Pakistan’s Long War Has Just Begun

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-For Pakistanis, this is not time to feel embarrassed and to hang heads in shame over the simplicity and quickness of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. It is rather a time for a long overdue bugle cry that Pakistan is at war. 1/5 was not Pakistan’s Day inasmuch as 9/11 exposed the vulnerabilities in USA’s Homeland Security.

Writing in TheNation in December 2009, I had assessed the next 18 months and beyond as crucial for Pakistan and reiterated that “Pakistan must reassert itself” on February 20. I had written: “The next 18 months and beyond will test Pakistan to the verge.”

Between the 14th and 17th months, we have witnessed the Raymond Davis case, a drone attack on a peaceful jirga, a full-fledged conventional multi-directional night attack on a border outpost in Dir, a border skirmish at Angoor Adda and now the operation to kill Osama bin laden.

Writing an article, Pakistan: A Rudderless State, earlier in TheNation in November 2010, I had cautioned the security planners of Pakistan to beware of the Cold Start-type operations from across the Durand Line. I had also written about the heavily fortified US and ISAF citadels in Afghanistan that would be used as pivots of such operations against Pakistan. No one in our security establishment and the media took notice of the warnings.

2009-2010 had been remarkable years of Pakistan’s fight against militancy. During this time, joint intelligence operations led by Pakistan had resulted in the elimination of numerous prized targets both from TTP and Al-Qaeda. The efficiency of information gathering was such that many high value targets deemed missing and believed to be killed had been brought back into focus and neutralised, some amongst them US nationals. But by mid-2010, this cooperation began to wane due to the direct influx of the CIA agents into Pakistan. Since this influx was not a part of the working agreements between the ISI and CIA, Pakistan’s security establishment felt that they were being stabbed in the back.

Counter security efforts, on part of Pakistan, identified hundreds of locations in the country in which the US agents had located themselves inside Pakistan covertly. Some of these locations were heavily fortified and the activities inside them were always dubious. After much rallying, Pakistan was able to force the closure of some of these locations, but not all. Meanwhile, the network of CIA’s local informers was spreading, a reason why the agency forced budgetary reallocations for its operations in Pakistan. With huge funds to play around, the CIA could now buy off anyone, including Al-Qaeda agents whose data Pakistan had shared with the USA. They put tags on many such targets and monitored all their movements and places of visit. Consequently, what they have been able to track with their superior technical resources and heavy monetary disbursements is a trail of redoubts within Pakistan, where the militants have contacts and hiding places. Then came the Raymond Davis shooting and some issues became public.

There is definitely a trove of very important information that the US has extracted from shared sources and double crossing. One such is the hideout of Osama bin Laden, his courier trails and much more. The biggest vulnerability that Pakistan faces is that some of its own assets within this Al-Qaeda trail may have been exposed, or double crossed and could be used to blackmail Pakistan into coercion.

‘Huffing and Puffing’ from Washington

The current statements emanating from Washington remind us of a little story that we learned in the 3rd grade-”Well, he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he puffed and huffed; but he could not get the house down. When he found that he could not, with all his huffing and puffing, blow the house down…

“Pakistan was once called the most allied ally of the United States. We are now the most non-allied.”Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (As quoted in The New York Times(6 July 1973).

The current threats are all about the US defeat in Afghanistan and a face saving exit out of Kabul-and very little to do with Pakistan. The same sort of threats were doled out to Cambodia and Laos when the American General faced imminent eviction from Saigon.

The first time the US threatened Pakistan was in the Sixties when Ayub Khan shut down the US Badabare Air Force base near Peashawar (http://rupeenews.com/?p=578). Johns also threatened Ayub Khan and asked him to throw Bhutto out of his cabinet. More threats came from Nixon, Carter and then Bush’s famous “We will bomb you to the stone age”.

President Musharraf “agreed” to the seven demands but was always criticized for not living up to the promises. Since then there have been accusations and counter-accusations between Islamabad and Washington.

Mountbatten, Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Indira, Kruschev, Johnson, Carter, Kissinger (Nixon), Gorbachev, Clinton, Armitage, Vajpayee, Singh, Petraeus, Obama have all threatened Pakistan: The Pakistanis are used to it…so what else is new?

Khrushchev had red-lined Peshawar and threatened to obliterate Peshawar and Pakistan. The old story goes that on 17th December 1971 during the bleakest period of Islamabad’s history, the Kremlin sent a viscous telegram informing the Pakistanis that those who mess with the Soviets face a horrid end. The story also gos that on 17th December 1991, the day the USSR collapsed, the Pakistanis sent a mirror image of the old telegram back to Moscow, informing them that those who mess with Pakistan face an ignominious end-the Soviet Empire disintegrated after the USSR was defeated in Afghanistan.

A month ago a US drone strike killed 40 innocent tribal leaders who were discussing a domestic issues. That attack came one day after “Raymond Davis” was released. The dip in relations is palpable. Some think that “U.S.- Pakistan ties are entering an even more dangerous phase”. The rhetoric on both sides has increased and much of the “smoke and mirrors and some of it could be bluff and bluster” has been in public.

Foreign Policy magazine makes the explosive revelation that “Pakistani leaders want the United States to ‘bleed a little like the Soviets’ in Afghanistan”. According to “FP”, if the US continues the indiscriminate drone strikes unofficial Pakistanis are planning to disrupt NATO supply lines to Afghanistan.

As America prepares to withdraw from the country, the Pakistanis know that Washington will abandon the region once again. It therefore prepares for the future, a tighter relationship with China, closer ties with the Central Asian states, and deeper economic links with Turkey and Iran.

“The capacity of Pakistan to sustain some fifteen major disarticulations in polity, power, and structure and still preserve a national identity is a phenomenon one is tempted to explain by recourse to the supernatural Pakistan which has been pummelled by external events (three wars with India, (Bharati supported) secession of Bangladesh, 3.5 million Afghan refugees) and disrupted by (foreign instigated) fissures…to a degree which no other state established since 1945 has suffered. In this respect it stands as an exemplar of a nation whose adversities “common sense” might suggest make its viability impossible. Yet its continued existence defies the reality induced by such speculation. The enormity and persistence of these difficulties and the resilience of the nation in absorbing and somehow surviving them must be regarded with awe if not admiration.” Ralph Brainbanti. Add to this 30 years of US imposed war in Afghanistan, one of the biggest earthquakes in South Asia history, the 2009 floods, one of the worst natural calamity in human history, and bordered by a hegemony seeking country called India. All this makes Pakistani resilience the strongest on the planet-which Newsweek magazine called “The bravest Nation on Earth”.

The Wall Street Journal editorial wants Washington to give Pakistan another “Ultimatum” similar to the one Richard Armitage doled out in the aftermath of Sept. 11 attacks. The newspaper known for its right wing hawkish views as enunciated by the Rupert Murdock network has rankled feather in Islamabad. Its editorial titled “The Pakistan Ultimatum” is seen as the epitome of the “Yankee hubris” as represented in “The Ugly American”.

A dose of humility is in order-”I remember the atmosphere. It was: Well, here we are on top of the world, and we have arrived at this peak to stay there forever. There is, of course, a thing called history, but history is something unpleasant that happens to other people. We are comfortably outside all of that I am sure.” Arnold Toynbee, recounting his feelings at the age of eight when he was watching a parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the British throne.

In typical imperialist fashion the WSJ “Pakistan Ultimatum” goes something like this “Pakistan can choose to cooperate in that fight and reap the benefits of an American alliance. Or it can oppose the U.S. and reap the consequences, including the loss of military aid, special-ops and drone incursions into their frontier areas, and in particular a more robust U.S. military alliance with India.” It continues like this “In the wake of 9/11, the Bush Administration famously sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to Islamabad to explain that the U.S. was going to act forcefully to protect itself, and that Pakistan had to choose whose side it was on. It’s time to present Pakistan with the same choice again. With that kind of mood in Washington, it’s hard to see the allies burying the feud anytime soon.”

President Obama’s rhetoric in Delhi had no substance except to rile the Pakistanis. The Delhi card didn’t quite work. The Chinese Premier visited Islamabad and pledged $20 billion in investment in Pakistan during the next five years. How about them apples? The Pakistani retort is what it has always been we need “Friends Not Masters”.

Britain as a colonial power practiced “Divide and rule” pitting religious and ethnic differences in the Middle East to rule continents. Bhutto famously theorized that the post-colonial powers were working on a “unite and rule” strategy forcing Pakistan to work with India against China.

“The idea of becoming subservient to India is abhorrent and that of cooperation with India, with the object of promoting tension with China, equally repugnant.” Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Speaking to the West in Christian terms. Grandfather Bhutto does this eloquently.

“For Christians, the teaching and directives of Christ are more Sacred than those of a Messenger of God. According to the Christians, those teaching and directives are of God Himself. Most of the problems of the Third World would be solved if the Christian West implemented in letter and spirit only one directive of Jesus Christ.

The directive to “Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God that which belongs to God”.

The Third World only want what belongs to it and nothing more. For over two hundred years, the Christian civilization of the West has been mercilessly violating this directive of Jesus Christ. The West has been taking everything belonging to Ceasar and everything belonging to God. The West is not dividing the share equitably. It is not rendering to us what belongs to us. This division relates to the economic, social, racial and political rights of the Third World.” Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto A letter from the Death Cell (2007) p. 72

Washington is free to play the Delhi card whenever it desires-however it should be able to face the Tehran, Moscow an Beijing card which Pakistan holds near to its chest. Perhaps Bernard Lewis was right-maybe the Muslim alliance with the Confucian power is the future of the world. Rupert Murdock and the Neocons are more than most welcome to test it.

After all the huffing and puffing, the big bad wolf continue to threaten-and this is how the story ends.. “Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and declared he would eat up the little one, and that he would get down the chimney after him. When the little one saw what he was about, he hung on the pot full of water, and made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, took off the cover, and in fell the wolf; so the little pig put on the cover again in an instant, boiled him up, and ate him for supper, and lived happy ever afterwards.”

Most Pakistanis don’t want closer relations with Washington-they want to build closer relations with Beijing, and work on creating the Muslim Union (similar to the European Union) in Central Asia. Links with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey are key to the future of Pakistan.

Islamabad is moving ever closer to China, both militarily and economically- and that’s a fact Jack.

Books by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto:

Peace-Keeping by the United Nations. Pakistan Publishing House, Karachi. – 1967
Political Situation in Pakistan, Veshasher Prakashan, New Dehli. – 1968
The Myth of Independence, Oxford University Press, Karachi and Lahore. – 1969
The Great Tragedy, Pakistan People’s Party, Karachi. – 1971
Politics of the People (speeches, statements and articles),edited by Hamid Jalal and Khalid Hasan: Pakistan Publications, Rawalpindi. – 1948-1971
Speeches and Statements, Government of Pakistan, Karachi. – 1971-75
Bilateralism: New Directions. Government of Pakistan, Islamabad – 1976
The Third World: New Directions. Quartet Books, London. – 1977
My Pakistan.Biswin Sadi Publications, New Dehli. – 1979
If I am Assassinated,Vikas, New Dehli. – 1979
My Execution.Musawaat Weekly International, London – 1980
New Directions.Narmara Publishers, London. – 1980

CIA faces reduced role in Pakistan after murder row

* Analyst says ‘blood money’ a common practice in Pakistan
* CIA likely less free to conduct operations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s powerful spy agency appears to have gained the most from the CIA contractor’s release, by forcing the US agency to recognise its importance to the US effort in Afghanistan, and curtailing American activities in Pakistan.

A Pakistani court on Wednesday acquitted CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, 36, of murder charges and released him after a deal that involved paying compensation – ‘blood money’ – to the victims’ families. Davis shot and killed two men he said were trying to rob him in Lahore on January 27.

The revelation of armed CIA contractors working in Pakistan deeply angered and embarrassed the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“Very clearly, the ISI was upset because it’s a parallel network of intelligence the US appears to have set up,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, a military analyst. The ISI wants the US to rein in contractors like Davis and clear any monitoring of militant groups with it first. “They want to keep a close eye on the American operations,” she said, adding, “There might be an agreement. If you want information on these guys, we’ll provide it.” Pakistan is considered vital to the American-led effort to stabilise Afghanistan and prevent it from again becoming an al Qaeda sanctuary.

The cooperation of the Pakistani military and ISI is critical in tackling militant hideouts on the Pakistani side of the border. “Any rapprochement between the CIA and the ISI has at its heart one idea,” Siddiqa said, adding, “Whatever you do in Afghanistan, we have to be at the centre of it, we have to be involved.”

A US official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that relations with Pakistan had taken a hit, especially regarding cooperation in Afghanistan and addressing the country’s dire economic condition, but Washington hoped to get the relationship back on track. “What was the price we paid?” the official said. “We could have made a lot more progress in that time if we hadn’t been concentrating on Davis.”

‘Blood money’ – called diyat – is a common and accepted practice in Islamic law and Pakistan’s criminal code. The US for weeks argued that Davis had diplomatic immunity, but eventually settled on diyat as a solution to get him released.

According to the diyat agreement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, the families of Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad were each paid 100 million rupees ($1.17 million) to be distributed among the family members. The expected fury at Davis’ release has yet to fully materialise, indicating the public largely accepts the payment.

“I don’t see any reason for protesting on this issue,” said Muhammad Ahsan, a final year student at an Islamic school in Karachi. “If we have to protest, we need to protest against the overall policies of the government and their unequal relationship with the US, but we can’t protest against the family for taking blood money. It is their right,” he added. “Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies are also likely to be calming the religious parties, with which they have close ties and which have been loudest in calling for Davis’

head,” Siddiqa said.

In the hours following the news of Davis’ release on Wednesday night, only fitful demonstrations flared up around the country.

Some 50 protesters tried to enter the US consulate in Lahore, but were beaten back by police.

Outside the Karachi Press Club, between 100 and 150 members of a hard-line Islamic political party staged a protest. In Islamabad, 12 people chanted slogans outside the Press Club.

“On Thursday, small protests of students and religious parties occurred in Karachi, Multan, Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad, but no more than 200 or 300 people attended any single protest,” witnesses said. “I think the issue will just die down in a week or two,” said Mahmoodul Hassan, a general store owner in a middle class Karachi neighbourhood. “We are not Egypt, we don’t have the guts to come out on the streets and throw out the government,” he added.

Davis’ release challenged in SC, LHC

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Supreme Court (SC) and Lahore High Court (LHC), through separate petitions, have been moved against the release of US national Raymond Allen Davis, who was acquitted of the double murder charges by a lower court after a deal to pay “blood money” to the victims’ families was reached on Wednesday.

The petition, in the apex court, has been filed by Advocate Maulvi Iqbal Haider and the one in the high court by Barrister Iqbal Jaffery.

Haider has moved his plea under Article 184(3) of the constitution, making the federation, Punjab government, home secretary and Punjab prosecutor general, Additional District and Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Muhammad Yousaf Aujla, the accused American through the US Embassy in Islamabad and Lytton Road Police Station SHO as respondents.

The petitioner has appealed to the apex court to declare the offence of Davis as non trial-able before an AD&SJ, arguing that the foreigner’s offence of killing two civilians in broad daylight in Lahore on January 27, had to be tried by an anti-terrorism court and thus “the AD&SJ’s order is void and has no legal effect”.

CIA, ISI cooperation scaled back after Davis episode

ISLAMABAD: Cooperation between the American and Pakistani spy agencies has been scaled back because of an incident involving a CIA contractor shooting two Pakistanis, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Thursday.

The possible presence of more CIA contractors like Davis worries the ISI.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad said the case of Raymond Davis had strained but not broken relations between the CIA and the Inter-Services Intelligences (ISI) because the ISI didn’t know about Davis before he shot and killed two Pakistanis on Jan 27 in Lahore.

“It’s not business as usual; it’s not open war,” the official told Reuters. “Cooperation and operations together will continue at a lesser scale.”

Another intelligence official denied rumours that the two agencies were not working together. “We are not ready to split,” he said. “There has been a patch up because we have both realised that in the larger interest of the region and the war on terrorism, CIA and ISI must work together.”

An Associated Press story, however, construes that Pakistan’s premier spy agency is ready to split with the CIA because of frustration over what it calls heavy-handed pressure and its anger over what it believes is a covert US operation involving hundreds of contract spies. The AP cites a document it has obtained as the basis of its conclusion.

The case of 36-year-old Davis, a former US special forces officer, has strained the already-uneasy alliance between the US and Pakistan, who are supposed to be united in the face of militants waging a war in Afghanistan.

The possible presence of more CIA contractors like Davis worries the ISI because they don’t know how many there are, their identities or their duties. Officials say there could be “hundreds”.

“We are concerned,” the first official told Reuters. “We don’t know how many and we have asked them (CIA) to give this information to us. But they haven’t done that yet.”

It is widely thought the CIA is running a network of spies in Pakistan for a number of reasons: identifying militant targets for a campaign of strikes by unmanned drone aircraft, gathering intelligence on militant groups and on Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

Downward spiral

Signs of strain were evident in a letter the ISI sent to the Wall Street Journal in response to an article the newspaper published on the tension between the agencies.

“It is regrettable that CIA leadership on many occasions has failed to show respect to the relationship of the two agencies and has acted with arrogance towards ISI which has resulted in weakening the relationship on which it is entirely dependent,” the ISI said, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

“Involvement of CIA with Raymond Davis is beyond any shadow of doubt. Post incident conduct of CIA has virtually put the partnership into question. Irrespective of the commonality of objectives in this war on terror, it is hard to predict if the relationship will ever reach the level at which it was prior to the Davis episode.”

Pakistan’s intelligence ready to split with CIA

By: KATHY GANNON and ADAM GOLDMAN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s ISI spy agency is ready to split with the CIA because of frustration over what it calls heavy-handed pressure and its anger over what it believes is a covert U.S. operation involving hundreds of contract spies, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with U.S. and Pakistani officials.

Such a move could seriously damage the U.S war effort in Afghanistan, limit a program targeting al-Qaida insurgents along the Pakistan frontier, and restrict Washington’s access to information in the nuclear-armed country.

According to a statement drafted by the ISI, supported by interviews with officials, an already-fragile relationship between the two agencies collapsed following the shooting death of two Pakistanis by Raymond Davis, a U.S. contracted spy who is in jail in Pakistan facing possible multiple murder charges.

“Post-incident conduct of the CIA has virtually put the partnership into question,” said a media statement prepared by the ISI but never released. A copy was obtained this week by the AP.

The statement accused the CIA of using pressure tactics to free Davis.

“It is hard to predict if the relationship will ever reach the level at which it was prior to the Davis episode,” the statement said. “The onus of not stalling this relationship between the two agencies now squarely lies on the CIA.”

The ISI fears there are hundreds of CIA contracted spies operating in Pakistan without the knowledge of either the Pakistan government or the intelligence agency, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told the AP in an interview. He spoke only on condition he not be identified on grounds that exposure would compromise his security.

Pakistan intelligence had no idea who Davis was or what he was doing when he was arrested, the official said, adding that there are concerns about “how many more Raymond Davises are out there.”

Davis was arrested Jan. 27 in Lahore after shooting two Pakistanis. A third Pakistani was killed by a U.S. Consulate vehicle coming to assist the American. Pakistan demanded the driver be handed over, but the AP has learned the two U.S. employees in the car now are in the United States.

Davis has pleaded self-defense, but the Lahore police upon completing their investigation said they would seek murder charges. The ISI official told the AP that Davis had contacts in the tribal regions and knew both the men he shot. He said the ISI is investigating the possibility that the encounter on the streets of Lahore stemmed from a meeting or from threats to Davis.

U.S. officials deny Davis had prior contact with the men before the incident, and CIA spokesman George Little said any problems between the two agencies will be sorted out.

“The CIA works closely with our Pakistani counterparts on a wide range of security challenges, including our common fight against al-Qaida and its terrorist allies,” he said. “The agency’s ties to ISI have been strong over the years, and when there are issues to sort out, we work through them. That’s the sign of a healthy partnership.”

The CIA repeatedly has tried to penetrate the ISI and learn more about Pakistan’s nuclear program. The ISI has mounted its own operations to gather intelligence on the CIA’s counterterrorism activities

The ISI is now scouring thousands of visas issued to U.S. employees in Pakistan. The ISI official said Davis’ visa application contains bogus references and phone numbers. He said thousands of visas were issued to U.S. Embassy employees over the past five months following a government directive to the Pakistan Embassy in Washington to issue visas without the usual vetting by the interior ministry and the ISI. The same directive was issued to the Pakistan embassies in Britain and the United Arab Emirates, he said.

Within two days of receiving that directive, the Pakistani Embassy issued 400 visas and since then thousands more have been issued, said the ISI official. A Western diplomat in Pakistan agreed that a “floodgate” opened for U.S. Embassy employees requesting Pakistani visas.

The ISI official said his agency knows and works with “the bona fide CIA people in Pakistan” but is upset that the CIA would send others over behind its back. For now, he said, his agency is not talking with the CIA at any level, including the most senior.

To regain support and assistance, he said, “they have to start showing respect, not belittling us, not being belligerent to us, not treating us like we are their lackeys.”

NATO and U.S. operations in Afghanistan could be adversely effected by a split between the ISI and the CIA. Washington complains bitterly about Pakistan’s refusal to go after the Pakistani-headquartered Haqqani network, which is believed to be the strongest fighting force in Afghanistan and closely allied with al-Qaida.

The ISI official said Pakistan is fed up with Washington’s complaints, and he accused the CIA of planting stories about ISI assistance to the Haqqani network.

Relations between the CIA and ISI have been on a downward slide since the name of the U.S. agency’s station chief in Pakistan was leaked in a lawsuit accusing him of killing civilians in a drone strike.

Fearing for his safety, the CIA eventually pulled the station chief out of the country. ISI leaders balked at allegations that they outed the CIA top spy in their country. Former and current U..S. officials believe the station chief fell out of favor, but the Pakistanis say this is not the case

Those accusations and the naming of ISI chief Shujah Pasha in a civil lawsuit in the United States – filed by family members of victims of a November 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, by insurgents – started the downslide in relations, the ISI official said.

To help repair the crucial relationship, the CIA earlier this year dispatched a very senior officer to be the new station chief who was previously the head of the European Division, one of the most important jobs in the National Clandestine Service, the agency’s spy arm.

The spy agencies have overcome lows before. During President George W. Bush’s first term, the ISI became enraged after it shared intelligence with the United States, only to learn that the then-CIA station chief passed that information to the British. The incident caused a serious row, one that threatened the CIA’s relationship with the ISI and deepened the levels of distrust between the two sides. At the time Pakistan almost threw the CIA station chief out of the country.

Raymond Davis, an American “Tweetie Bird”

By: SYED ZAIDI

The Raymond Davis murders – American empire comes unhinged

FOR THE BENEFIT OF MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

About a year ago Gordon Duff and Jeff Gates, both associated with the Veterans Today website, and both well-connected with the Pentagon and the Pakistani military, visited the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the company of top Pakistani army officers. They heard the complaints and saw the evidence that the US, Israel and India had secretly created and were arming and nurturing the so-called Pakistani Taliban (TTP – Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) insurgency.

Duff and Gates noticed that a great many of the supposed aid projects that were claimed to be German were actually manned by Western and Israeli Jews. The Pakistanis couldn’t tell the difference, but these Americans obviously could. The private armies run by contractors such as Xe (the new name for Blackwater), it turns out, are under Zionist control. The effort to break up nuclear-armed Muslim Pakistan is most of all a Zionist project.

As Christopher Bollyn has pointed out, the main aim of the American war effort in Afghanistan, brought about by the Zionist-engineered 9/11 event, is for the benefit of ostensibly Israeli-owned (and ultimately Rothschild-et -al-controlled and -owned) gas, mineral and heroin interests in Central Asia.

The late Richard “Holbrooke” (hiding behind an olde Englishe name his father was not born to) turns out to have been a relative of the Rothschilds. And his replacement is one Mr Grossman, who will no doubt prove to link to the same networks. The Raymond Davis incident points to the unhinging of American, really Zionist, empire, in this zone as much as in the Arab world.

Since Obama and Hilary are, like 99% of American politicians, totally the creatures of Zionists, it comes as no surprise that they are going all out to try to keep a lid on this incident. Both have put their prestige on the line in support of the absurd claim that Davis must be given diplomatic immunity under the Vienna conventions. The State Department conveyed through an American TV channel a threat to expel the Pakistani ambassador. Now they are threatening to cut off US aid.

It’s not working.

America does have the support of Pakistani president Zardari – no wonder: they probably helped him murder his wife to make a claim for the presidency, and they helped get all the cases against him dropped so that the Swiss would release his massive accounts. Zardari has sacked – thus making a hero of – the foreign minister for opposing the release of Davis.

But there is not that much more within his power to do. If he did get close to getting Davis freed, the army would once more take over the country. Meanwhile, with or without the help of the latest American / Israeli torture technology, Davis is reported to be singing like Tweetie.

Raymond Davis – US Blackmails Pakistan

By Sajjad Shaukat

Controversial debate continues between Pakistan and the United States in connection with the arrest of American national, Raymond Davis who is an under-cover secret agent of American CIA, and has become a symbol of anti-American resentment in Pakistan because of the dreadful murder of two innocent Pakistanis in Lahore and subsequent suicide by the wife of one of his victims.

Like other US high officials, even President Barack Obama urged Pakistan on February 15 this year to free Raymond as he has diplomatic immunity under the Geneva Convention. Meanwhile, the visiting Chairman of the US Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, while addressing a press conference in Lahore pointed out that issue of “Davis has nothing to do with local courts as diplomats enjoy immunity…we cannot allow that one incident can break the strong relationship between the two countries.”

On the other side, legal experts in Pakistan opine that Raymond Davis is a murderer who has no diplomatic immunity. Many Pakistanis are suspicious about Davis, who was arrested with loaded weapons, a GPS satellite tracking device, photographs of Pakistan’s defence installations and tribal areas, while American authorities are still silent about his role in Pakistan.

It is notable that the former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has stated that he was dropped from the new cabinet owing to his principled position on the question of diplomatic immunity to the killer, and he adopted a stance, seen by majority of people.

Some sources confirms that Raymond Davis has visited Pakistan twice under the cover of diplomatic status, and this time he came with changed name to conceal his identity. However, Davis is killer and is an agent of CIA, while Washington is blackmailing Islamabad by applying coercive diplomacy. In this respect, on the one hand, US high officials say that on the issue of Davis, America will not break relations with Pakistan; while on the other, they continue pressure on Islamabad for his immediate release.

The issue of Raymond Davis is not new one as past history of Pak-US ties prove that America has always blackmailed Pakistan on various occasions. In this context, it is of particular attention that in the aftermath of the November 26 catastrophe of Mumbai, Washington, while tilting towards India had blackmailed Islamabad. Setting aside the ground realties that Pakistan, itself, has been the major victim of terrorism, which has been bearing multiple losses in combating this menace since 9/11, with the support of the US, Indian blame game against Islamabad, continued during exchange of information between the two neighbouring countries regarding Mumbai mayhem.

While, rejecting Pakistan’s stand that its government or any official agency was not involved in the Mumbai attacks, presenting one after another list of bogus evidence, New Delhi wanted to make Islamabad accept all other Indian demands since our rulers admitted on February 12, 2009 that Ajmal Kasab is Pakistani national and Mumbai terror-attacks were “partially planned in Pakistan.”

In fact, being a responsible state actor, Islamabad’s admission which had emboldened New Delhi was forced by the US-led some western countries which have continuously been blackmailing Pakistan by insisting upon our government to “do more” against the militancy in the tribal areas by ignoring internal backlash and sacrifices of our security forces during war on terror-while paying no attention to the Lahore-terror attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team including other similar terror-incidents. In that context, India wanted to avail the Mumbai tragedy in increasing further pressure on Pakistan with the help of America in order to force Islamabad to confess that all the terrorists responsible for Mumbai attacks came from Pakistan. In that respect, US former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Milliband who had visited India and Pakistan stressed upon Islamabad to take actions against the banned Jamaatud Dawa and the already banned Lashkar-i-Tayba. Speaking in Indian tune, they had also said that the terrorists involved in the Mumbai events came from Pakistan.

In that connection, Ameria had played a key role in getting passed a resolution through the UN Security Council which added Pakistan-based Jamaatud Dawa and four of its leaders to the list of Al Qaeda-related terrorists. Without any doubt, this similar approach by the US and India show that these states are in collusion to destabilize and ‘denuclearise’ Pakistan through blackmailing diplomacy as demands on Pakistan to take action against the Jamaatud Dawa and its related welfare organistions including admission regarding the departure of the Mumbai culprits from our soil were forced. And Islamabad accepted these false allegations as our country was facing serious internal and external challenges of grave nature.

In the recent past, IMF decided to sanction loan to Pakistan after American green signal. Past experience proves that economic dependence on foreign countries always brings political dependence in its wake. While, at that critical juncture, our country had been facing precarious financial problem, US-led some western allies compelled Pakistan to accept some Indian false demands.

Hollowness of New Delhi’s allegations and forced admission of Islamabad could be gauged from the fact that on February 27, 2009, Pakistan’s Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Nuaman Bashir remarked that he had no proof that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks used Pakistani waters to reach India. The statement of our naval chief coupled with American duress makes it quite clear that Mumbai mayhem was pre-planned by the Indian intelligence agency, RAW to further distort the image of Pakistan in the comity of nations.

Another example of blackmailing is that the US is emphasising Islamabad to to take action against the militants of North Waziristan. It also continuous drone attacks on Pakistan’s soil without bothering for the sovereignty of the country.

Inaction of the US-led west over Hindu terrorism and such duplicity undoubtedly indicates that America and major European states have their common interest in India. Hence, they blindly support New Delhi’s shrewd diplomacy against Islamabad. These major countries only tolerate Pakistan owing to its role as a frontline state against terrorism, otherwise, they leave no stone unturned in blackmailing our country so as to harm our interests. In this respect, forced demands on Pakistan regarding Mumbai mayhem entailing accusation of cross-border terrorism either in Afghanistan or the Indian-held Kashmir are also part of this blackmailing practice.

In fact, we are living in an unequal world order. The prevalent global system tends to give a greater political and economic leverage to the affluent developed nations who could safeguard their interests at the cost of the weaker countries. Whenever, any controversy arises on the controversial issues, the UN Security Council enforces the doctrine of collective security against the small states, while the five big powers protect their interests by using veto. This shows discrimination between the powerful and the weaker. In this context, it is notable that in 2001, UN had permitted the United States to attack Afghanistan under the cover of right of self-defence. In case of the Indian occupied Kashmir, the issue still remains unresolved as UN resolutions regarding the plebiscite were never implemented because Washington and some western powers support the illegitimate stand of India due to their collective interests.

Particularly, in economic context, the world order reflects greater disparities as the flow of capital and credit system is also dominated by the United States and other developed countries-the consequent result is an increase in the activities of the Multinationals which have shattered the economies of the poor developing states. Besides, international financial institutions like I.M.F and World Bank are under the control of the US and its partners who protect their interests by blackmailing the governments of the small states through financial pressure. In these terms, US-led countries especially blackmail Pakistan directly or indirectly.

In sense of Hobbes, Machiavelli and Morgenthau, a renowned strategic thinker, Thomas Schelling remarks about the US, “coercion to be an effective tool of foreign policy.” Kissinger also endorses politics of bargaining and pressure through threats, coercion and even violence as essential elements of the American diplomacy. In this regard, diplomacy itself becomes the real tool of blackmailing.

Returning to our earlier discussion, Raymond Davis is a murderer, but the US blackmails Pakistan for his release as the latter depends upon Washington for military and economic aid in wake of multi-faceted problems. America should remember that it also depends upon Pakistan which is a frontline state of the US war on terror, and without Islamabad’s support the sole superpower cannot win this ‘different war’ against terrorism.

Davis’ is the missing link of US support for ‘TTP’ terror in Pakistan

RUPEE NEWS

Undoubtedly this is the biggest scandal in US Foreign relations since the US was shot down by the Soviets in the sixties. Then, as now, both sides played out the drama in an iterative manner-neither side letting the other know how much they know.

‘Davis’ is the missing link to US support for ‘TTP’ terror in Pakistan

There are clear indications that there is much more to the “Raymond Davis” affair than the Pakistanis are letting on. THis isn’t about murder and diplomatic immunity. This is mush bigger. Something is very wrong with this picture, and Islamabad is tight lipped because it now has concrete evidence that Mr “Raymond Davis” is linked with the Tehrik e Taliban e Pakistan (TTP) and some of the terror activities that have been happening in Pakistan. The Pakistanis are not stupid. Americans stick out like sore thumbs in Pakistan. When they go running around in their black SUVs laced with Satellite equipment they are tracked, traced and followed. In a cat and mouse game, the contractors can sometimes shake their “tails”. On other occasions they cannot. In fact the ISI gives them enough rope to hang themselves with. In this case, it seems Mr. Davis fell into a trap and his situation is now fully compromised. In panic Mr. “Davis” used the Nuclear option and killed the two Pakistanis who were trailing him-knowing full well that killing Pakistani spies or those who knew his identity would blow up in this face. He doesn’t have to say much-the equipment he carried tells a long and bloody story. All this is irrefutable evidence in a Pakistani court of law. The Pakistanis have already released the pictures of the equipment and the evidence that they have gathered. Of course they are still holding on to the juiciest details.

The US has postponed the Afghan-Pakistan-US Trilateral meeting, dropped hints about postponing the date of Mr. Zardari’s visit to the US, and floated all sorts of other threats. Normally Islamabad would have been cognizant of the the problems of spoiling its relationship with the sole Superpower. However the smirking Pakistanis are so confident in the validity of their cause, that they are letting the US escalate the issue.

Pakistan has ignored some of the US pressure and has not buckled under intense US pressure. Both General Kayani and Former Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi were not very impressed by US posturing. In fact right after their threatening phone calls and messages Islamabad formally charged Davis with pre-meditated murder in the Lahore High Court. The Court promptly remanded Mr. “Davis” to prison for another 14 days of interrogation. There were stories that if Mr. “Davis” does not cooperate, the interrogation would have been upgraded to level 3 (a euphemism for torture). There are reports that despite admonitions from the US Embassy, Mr. Davis is singing like a bird, and has already given enough information to the Pakistanis to get him convicted in any court of law.

The Former Foreign Minister Qureshi publicly confirmed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressured him to “publicly confirm diplomatic immunity of Davis. However, I refused to do so because it was against the factual position in the case.” FM Qureshi’s confirmation that Mr “Davis” is not a diplomat was repeatedly discussed on all 80 TV channels with copies of his passports and visas prominently displayed for the audience. Mr. Quresh said that
“The kind of blanket immunity Washington is pressing for Davis is not endorsed by the official record of the Foreign Ministry,” adding that Washington even “threatened that Hillary Clinton would not meet me at the Munich conference on February 6 if the request was not granted.”

The situation is so polarized that even traditional US allies in Pakistan have condemned the intrusive murders. Mr. Pervez Hoodbhoy who almost never criticizes the US has condemned the “Davis” affair. The PMLN is of course threatened the PPP with a vote of no-confidence.

It is clear that Mr. “Davis” shot the Pakistani operatives knowing full well who they were. The Pakistani authorities have informed the the media that they are very well aware that Mr. Davis was in touch with the “Pakistani Taliban” (TTP). There is conjecture that Mr. “Davis” walked into a trap laid out by the ISI. In fact his contacts were actually ISI agents. All that he said and did is in the hands of the Pakistanis. Mr. “Davis” thought that by shooting the two operatives, he would eliminate the evidence against him. In fact, it made matters worse. Other operatives who were in the vicinity had already taken the necessary precautions. The ISI has leaked information to the media that Mr. “Davis” had crossed a “red line”.

Clearly, the Americans have panicked because the know that the Pakistani side knows much more than it is prepared to admit in public. This is typical behavior when spies are caught with their thumbs up their noses. There are clear indications that Mr. “Davis” has broken down after sustained interrogation in police custody, and has spilled his guts-making the Pakistanis aware of explosive stuff. Its not that this stuff has surprised the Pakistanis. When you have 3000 of these guys running around the country-something gives. The ISI is one of the world’s most powerful spy organizations in the world. It has deep roots in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nothing that crawls or walks in Pakistan is hidden from the ISI and other agencies. On top of this there is a million man Pakistani army. 180 million Pakistanis are also watching the Americans and reporting on them. The panicked Americans have continually given highly contradictory versions about Mr. “Davis’s” identity and the nature of his assignment in Pakistan.

It is very clear that Mr. “Davis’s” discovery and detention has sent alarm bells ringing all the way to President Obama’s White House. In a way the Pakistanis are amused. They know they have the Americans where they want them-right up against the wall. The Americans are fully aware that the “Davis” case is shaking the very foundations of the transactional relationship with Pakistan. While the CIA, the State Department and the White House think that this is a new discovery-the Pakistanis point to a long trail of evidence that directly points to the US consultants and their hirelings in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ISI and the Army believe that at the right time, the details of what the Pakistanis know will be revealed to President Obama and the world.

Pakistan and Pakistanis have known for a long time who is behind the TTP (Tehrik e Taliban e Pakistani). Its not that hard to guess. What surprised the Pakistanis was their ability to inflict bloody attacks on the Pakistani military in order to destabilize Pakistani. Mr. Davis is not an isolated incident-there is a history behind much of what is happening in Pakistan-most of which can be correlated to the rise of the US “consultants” and “contractors” in Pakistan. It is pedagogical to note that last year when the ISI put in requests for deep security checks on those coming into Pakistan-the US put up a hissy fit and forced about 500 of these “Davis types” through without any background checks. Is is noted that the ISI became very suspicious of the insistence of the US in getting these guys into Pakistan at short notice. These guys got very special attention-and that has paid off in the arrest and detention of Mr. Davis. This points to the fact that this incident was not just an accident-it was an incident waiting to happen. The ISI was ready to pounce on the situation once it happened.

Pakistan has been very suspicious of these “contractors” especially when Pakistani state institutions were attacked. The attacks on the the Army HQ, and the ISI sent alarm bells among the rank and file of the Pakistani government. The vibrant Pakistani press has also been on the trail and has repeatedly pointed out the facts about the former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh (who was eventually fired by Mr. Karzai). However the US security establishment was in cahoots with him.

The Pakistani military and its highly efficient intelligence set-up had concluded a very long time ago that the TTP was being aided by the very sort of free-wheeling “contractors” that Mr. Davis represents. It was just a matter of time when things came to a boil. It is amazing that the Americans are surprised they have finally be caught red-handed. This has happened in the past, but during the reign of President Musharraf, the Americans got away with it and escaped. This time Mr. “Davis” was caught with his hands in the cookie jar.

Over 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan facing the new Taliban “Spring Offensive” are totally dependent on supplies running through Pakistan. The last time Pakistan shut off the spigot, the Americans ran out of toilet paper and had to cut down on food rations. It must have been hard eating food with dirty hands! If the tiff between the US and Pakistan is not resolved the US may face the consequences in Afghanistan. Failure in the Hindu Kush will certainly impact the presidential elections in 2012.

Dubious Doings

By Ghalib Sultan
ZoneAsia-Pk

A consequence of the Lahore incident (in which a US national shot two Pakistanis dead and then unidentified, possibly US nationals, killed another Pakistani while trying to take away the one who had done the killing) is the firm media and public focus on US activities in Pakistan and questions about their intentions. Such doubts, misgivings, suspicions and rumors had been on the periphery but now they are center stage. At first they were based on police-US nationals’ encounters on the streets with the US nationals refusing to come out of their fortified vehicles as they disregarded local laws, now there is a serious incident and the proverbial cat is out of the bag.

The first ambiguity under discussion is the US policy to employ Drones for targeted killings in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The general perception is that these are being carried out under a US-Pakistan agreement that is best described as ‘accept and facilitate but deny and condemn’ on the Pakistan side and ‘continue but downplay and do not discuss’ on the US side. Reports of such attacks are now reported as a routine by the media and the public has been conditioned to accept them as unavoidable, even helpful in the fight against terror. Criticism is muted and there are reports from the US that technological improvements have made collateral damage minimal. There has been no denial of media reports that such a policy exists. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate the policy and then remove ambiguities and state the facts.

The next widely held perception is that US Special Forces and CIA personnel have been given access to locate and take out terrorists within Pakistan. The exact extent of this access and how it is being used by the US is not clear. A report in the media indicating such an arrangement has not been denied. There have been many incidents in the past of US personnel stopped by police at check points refusing to submit to local laws. The ‘Davis’ incident was simply waiting to happen and there is no doubt that ‘Davis’ is a trained operative on a special mission under cover. The problem is that for the US he is a hero-someone operating behind ‘enemy’ lines in most hazardous circumstances. For Pakistanis he is a killer who was up to no good and the same goes for his ‘accomplices’. The fact that those killed may have been robbers or his contacts or intelligence personnel tailing him have all become secondary-he has become the symbol of US high handedness and tyranny against which Pakistan must stand up. The chance to nip the problem right at the outset has passed because the US representation in Pakistan flip flopped and did not cooperate. Public opinion and media power were grossly under rated and are still not being acknowledged because pressures and threats are aggravating the situation.

Finally there are the questions that will not go away and are now center stage; whose war are we fighting in FATA? Would there have been a conflict in FATA and urban violence if we were not seen as US allies? Is the rise of religious extremism and polarization in society linked to our alliance with the US in Afghanistan? Can we manage without a partnership with the US and aid? Should ‘Davis’ be handed over to the US if diplomatic immunity is proved or even if it is not proved? These questions are being asked and debated. Answers have to be found and a comprehensive and factual narrative should emerge. On this depends the future of the US-Pakistan relationship and internal harmony within Pakistan.

The ‘Davis’ affair has highlighted the fragility of Pakistan’s predicament. This should be a wake-up call. Pakistan needs to mobilize its resources to break free of the aid trap and learn to stand on its own feet. Till that happens we need to prepare for the worst and be ready to face hardship. Already the pressures are mounting and the first target seems to be our nuclear energy plans.