Davis case - Pyrrhic Victory

[American Eagle]

A Pyrrhic victory | | DAWN.COM

 

[Awesome]

The "trust us" part is not sitting well with the Pakistanis. In Pakistan whenever there is no transparency in dealing with the Americans it almost always translates into heavy bribery.

The fact that Pakistan got nothing is when in a show of defiance and to teach Pakistan a lesson for its "bad behavior" did a drone attack the very same day.

Americans need to leave Pakistan and find alternative routes for their logistics. We'll fight our own war, you fight your own.

 

[Vinod2070]

Its an interesting relationship, the US-Pakistani one.

They can't stand each other and can't do without each other either.

Much like a bad marriage gone sour.

 

[Awesome]

ANALYSIS: Davis’s departure: ISI-CIA’s dirty deal? —Farhat Taj

For decades, the people of Pakistan have suffered due to the CIA and ISI’s murky ties. These ties have led to the strengthening of Islamist forces, the natural allies of the GHQ in Pakistan

Raymond Davis, an American national accused of being a CIA contractor in Pakistan and charged with killing two Pakistani citizens in January 2011, was released by a Lahore court on March 16, 2011. The US authorities said Davis was protected by full diplomatic immunity but the Pakistani government refuted the US claim. He was immediately flown out of Pakistan after his release. Reportedly, Davis was released after paying Rs 200 million as ‘blood money’ to the legal heirs of the deceased.

Who actually ordered the release of Davis in Pakistan and on what grounds? What are the implications of the release for the people of Pakistan, especially in militancy-hit areas like FATA?

It should not be ambiguous that the release came into being due to successful negotiations between the CIA in the US and the ISI in Pakistan. The PPP government, which has long ago surrendered its authority over foreign relations (especially with the US) to the military establishment, has no role in the release. The same is true about the PML-N led government in Punjab where Davis was kept under detention. Without the establishment’s involvement, the Pakistani judiciary could not have ordered Davis’s release. Justice to the heirs of the men killed by Davis is irrelevant in the establishment’s paradigm of national security. There are reports that the heirs of two of the dead men have been forced to accept a compromise for Davis’s release. The brother of the third man, Ibad-ur-Rahman, killed by a US diplomatic vehicle that rushed to Davis’s help, has told the media that his family is not part of the compromise nor has it been taken into confidence by the authorities.

The CIA and ISI have had uneasy relations since the post-9/11 US attack on the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The US invaded Afghanistan without having addressed Pakistan’s concerns in Afghanistan vis-à-vis India. Lieutenant General Mahmoud Ahmed, the then ISI Chief, reminded the US of Pakistan’s long history with the Taliban. The then US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, categorically told him: “History begins today.” Pakistan was forced into the US-led war on terror against the Pakistan-backed jihadi government in Afghanistan. Pakistan had no choice but to double deal with the US in the war on terror and this is what it has been doing to this day. To address immediate US concerns, some of the pro-Taliban military authorities like Lieutenant General Mahmoud were removed. But this does not mean that the army and the ISI were totally cleansed of the pro-Taliban people. General Safdar Hussain is a case in point. Through him, the Pakistan Army signed deals with al Qaeda-led militants in Waziristan and slaughtered traditional tribal leaders there. This jihadi general even had the audacity to publicly question the US presence in post-9/11 Afghanistan at the time of signing a deal with al Qaeda in Waziristan. Above all, the generals engineered an artificial insurgency in FATA. These generals have always been part and parcel of the ISI’s game to overpower the people of FATA through militants fully backed by military headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.

It is thus no wonder that the Americans have been constantly questioning Pakistan’s commitment in the war on terror. The CIA has had tense relations with the ISI all throughout the war on terror. “Did Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, fall victim to this misunderstanding (between the CIA and ISI over the war on terror) and has he been released after the problem was sorted out?” asks Ayesha Siddiqa, a well-known Pakistani defence analyst, in a recent newspaper column. She also hints at the possible understanding whereby the CIA will withdraw its focus on Punjab-based jihadi organisations considered friendly by the Pakistani military, e.g. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

If true, this is very bad news for the Pakhtun on both sides of the Durand Line. The people of FATA complain that the Punjabi Taliban linked with these two organisations, and other Punjabi outfits, run the jihad show in FATA. They — who form an overwhelming majority of the militants — physically control the Pakhtun Taliban as well as foreign al Qaeda terrorists. The Americans should know that they have struck an anti-Pakhtun deal, if this is what they have agreed to in lieu of Davis’s release. For decades, the people of Pakistan have suffered due to the CIA and ISI’s murky ties. These ties have led to the strengthening of Islamist forces, the natural allies of the GHQ in Pakistan. The Davis release deal may be a contribution to these murky ties and may prove to be especially detrimental to the people of FATA, who have suffered only death and destruction since 9/11. Violence in Afghanistan, directed from terrorist centres in FATA, will not ebb as a result of the deal.

It is sickening to see Pakistani TV channels screaming at politicians over Davis’s release and failing to grill the sitting Pakistani generals who are the real force behind the release. The media has never had the courage to question the sitting generals over crimes against the Pakhtun and Baloch citizens of Pakistan. The only thing it is good at is humiliating anti-Taliban political parties and the democratic set up in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Islamist political forces — long time allies of the military establishment — are boiling over with anger at Davis’s release. Their anger is directed at the spineless PPP-led political government. Ayesha Siddiqa rightly points out that the mighty “GHQ will ensure that this (anger) does not really boil over”. This will once again confirm that the GHQ controls the Islamist forces in mainland Pakistan, just as it commands the militants based in FATA. The GHQ may well just direct their anger to chase out the anti-Taliban PPP and ANP from power and accommodate the Islamists in any future political set up of Pakistan.

The writer is a PhD Research Fellow with the University of Oslo and currently writing a book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban

 

[Patriot]

I would not trust a single word from Farhat Taj.She is trying to put ethnic picture on the Taliban movement and trying to project it as Punjabi Opr4ession on Pukhtuns where as clearly Majority of the Talibans are Pukhtuns.

 

[Awesome]

I would not trust a single word from Farhat Taj.She is trying to put ethnic picture on the Taliban movement and trying to project it as Punjabi Opr4ession on Pukhtuns where as clearly Majority of the Talibans are Pukhtuns.

When there is no transparency you can make n number of conclusions as is the case here

 

[r3alist]

people have unrealistic expectations about this whole relationship.

pakistan has to bend over on a few certain key things else they will become worse than afghanistan.

on the other hand they cant bend over so much that something extreme can happen, like RD arming the taliban in such a way that it worries pakistan.

for pakistan its about finding the right level of appeasement.

the americans seem to want complete capitulation.

so who is in the wrong, those who twist arms, or those that get arms twisted?

 

[Awesome]

 

[monitor]

Whose blood? Whose money?

Raymond Davis has finally been delivered into safety and freedom by the federal government, the provincial government, the security agencies and the judiciary. How united we stand when it comes to serving our masters overseas!

Talat Farooq

It is like a slap in the face, a personal affront, legality and religious endorsement of the act notwithstanding. Raymond Davis has finally been delivered into safety and freedom by the federal government, the provincial government, the security agencies and the judiciary. How united we stand when it comes to serving our masters overseas!
Who wanted Davis back? America. And who was the guarantor and the mediator? Saudi Arabia. How did Saudi Arabia achieve this American objective in Pakistan? By using the Islamic-leverage; a strategy that Saudi Arabia has effectively applied since the Afghan-Soviet War in the 1980s. They have used the religious bent of the people of Pakistan and their sentimental attachment to the Prophet to help the US attain its foreign policy goals in Pakistan.
Raymond Davis is not only the murderer of two individuals, he is involved in espionage against the state of Pakistan. What right then did the Saudis have to arrange Davis' return? Who were they to pay the blood money on America's behalf? The sad truth is that we as beggars cannot be choosers.
The political hypocrisy of both the US and Saudi Arabia has never been more apparent than it is today. It is reflected in their responses to the peoples' uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. It is manifested in their prompt intervention in Bahrain and their delaying tactics in stopping the hand of Gaddafi. The Saudi role whether in Pakistan or Bahrain, has demonstrated how its monarchy works hand in glove with the US.
The question is how then do our mullahs find the Saudis to be the great upholders of the ultimate truth? Why are the Jamaat-e-Islami and the rest of the bearded lot only condemning America? Is the Saudi obsequiousness any different from Tony Blair's catering to the fancies of George Bush?
The Taliban that have become the bane of our lives were manufactured by the military and mullahs with Saudi riyals. Why then do we consider them our benefactors? How is Saudi intervention in our internal matters any different from America's violation of our sovereignty? The Saudis are as much responsible for what has become of Pakistan today as America and Pakistan's security agencies. Saudi riyals have bought Pakistani vested interests with as much ease as US dollars.
The US and Saudi Arabia are not the only ones who stand exposed. More importantly, it is Pakistan. The politicians, the judiciary and the military establishment are all party to this drama. Raymond Davis, the murderer of innocent Pakistanis has left the country; America, the mass murderer of innocent people all over the world, has struck Waziristan with a vengeance.
Prime Minister Gilani tells us that the drone attacks were 'irresponsible' and the government has protested to the US. And the bases from where the drones flew, where were they, Gilani Saheb? In India? Afghanistan? America?
If there were any doubts about the nature of power politics in Pakistan, the Raymond Davis drama has dispelled them. The politicians whether from the ruling party or the opposition will always be remembered as cowards of the highest order. The representatives of the judiciary will be remembered as unjust, the military as inadequate, and the mullahs as hypocritical.
They are all working according to their respective agendas. The politicians want to loot and plunder while the iron is hot. The judiciary wants to rock the boat but not to the point of drowning itself. The military wants to protect its self-created monsters in North Waziristan and Punjab; the mullahs want to use religion to attain power and blame America but not Saudi Arabia. They all have their own axes to grind.
No-one gives a toss about the people of Pakistan. They do not matter; their integrity is a joke, their dignity for sale. They are treated like commodities, used and discarded. They are a mild irritant in the way of the high and mighty and their desires. They are insects that the elite don't even notice when they crush them under their shoes. They once dared to dream of an independent country where they would live with dignity. They once believed that Jinnah's Pakistan will be better than Nehru's India. Today they are crushed, abused, broken and humiliated. Their blood is being spilled every day in the streets of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
But no one will ever ask for their forgiveness; no one will ever offer to pay their blood money in order to win freedom. They are nobodies, redundant, superfluous, and dispensable. They will remain uncounted, faceless and nameless for their life is not a matter of national interest for America or Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.
So let us then bow our heads and weep for the dreams that could not materialise. Let us bow our heads and weep for the self-respect lost along the way and for being betrayed by those we trusted with our lives and dreams; the ones we trusted with the future of our children. Let us weep for lost hopes and broken dreams. Above all, let us weep for never having the courage to stand up to the usurpers, the exploiters and the oppressors. Let us weep because our dreams were important to us but not that important.


The writer is a PhD student at Leicester, UK. Email: talatfarooq11@gmail.com

 

[American Eagle]

PhD candidate: You and I have been conversing on private e-mail. Did you ever notice on this open site that I started this Thread which you posted to?
Cheers, American Eagle.

 

[VCheng]

Whose blood? Whose money?

Raymond Davis has finally been delivered into safety and freedom by the federal government, the provincial government, the security agencies and the judiciary. How united we stand when it comes to serving our masters overseas!

Talat Farooq

It is like a slap in the face, a personal affront, legality and religious endorsement of the act notwithstanding. Raymond Davis has finally been delivered into safety and freedom by the federal government, the provincial government, the security agencies and the judiciary. How united we stand when it comes to serving our masters overseas!
Who wanted Davis back? America. And who was the guarantor and the mediator? Saudi Arabia. How did Saudi Arabia achieve this American objective in Pakistan? By using the Islamic-leverage; a strategy that Saudi Arabia has effectively applied since the Afghan-Soviet War in the 1980s. They have used the religious bent of the people of Pakistan and their sentimental attachment to the Prophet to help the US attain its foreign policy goals in Pakistan.
Raymond Davis is not only the murderer of two individuals, he is involved in espionage against the state of Pakistan. What right then did the Saudis have to arrange Davis' return? Who were they to pay the blood money on America's behalf? The sad truth is that we as beggars cannot be choosers.
The political hypocrisy of both the US and Saudi Arabia has never been more apparent than it is today. It is reflected in their responses to the peoples' uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. It is manifested in their prompt intervention in Bahrain and their delaying tactics in stopping the hand of Gaddafi. The Saudi role whether in Pakistan or Bahrain, has demonstrated how its monarchy works hand in glove with the US.
The question is how then do our mullahs find the Saudis to be the great upholders of the ultimate truth? Why are the Jamaat-e-Islami and the rest of the bearded lot only condemning America? Is the Saudi obsequiousness any different from Tony Blair's catering to the fancies of George Bush?
The Taliban that have become the bane of our lives were manufactured by the military and mullahs with Saudi riyals. Why then do we consider them our benefactors? How is Saudi intervention in our internal matters any different from America's violation of our sovereignty? The Saudis are as much responsible for what has become of Pakistan today as America and Pakistan's security agencies. Saudi riyals have bought Pakistani vested interests with as much ease as US dollars.
The US and Saudi Arabia are not the only ones who stand exposed. More importantly, it is Pakistan. The politicians, the judiciary and the military establishment are all party to this drama. Raymond Davis, the murderer of innocent Pakistanis has left the country; America, the mass murderer of innocent people all over the world, has struck Waziristan with a vengeance.
Prime Minister Gilani tells us that the drone attacks were 'irresponsible' and the government has protested to the US. And the bases from where the drones flew, where were they, Gilani Saheb? In India? Afghanistan? America?
If there were any doubts about the nature of power politics in Pakistan, the Raymond Davis drama has dispelled them. The politicians whether from the ruling party or the opposition will always be remembered as cowards of the highest order. The representatives of the judiciary will be remembered as unjust, the military as inadequate, and the mullahs as hypocritical.
They are all working according to their respective agendas. The politicians want to loot and plunder while the iron is hot. The judiciary wants to rock the boat but not to the point of drowning itself. The military wants to protect its self-created monsters in North Waziristan and Punjab; the mullahs want to use religion to attain power and blame America but not Saudi Arabia. They all have their own axes to grind.
No-one gives a toss about the people of Pakistan. They do not matter; their integrity is a joke, their dignity for sale. They are treated like commodities, used and discarded. They are a mild irritant in the way of the high and mighty and their desires. They are insects that the elite don't even notice when they crush them under their shoes. They once dared to dream of an independent country where they would live with dignity. They once believed that Jinnah's Pakistan will be better than Nehru's India. Today they are crushed, abused, broken and humiliated. Their blood is being spilled every day in the streets of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
But no one will ever ask for their forgiveness; no one will ever offer to pay their blood money in order to win freedom. They are nobodies, redundant, superfluous, and dispensable. They will remain uncounted, faceless and nameless for their life is not a matter of national interest for America or Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.
So let us then bow our heads and weep for the dreams that could not materialise. Let us bow our heads and weep for the self-respect lost along the way and for being betrayed by those we trusted with our lives and dreams; the ones we trusted with the future of our children. Let us weep for lost hopes and broken dreams. Above all, let us weep for never having the courage to stand up to the usurpers, the exploiters and the oppressors. Let us weep because our dreams were important to us but not that important.


The writer is a PhD student at Leicester, UK. Email: talatfarooq11@gmail.com

None of this should be a revelation.

YAWN. In other news, the sun will come up again tomorrow.

 

[VCheng]

from: Davis case: Federal, Punjab govts given 10 days to recover heirs | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday directed the federal and Punjab governments to recover the heirs of Faizan Haider and Faheem — the two young men shot dead by CIA contractor Raymond Davis on January 27 — in 10 days’ time, DawnNews reported.

The court issued the directive during the hearing of a petition filed by a lawyer, Malik Munsif Awan. The petitioner had stated that the families of the two men had ‘gone missing’ after the release of Davis in the double-murder case.

The directive was issued after LHC’s Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry rejected the request of the federation’s lawyers for three weeks’ time to submit the government’s reply with regard to the status of the heirs.

The hearing was subsequently adjourned to April 12.

In his petition, Munsif Awan had apprehended that the families of the two men were kidnapped and kept in illegal detention. He had also submitted, quoting media reports, that the families had a huge amount of Rs200 million that they had received as blood money with them and their lives could be in danger.

The petitioner had also stated that there were also apprehensions that they were forced to accept the blood money for the release of Davis. Munsif Awan had therefore requested the court to summon authorities concerned and direct them to ‘recover’ the victims’ families and present them in the court.

 

[VCheng]

from: US not directly involved in blood money deal, says victim

KARACHI: The elder brother of Fahim, who was killed along with his friend by a CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore, said they were under no pressure to strike the blood money deal and that the United States was not directly involved in the deal.

While talking exclusively to DawnNews from an undisclosed location, Akram said that government officials had told them about the pros and cons of continuing with the case and we took the decision of accepting the money for the sake of Pakistan.

He declined to answer a question about the involvement of the Punjab government in the case and said that he did not know about it.

He said his family had gone into hiding after the deal because of security concerns.

Akram said his family was not coming out because they feared hostility from the public. My family will come out of hiding in due time, he added.

 

[PoKeMon]

from: US not directly involved in blood money deal, says victim

KARACHI: The elder brother of Fahim, who was killed along with his friend by a CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Lahore, said they were under no pressure to strike the blood money deal and that the United States was not directly involved in the deal.

While talking exclusively to DawnNews from an undisclosed location, Akram said that government officials had told them about the pros and cons of continuing with the case and we took the decision of accepting the money for the sake of Pakistan.

He declined to answer a question about the involvement of the Punjab government in the case and said that he did not know about it.

He said his family had gone into hiding after the deal because of security concerns.

Akram said his family was not coming out because they feared hostility from the public. My family will come out of hiding in due time, he added.

What did official told him? That pakistan will be doomed by US in case they let the law take its course??
Emotional atayachar on family. The future of pakistan were put on their shoulders and they said no pressure!!!!!

 

[VCheng]

What I find interesting is the deafening silence after RD's release. All those champions of righteousness don't want to see the mirror anymore!