What is common between the following apparently unrelated events?
- Raymond Davis
- Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan
- Operations in South and North Waziristan
- Drone Attacks
First identify the main players—the CIA, the ISI, the FBI, the Pakistan Army, US/NATO forces, Afghan Intelligence and government and the Government of Pakistan. Opposing these main players are the Taliban, the religious parties and organizations in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan.
Next identify the US dilemma—fight the Taliban/Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan or coerce Pakistan into fighting on its own soil to deny and eliminate safe havens.
How is Pakistan to be coerced? It was easy with the Musharraf regime—it buckled and agreed immediately after 911 without asking for a quid pro quo. With Musharraf gone because of his self centered policies the choice was between Bhutto and Sharif. Sharif was kept out of the elections. Bhutto was the only leader left but Bhutto wanted the Judiciary restored with the Chief Justice thrown out by Musharraf. This did not suit Musharraf. The US wanted Musharraf because Bhutto would have questioned the Army’s involvement in FATA because public opinion opposed it. Thus there was convergence of views between Musharraf and the US.
Bhutto had to be prevented from coming to power. Her assassination did that. There are many questions unanswered as investigations continue.
Enter the American “Raymond Davises”!
Raymond Davis is a generic term for US double agents in Pakistan who seem to be working to carry out special missions within Pakistan. Their main objective seems to be to create extreme situations using terror attacks to generate fear and anger within the Pakistani population (masses) and the Pakistani military against the Taliban. Attack on GHQ, attack on army mosque (where worshipper including children were mercilessly executed by highly trained terrorists), attack on Srilankan cricket team, attacks on several police checkposts and training schools and even against moderate religious scholars, were all carefully orchestrated to create negative sentiment against Taliban. The idea was that the Pakistan government must have full ( or at least a very large) public backing to start and later continue with the military operation in the North of Pakistan.
Even Mumbai attacks could lead to lead to a Raymond Davis—real name Hedley! After all if we are being threatened by our gigantic neighbour, India, we would need US backing to neutralize the threat. Like a true “friend” USA was there to cool down India and make Pakistan even more subservient.
The ‘Raymond Davis’ that Pakistan has caught and captured holds the key to all these questions. He is a highly trained US undercover operative on a secret mission. He was given a non-diplomatic passport (but not visa) to enter Pakistan. He was not supposed to be caught and not supposed to have his cover blown. That might have been the exact reason why he had to make sure that he completely eliminated the two young men who were supposedly following him. American Consulates urgency to remove Raymond Davis and in the process killing another innocent young man, all indicate that Raymond Davis was not supposed to be captured. His death would have been preferable to the Americans but not his capture.
America failed to pressurize Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Mr Qureshi, to declare diplomatic immunity for Raymond Davis. Pakistan’s foreign minister’s rejection to comply must have shocked the US and the Pakistan Government. US embassy and consulate in Islamabad and Lahore must have panicked and mishandled the situation. All those opposed to the alliance with the US in the war on terror took over. Media played a critical role. A lot of sensitive information and evidence was instantly provided by the television media which promptly broadcast it all to the general public. Online bloggers and journalists played an equally active role and created a flood of information about this episode. No matter what the US officials and their supporters tried to say to justify the coldblooded murders by Raymond Davis the media countered it with hyped but factual information. Judiciary played their role, as did the investigation teams and finally Raymond Davis was declared a murderer by the Punjab police.
When all fabricated logic failed US threatened to sever all ties with Pakistan and cut-off all civilian and military aid. When even this failed to generate fear among the Pakistani population the US back tracked from this threat. Pakistan government also made public statements in which they asked the US to let the courts decide. The US now wants ‘diplomatic immunity’ to be announced before the court hearing. The focus in on the ‘Raymond Davis phenomenon’ and on making sure that all Davis’s are exposed or at least forced to leave.
No one in Pakistan wants a confrontation with the US but everyone in Pakistan wants the US to respect Pakistan’s laws and not misuse access to ride rough shod over Pakistani sensitivities. This is a God sent opportunity to control internal instability, stabilize our economy, learn to tighten belts and live without aid and above all rally the nation by focusing on education, health, power generation, industry and inflation.
By Omar Farooque, on February 14th, 2011
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