakistan is also not a signatory to treaties in the Vienna conventions that conflict with domestic laws. So weather a spy comes disguised as a diplomat, he/she should not be liable to expulsion but civil prosecution once a referendum making spying on the state a punishable crime is legalized.
Also the Pakistani people need to pledge their support to the government on this stance if they believe in preventing such incidents from happening again. Simply hounding and blaming the government doesn't work and showing some support at this stage for prosecuting Davis would be useful.
-Regarding Afghanistan and it's constant meddling in Pakistan, the Pakistani government needs to ensure the Durand Line treaty is not violated or any false claims be made on it. The Pakistani government needs to clarify this issue and must do so at the next UN submit in order to silence these false claims coming out of Kabul.
Once it's clarified, any further falsified claims on Pakistani territory should be brought forward to NATO and the UN as a complaint and those in the Afghan government making these claims should be held accountable for trying to break international law and violate internationally recognized borders.
To ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan, NATO needs to put in a multi-ethnic government in Afghanistan (see my world issues and politics blog) and Pakistan needs to support such a move to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a proxy war theater.
Furthermore; Pakistan needs to take a tougher stance against Afghanistan for trying to create problems weather through helping Western agencies or fueling the rebellion in Balochistan.
This has been going on ever since 1947 and temporarily stopped during the Afghan civil war.
As a start Pakistan needs to send back all Afghan refugees and seal the border to prevent a further wave of refugees from coming. Even those Afghans residing in other parts of Pakistan need to be sent back. Pakistan should also seal Afghanistan's access to the outside world should it's citizens continue creating problems as they are by helping foreign agencies and further inciting the insurgency in Balochistan.
Any military incursion by tribalists or the Afghan military should be dealt with a harsh response.
I explained in this post, the presence of armed foreigners; especially private security agencies outside of embassy grounds is somewhat exaggerated. Of course it doesn't mean that I rule it out completely as Raymond Davis is proof of that. There are also many reports of armed diplomats interrogating locals at gunpoint in the links; hence it's important to enforce our policy of banning firearms to foreigners.
-Also there is a lot of media hysteria in America against Pakistan and vice versa. The American media is filled with conspiracies against Pakistan's ISI for "secretly supporting terrorists" while the Pakistani media is filled with conspiracy theories of the same nature. That America is supporting terrorism inside the region to destabilize it.
I think it's important that the Pakistani foreign ministry and people to take up the issue of false media hysteria and try to defuse it on both sides.
In the end Raymond Davis, innocent or not should be given a fair trial. Everyone even murders must be given a chance to be judged.
It's important to note that Davis was found with spy equipment and by now there is little doubt he is a spy, so those Pakistanis who call for his execution should reconsider that they are asking to kill a valuable prisoner with useful information and who may be the key to thwarting a foreign spy network(s) in the country.
There is also the problem of pro-Western ultra-liberal leftist fifth columnists mainly from the Muhajir community who are as usual defending Raymond Davis and America's reckless policies in the region. The liberal upper class Muhajir fifth columnists always have everything negative to express against Pakistan.
It's important the lies of these liberal lynch mobs be exposed before they mislead the educated elite class of Pakistan who are prone to such self-hating ideas towards their country.
Also important is that the government should ask the people weather they are willing to release Davis in exchange for aid or are willing to sacrifice aid in return for justice. Because currently the people as usual are blaming the government of submitting to American pressure instead of accepting reality that the Americans are cutting off aid due to Davis's detention; hence the people have to choose between one or the other.
The Pakistani government has no control over America's decision to cut aid so the choice must be with the people to keep and punish Davis, release him in exchange for continuing aid, or to come up with an alternate solution weather cutting support to NATO in Afghanistan or some other.
Post update: I found the following by an anonymous person regarding the SUV that hit and killed Ibadur Rehman which should interest readers. Note: This does not necessarily represent my opinions on the issue:
Dear All,
Someone I happened to meet raised a point about the other vehicle (the SUV)
which killed a motorcyclist and is said to have been coming to the rescue of
Raymond Davis. This person said that RD and the SUV were traveling
together when they realized that they were being followed by the two men
killed by RD. The SUV was the crucial one because it was carrying sensitive
material and RD enacted this drama to divert public attention. He succeeded
because the SUV got away to the extent that the people riding it could even
leave the country on the sly while RD has grabbed all attention. Who were
they and what was their mission? The timing when the SUV made its appearance
betrays that the claim that it was a rescue vehicle is ytash and meant to
mislead the media.
Does anyone know more about the SUV and its travelers?
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