Pakistan's intelligence ready to split with CIA

[t-birds]

Spy war threatens Pakistan-US ties

Spy war threatens Pakistan-US ties | Newspaper | DAWN.COM

CIA director Leon Panetta. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD: Four weeks into the Raymond Davis affair, an ongoing and very public spat between the ISI and the CIA threatens to engulf the fraught relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

Partners in the war on militancy, the two spy agencies have never had an easy relationship. But ties hit a new low after the revelation that Davis was part of a clandestine CIA network operating in Pakistani cities.

“We feel betrayed by the CIA operations behind our back,” said an ISI official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

ISI officials claim more than 50 CIA agents are still active in the country and are involved in intensive intelligence gathering without the knowledge of the ISI. “The Davis affair is just a tip of the iceberg,” commented one senor official.

The tensions were further set to escalate in recent days when the ISI prepared a statement — held back from publication at the last moment — in which the agency accused the CIA of being ‘arrogant’ and not showing ‘respect to the host country’.

The unprecedented riposte was meant to counter a comment made by an unidentified CIA official to an American newspaper that the ISI had suspended its cooperation.

However, repeated telephone contacts between CIA chief Leon Panetta and his Pakistani counterpart, Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, in the past week helped prevent a complete breakdown in the relationship.

The meeting last week in Oman between General Kayani and the top US military leadership also helped lower tensions. Although the Oman meeting had been long planned to review the situation in Afghanistan, discussions also focused on the fallout of the detention of the CIA contractor on the relations between the two allies.

According to some high-level sources, the meeting showed the determination of both sides not to let the Davis affair bring down the strategic ties between the two countries. “Sanity has prevailed,” claimed an ISI official.

Relations between the ISI and the CIA, rebuilt after 9/11, have been close in some areas, but a deep mistrust on both sides has remained. “It was a dysfunctional marriage at best,” conceded a Pakistani official.

In recent months, the tensions had once again escalated. A summons issued against Gen Pasha to appear in a New York court in connection with a private lawsuit centring on the Mumbai attacks was followed by the unmasking of the identity of the CIA station chief in Islamabad, forcing him to leave Pakistan.

But even before, for at least the past couple of years, some Pakistani newspapers have been publishing stories leaked by the ISI regarding the influx of US security contractors in large numbers. “They have to dismantle those networks if they really want our cooperation,” said an ISI official. “We have warned them that they cannot do things behind our backs.”

At present, there are some indications Washington is increasingly looking towards the Pakistani military leadership to help resolve the Davis affair. A possible reason is a feeling in Washington that the civilian government here is too weak and unpopular to deliver on the Davis issue.

Further complicating the issue, however, are the divergences between the civil and military leaderships in Pakistan. The military and the ISI now publicly criticise the civilian government’s decision to relax visa policies, a move that has led, according to the military, to scores of undercover US intelligence officials entering the country.

An ISI official claimed that 400 visa applications were processed by Pakistan’s embassy in Washington over a single weekend after the government on July 14, 2010, removed the requirement for intelligence vetting.

But some senior government officials privately blame the ISI for trying to instigate public opinion on the Davis issue.

The multiple power centres in the country has been a major reason for the Davis affair becoming a politically volatile issue, making it more difficult to find a diplomatic solution.

After an initial tough position, the Obama administration seemed willing to step back and negotiate an out of court settlement that would have included a public apology for the incident, the promise of a criminal investigation into the killings under US laws and the payment of compensation to the families of the victims.

But now, four weeks into the crisis, a resolution appears as distant as ever. Privately American diplomats believe it may take months for the Davis issue to be resolved.

“And it will take years to repair the damage the issue has done to Pak-US relations,” said an American diplomat.

 

[foxhound]

Salaam......

ref:This CIA agent is no diplomat | Craig Murray | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

This CIA agent is no diplomatThe US says Raymond Davis should have immunity in Pakistan. Just another attempt to flout the rule of law outside its borders

Share Comments (2)
Craig Murray guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 February 2011 18.12 GMT Article history
Pakistani security officials escort Raymond Davis to a court in Lahore. Photograph: Hamza Ahmed/AP

I tread with some caution in discussing the case of Raymond Davis, the CIA agent facing charges of double murder in Pakistan and the threat of the death penalty. I add my plea to the voices urging the Pakistani government to ensure Davis does not hang.

But one thing I can state for certain: Davis (as we will call him for now) is not a diplomat and does not possess diplomatic immunity. There is some doubt as to who he really is, with the charges against him in Pakistan including one that he obtained documents using a false identity.
Watching Barack Obama's presidency has been a stream of bitter disappointments. His endorsement of Davis as "our diplomat" and invocation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations was, in its sheer dishonesty, as sad an Obama moment as any.

As a general rule, international treaties are written in very plain language and are very accessible. That is certainly true of the Vienna convention. Unfortunately I can see scant evidence that any journalists have bothered to read it.

Leaving aside staff of international organisations recognised by the host country as having diplomatic status (and there has been no claim yet that Davis was actually working for Unicef), in bilateral diplomatic relations the provision for diplomatic immunity is tightly limited to a very small number of people. That makes sense when you consider that if Davis did have diplomatic immunity, he would indeed be able to avoid detention and trial on a murder charge. The world community is not going to make that impunity readily available.

Full diplomatic immunity is enjoyed only by "diplomatic agents". Those are defined at article 1 (e) of the Vienna convention as "the head of the mission or a member of the diplomatic staff of the mission". Helpfully the diplomatic staff are further defined in the preceding article as "having diplomatic rank". Those ranks are an ascending series of concrete titles from third secretary through to ambassador or high commissioner. Davis did not have a diplomatic rank.

But there is a second category of "administrative and technical staff" of a mission. They enjoy a limited diplomatic immunity which, however, specifically excludes "acts performed outside the course of their duties". (Vienna convention article 37/2.) Frantic off-the-record briefing by the state department reflected widely in the media indicates that the US case is that Davis was a member of technical staff covered by this provision.

But in that case the US has to explain in the course of precisely which diplomatic duties Davis needed to carry a Glock handgun, a headband-mounted flashlight and a pocket telescope. The Vienna convention lists the legitimate duties of an embassy, and none of them need that kind of equipment.

It appears in any event unlikely that Davis ever was a member of the technical staff of the embassy or consulate. Under article 10 of the Vienna convention the host authorities must be formally informed – by diplomatic note – of the arrival and departures of such staff, and as embassies under article 11 are subject to agreed numerical limits, that in practice occurs when another member of staff is leaving. If this was not done Davis was not covered even in the course of his duties.

Pakistani senior ex-military sources tell me there is no note appointing Davis as embassy or consulate staff, and that appears to pass a commonsense test – if the note exists, why have the Americans not produced it?

Finally, possession of a diplomatic passport does not give you diplomatic status all over the world.

I hope this helps clarify a position that the US government, and the media it influences, have deliberately muddied. Sadly this whole episode reflects the US's continuing contempt for the basic fabric of international law. It sits with its refusal to sign up to the international criminal court so that US citizens may not be held accountable for war crimes, with its acknowledged overseas assassination programme, its one-sided extradition treaties and claims of extra-territorial jurisdiction over offences committed outside the US.
We hoped it might get better under Obama. It is not.

"We've got a very simple principle here that every country in the world that is party to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations has upheld in the past and should uphold in the future, and that is, if our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution," Obama said in a press conference. "We expect Pakistan, that's a signatory and recognises Davis as a diplomat, to abide by the same convention ... I'm not going to discuss the specific exchanges that we've had [with the Pakistani government], but we've been very firm about this being a priority."


good point made by a reader.....'don't quite get why you feel disappointed with obams's presidency, the clue is in his title 'president of the united states' whether they are carpet bombing vietnam and cambodia, overthrowing democratic governments, eg chile, invading any country they feel like, or asking for the extradition of gary mckinnon, us presidents are always....right? god is always on their side'.

 

[foxhound]

ref:Forty-five arrested for having links with Davis | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

Forty-five arrested for having links with DavisDAWN.COM
(5 hours ago) TodayUS consulate employee Raymond Davis is escorted by police and officials out of court after facing a judge in Lahore. – Photo by Reuters (File)

ISLAMABAD: The law enforcement agencies arrested 45 individuals for staying in constant contact with Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore last month, DawnNews reported on Monday.

The individuals had been arrested from Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar and their contact information was taken from Davis’ mobile phone. Investigations were underway.
On January 27, Raymond Davis, a staffer at the US consulate-general in Lahore, shot dead two Pakistani men who he said were trying to rob him in broad daylight on the streets of the city.

A third Pakistani was run over and killed by a US consular vehicle coming to aid Davis, who was instead taken into Pakistani police custody.

But in what has become a political time-bomb, the government in Islamabad is under enormous domestic pressure to see Davis go on trial and local lawyers argue that diplomatic immunity can be waived for grave crimes.
The deaths sparked protests in Pakistan, where the alliance with Washington is hugely unpopular and anti-American sentiment runs high, fuelled by US missile attacks on militants in the northwest.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Oh, I get it. You have trouble dealing with the idea that the CIA is a law-abiding (at least by U.S. law) organization that is accountable to democratic superiors, rather than the plot-behind-the-scenes-for-evil organization you learn about in Pakistan's media.

Well, you wouldn't be the first Pakistani to react that way! (Maybe you guys should form a support group!) Even some Americans have trouble with this, though currently we aren't cursed with a mainstream media that engages in the sort of blatant invention that I read about in Dawn.

Maybe I once had such media blindness as well. Luckily the U.S. government process is rather open. It is quite possible for ordinary citizens and foreign observers to do what I have done several times and attend, say, congressional committee hearings in person and in the evening watch media coverage of the same event and notice the differences between one's own observations and those of the reporters - especially what they choose to omit for the purposes of furthering controversy and dissent. It can be a REAL eye-opener! Nowadays most people satisfy themselves by watching C-SPAN, but that still doesn't tell you enough about the commercial media.

For sometimes it isn't even necessary to wait for the nightly news. I don't think anything prepared me for that moment when, in one hearing, I was face-to-face with one of America's most prominent female TV news anchors, wearing not the calm demeanor I was used to but a mouth twisted in hatred, who then proposed to her crew that they all break for dinner rather than stay to cover a fine speech by George Shultz (Secretary of State under Pres. Reagan) that met with bipartisan approval. No trace of that speech ever hit the airwaves.

Two things Intell ops are highly covert and classified and are are never subjected to be even a commentery of mainstream media unless the bullet has been compleetely used. Further if the US gov workings are so open and transparent then how come the intell commetti was blinded when It presented Iraqi regime as persuing WMDS and now after killing so many Iraqis , Bombing there nation to stone age and leaving behind a state of anarchy and civil war ,They say it was an intell failure or perhaps some retard muslums will burndown the effiges of george bush or rumsfeild which CNN will elegantly cover. But would that all make Iraq the same for the comming generation .NO SIR..!! Plus why was OBL allowed to flee Tora Bora.What were the Real objectives used to initiate Afghan War.Isnt the intell comitti or congress aware of the fact that US is currently supporting a highly corrupt gov whose neck down in the cocain and heroin export buisness.The US gov working is full of deciet and deception and congrssional hearings are nothing but eye wash.The Truth never makes it to the front page and is kept hidden behind layers of disstorted facts and baseless informations , something which many self righteous Americans could easily buy.
They are the ones who deviate the searching eye of public scrutiny to hide the deed of handfull of few who dominate the top slot.

Pakistani society, with decaying law-and-order, with a police force that knows many things very quickly but cannot secure convictions because of political interference or sloppiness or corruption - I imagine such a society would tend to be dominated by bullies. And people always hate the biggest bully the most. And America is portrayed as the biggest baddest bully, isn't it? The displaced focus of all the injustices and bullyings you've ever experienced, right? Well, do try to get a grip and see how you are being manipulated by those in Pakistan who seek to divert the searching eye of public scrutiny to hide their deeds from democratic accountability.

Political interfereance and Corruption are the Norms of American Police too.How can the Police work honestly if they get direction from an Interiors ministry whose head is directly under the command of American dictate paased on to US embassy through langlay or whatever..
In all the Davis fiasco America has rightly come forward as the number one bully in the Pakistani Political spheres , the All controlling Entity. Injustice being done with the famillies of victims by a cold blooded murderor and 80 year prison gifted to DR Afia siddiqui Killing manny innocent Pakistanis through hell fire from a freakin drone controlled from Navada depicts something which is for everyone to see.

Having said all that i do stand by the fact that US came out outstandingly to help Pakistan in time of crises during disastorous Floods.Further alot of programes sponcerd through US AID are very much making a differance and all the help US extended to Pakistan when it faced the danger of being invaded by the Soviets.

But Seriously , rigorously backing up the case of Davis will be hugely counterproductive and greatly undermine all those efforts which US is making to lay down a keel to establish healthy , prosperous and firm ties with GOP in general and Pakistani Nation on the whole.

Do try to get a grip of this if you ever could.

 

[Omar1984]

CIA has done nothing for ISI. There are anti-pakistan forces operating openly in Afghanistan. India's RAW, BLA, and terrorist Brahamdagh Bugti are all in Afghanistan creating problems in Balochistan Province of Pakistan.

ISI should work for getting rid of CIA and RAW out of Pakistan and Afghanistan. If ISI works for CIA's interests, it will indirectly work for RAW's interests, as CIA and RAW have the same interests in the region.

 

[Pak_Sher]

Post-Davis , 30 US spies halt covert mission, flee Pakistan


ISLAMABAD: At least 30 suspected covert US operatives have suspended their activities in Pakistan and 12 have left the country following the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis late last month, a media report said on Monday.

In the wake of Davis' arrest in Lahore on January 27 for gunning down two men, Pakistan's intelligence agencies began scrutinising records of Americans living in the country and discovered "several discrepancies" .

This caused "many suspected US operatives to maintain a low profile and others to leave the country" , the Express Tribune newspaper quoted its sources as saying.

The foreign ministry says there are 851 Americans with diplomatic immunity in Pakistan , of whom 297 are not working in a diplomatic capacity . Interior ministry sources said that the number of US non-diplomats is 414.

The majority of these "special Americans" , as the interior ministry refers to them, are concentrated in Islamabad, while others live in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

Interior ministry records state most of the "special Americans" live in upscale neighbourhoods in Islamabad and Lahore, with smaller presences in Karachi and Peshawar , the report said.

Most of these Americans are "suspected of being operatives of US intelligence agencies who are on covert missions in Pakistan" and report to the US Joint Special Operations Command, according to the sources.


Post-Davis , 30 US spies halt covert mission, flee Pakistan - The Times of India

 

[RazorMC]

I laughed at the Pak-US relationship part.
All they did was to offer us loans at high interest rates so they can get rich through our poverty. India gets the Nuclear-deal plua we get labelled as "terrorists" by our so-called ally.

I have never heard any American praise Pakistan's effort against terrorism. They say a few good words about it then they immediately start the "Do-More" mantra. They wanted Mujahideen in Afghanistan and used Pakistan for it. Now their history reads that chapter as a Pak operation with US help only.

LOL

If US is our sincere friend, then we need no other enemy.

 

[Solomon2]

Two things Intell ops are highly covert and classified and are are never subjected to be even a commentery of mainstream media unless the bullet has been compleetely used.

Wrong. There are a lot of leaks. The press can only be prosecuted for revealing stuff like codebooks. Otherwise, only their sources can be prosecuted - but a lot of the time the leaks are authorized.

Further if the US gov workings are so open and transparent then how come the intell commetti was blinded when It presented Iraqi regime as persuing WMDS

As near as I can tell as an outside observer the CIA did the best job they could, given the fact that Saddam's 1980s program was a confirmed fact, physical facilities did exist, and key Iraqi sources admitted to lying with the intent of encouraging the U.S. to invade and depose Saddam.

and now after killing so many Iraqis , Bombing there nation to stone age and leaving behind a state of anarchy and civil war

I disagree with this characterization. Once the U.S. invaded Al-Qaeda shifted its operations from S. Asia (giving Pakistan a few years of comparative peace) to Iraq where it was defeated. Iraq now has a functioning, if shaky, democracy: IRAQ THE MODEL

Plus why was OBL allowed to flee Tora Bora.

As I understand it, the U.S. could not bring enough ground troops to bear so quickly, so far from the sea, road, and rail, and at such altitude. The U.S. may have counted on local tribes to capture him but OBL simply bribed his way out.

What were the Real objectives used to initiate Afghan War.

To keep Afghanistan from being used as a terror base against the U.S. and to enable the Afghans to stand up to terrorism on their own. The second part is what Pakistan has trouble with.

Isnt the intell comitti or congress aware of the fact that US is currently supporting a highly corrupt gov whose neck down in the cocain and heroin export buisness.

Probably.

The US gov working is full of deciet and deception and congrssional hearings are nothing but eye wash...The Truth never makes it to the front page and is kept hidden behind layers of disstorted facts and baseless informations

People can go to jail for lying to Congress. link As I've pointed out, the only deception I've discovered at congressional hearings is that of the mass media which reports on them.

Political interfereance and Corruption are the Norms of American Police too.How can the Police work honestly if they get direction from an Interiors ministry -

I suppose this could be true of Pakistan or even Britain. But I never heard of any police in the U.S. taking direction from the Interior Dept. or failing to prosecute somebody because of FBI corruption.

In all the Davis fiasco America has rightly come forward as the number one bully in the Pakistani Political spheres , the All controlling Entity.

Ah, so I have guessed right. You're taking the easy way out by blaming the U.S. But the "easy way out" is what I think of Pakistani behavior in general. If you're the best Pakistan has to offer and you remain wedded to this foolish belief it'll be another generation before Pakistanis can rise up to the level of today's Arabs and realize that their country is their own and they need not put up with injustice imposed on them by their own corrupt officials. That will happen when individual Pakistanis, here and there, decide to take the battle personally rather than writhe their hands in feigned impotence or shake their fists at the U.S. Which side will you be on, Nitro, and how long will it take you to get there?

rigorously backing up the case of Davis will be hugely counterproductive and greatly undermine all those efforts which US -

No, it is a maturing exercise for Pakistan's polity. Judging from the latest Shafi you're still sinking. Isn't it time for some fresh air?

 

[SMC]

I laughed at the Pak-US relationship part.
All they did was to offer us loans at high interest rates so they can get rich through our poverty. India gets the Nuclear-deal plua we get labelled as "terrorists" by our so-called ally.

I have never heard any American praise Pakistan's effort against terrorism. They say a few good words about it then they immediately start the "Do-More" mantra. They wanted Mujahideen in Afghanistan and used Pakistan for it. Now their history reads that chapter as a Pak operation with US help only.

LOL

If US is our sincere friend, then we need no other enemy.

Don't worry, the US will be taught a lesson it shall never forget. A well deserved one too for a state as heinous as the US state. Their soldiers will be begging to get out of Afghanistan.

 

[53fd]

^^^ I feel bad for the American soldiers, they are regular people caught up in a shameful war. I hope the American forces don't prolong this painful journey, both for the Afghan people and themselves. I hope the US withdraws their troops ASAP, as some of the other countries are already doing. They have caused enough harm at the behest of their government. It is the neocons that want to prolong this war, and don't care about the lives of the Afghans or the American people.

 

[khanz]

ISI should have split with them a long time ago CIA should be declared a terror organisation and blacklisted from pakistan

 

[muse]

I don't know if a "spit" is required - but this so called relationship is dangerous for Pakistan and for the US.

A lot of talk about immunity, sure if it's non-lethal stuff, here we have an operative shooting dead host country nationals in public - says a great deal about TTP the CIA uses in Pakistan and of course says much about the kind of country Pakistan is and the kinds of values that guide the men and women who command and control her institutions .

Lets the US go her own way, something she will do anyway - Sardar Daud's vision of a relationship with the US at the expense of Pakistan, is now reality, Pakistan should use that reality to it's advantage. While the indian will remain hostile for sometime to come, as with the minorities of Afghanistan, a little while longer (sooner or later the US will bring in the Pashtuns and the minorities of Afghanistan will be looking for friends other than the US), Pakistan has now a long term threat, of an ally turned enemy, at least as far US policy makers are concerned -- Again, Pakistan should devise strategy and tactics to take advantage of this.

 

[nightcrawler]

@Soloman
What are you trying to say ; just plainly state it without flowery language plz...

 

[Andross]

Best thing would be for ISI to split with CIA and America stop US tax aid to Pakistan win win for India

 

[Omar1984]

Best thing would be for ISI to split with CIA and America stop US tax aid to Pakistan win win for India

American aid has not benefited the common Pakistani person in any way. It only benefits Zardari's wallet.

And not a single penny from the Kerry-Lugar bill has arrived in Pakistan.

Pakistan is better off without carrot on a stick.