The CIA's Killing Spree in Lahore By MIKE WHITNEY

The Case Against Raymond Davis

The CIA's Killing Spree in Lahore By MIKE WHITNEY

When CIA-agent Raymond Davis gunned down two Pakistani civilians in broad daylight on a crowded street in Lahore, he probably never imagined that the entire Washington establishment would spring to his defense. But that's precisely what happened. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mike Mullen, John Kerry, Leon Panetta and a number of other US bigwigs have all made appeals on Davis's behalf. None of these stalwart defenders of "the rule of law" have shown a speck of interest in justice for the victims or of even allowing the investigation to go forward so they could know what really happened. Oh, no. What Clinton and the rest want, is to see their man Davis packed onto the next plane to Langley so he can play shoot-'em-up someplace else in the world.

Does Clinton know that after Davis shot his victims 5 times in the back, he calmly strode back to his car, grabbed his camera, and photographed the dead bodies? Does she know that the two so-called "diplomats" who came to his rescue in a Land Rover (which killed a passerby) have been secretly spirited out of the country so they won't have to appear in court? Does she know that the families of the victims are now being threatened and attacked to keep them from testifying against Davis? Here's a clip from Thursday's edition of The Nation":

"Three armed men forcibly gave poisonous pills to Muhammad Sarwar, the uncle of Shumaila Kanwal, the widow of Fahim shot dead by Raymond Davis, after barging into his house in Rasool Nagar, Chak Jhumra.

Sarwar was rushed to Allied Hospital in critical condition where doctors were trying to save his life till early Thursday morning. The brother of Muhammad Sarwar told The Nation that three armed men forced their entry into the house after breaking the windowpane of one of the rooms. When they broke the glass, Muhammad Sarwar came out. The outlaws started beating him up.

The other family members, including women and children, coming out for his rescue, were taken hostage and beaten up. The three outlaws then took everyone hostage at gunpoint and forced poisonous pills down Sarwar's throat." ("Shumaila's uncle forced to take poisonous pills", The Nation)

Good show, Hillary. We're all about the rule of law in the good old USA.

But why all the intrigue and arm-twisting? Why has the State Department invoked the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to make its case that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity? If Davis is innocent, then he has nothing to worry about, right? Why not let the trial go forward and stop reinforcing the widely-held belief that Davis is a vital cog in the US's clandestine operations in Pakistan?

The truth is that Davis had been photographing sensitive installations and madrassas for some time, the kind of intelligence gathering that spies do when scouting-out prospective targets. Also, he'd been in close contact with members of terrorist organizations, which suggests a link between the CIA and terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Here's an excerpt from Wednesday's The Express Tribune:

"His cell phone has revealed contacts with two ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP) and sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has led to the public conclusion that he was behind terrorism committed against Pakistan's security personnel and its people ....This will strike people as America in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda against the state of Pakistan targeting, as one official opined, Pakistan's nuclear installations." ("Raymond Davis: The plot thickens, The Express Tribune)

"Al Qaeda"? The CIA is working with "ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan"? No wonder the US media has been keeping a wrap on this story for so long.

Naturally, most Pakistanis now believe that the US is colluding with terrorists to spread instability, weaken the state, and increase its power in the region. But isn't that America's M.O. everywhere?

Also, many people noticed that US drone attacks suddenly stopped as soon as Davis was arrested. Was that a coincidence? Not likely. Davis was probably getting coordinates from his new buddies in the tribal hinterland and then passing them along to the Pentagon. The drone bombings are extremely unpopular in Pakistan. More then 1400 people have been killed since August 2008, and most of them have been civilians.

And, there's more. This is from (Pakistan's) The Nation:

"A local lawyer has moved a petition in the court of Additional District and Sessions ... contending that the accused (Davis)... was preparing a map of sensitive places in Pakistan through the GPS system installed in his car. He added that mobile phone sims, lethal weapons, and videos camera were recovered from the murder accused on January 27, 2011." ("Davis mapped Pakistan targets court told", The Nation)

So, Davis's GPS chip was being used to identify targets for drone attacks in the tribal region. Most likely, he was being assisted on the other end by recruits or members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban.

A lot of extravagant claims have been made about what Davis was up to, much of which is probably just speculation. One report which appeared on ANI news service is particularly dire, but produces little evidence to support its claims. Here's an excerpt:

"Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents," according to a report.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned "grave" as it appears that open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States, The European Union Times reports.....The most ominous point in this SVR report is "Pakistan's ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis's possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents", which they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West's hegemony over a Global economy that it warned is just months away from collapse," the paper added. ("CIA Spy Davis was giving nuclear bomb material to Al Qaeda, says report", ANI)

Although there's no way to prove that this is false, it seems like a bit of a stretch. But that doesn't mean that what Davis was up to shouldn't be taken seriously. Quite the contrary. If Davis was working with Tehreek-e-Taliban, (as alleged in many reports) then we can assume that the war on terror is basically a ruse to advance a broader imperial agenda. According to Sify News, the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, believes this to be the case. Here's an excerpt:

"Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US envoy to Afghanistan, once brushed off Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's claim, that the US was "arranging" the (suicide) attacks by Pakistani Taliban inside his country, as 'madness', and was of the view that both Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who believed in this US conspiracy theory, were "dysfunctional" leaders.

The account of Zardari's claim about the US' hand in the attacks has been elaborately reproduced by US journalist Bob Woodward, on Page 116 of his famous book 'Obama's Wars,' The News reported.

Woodward's account goes like this: "One evening during the trilateral summit (in Washington, between Obama, Karzai and Zardari) Zardari had dinner with Zalmay Khalilzad, the 58-year-old former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN, during the Bush presidency.

"Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside his country: India or the US. Zardari didn't think India could be that clever, but the US could. Karzai had told him the US was behind the attacks, confirming the claims made by the Pakistani ISI."

"Mr President," Khalilzad said, "what would we gain from doing this? You explain the logic to me."

"This was a plot to destabilize Pakistan, Zardari hypothesized, so that the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons. He could not explain the rapid expansion in violence otherwise. And the CIA had not pursued the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban, a group known as Tehreek-e-Taliban or TTP that had attacked the government. TTP was also blamed for the assassination of Zardari's wife, Benazir Bhutto." ("Pakistan President says CIA Involved in Plot to Destabilize Country and Seize Nukes", Sify News)

Zardari's claim will sound familiar to those who followed events in Iraq. Many people are convinced that the only rational explanation for the wave of bombings directed at civilians, was that the violence was caused by those groups who stood to gain from a civil war.

And who might that be?

Despite the Obama administration's efforts to derail the investigation, the case against Davis is going forward. Whether he is punished or not is irrelevant. This isn't about Davis anyway. It's a question of whether the US is working hand-in-hand with the very organizations that it publicly condemns in order to advance its global agenda. If that's the case, then the war on terror is a fraud.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state and  can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com

OUR DIPLOMAT IN PAKISTAN

“Our diplomat in Pakistan’ was how President Obama described Raymond Davis now uncovered as a member of a covert CIA team operating under cover inside Pakistan. The disclosure came after his cover was blown by British media and a gag order on US media that was to have facilitated Davis’ extradition under diplomatic immunity was lifted because it no longer served any purpose.

The United States Department of State issues a Diplomatic Identity Card to all diplomats accredited to the US. This is what the card says front and back:

DIPLOMATIC
IDENTIFICATION CARD

Number:                                                                                                                                                         (PHOTO)
Expires
DOB Name Title
Mission
Location

SEE REVERSE FOR STATEMENT OF IMMUNITY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This person has been duly notified to the Department of State and under international law enjoys immunity from criminal jurisdiction. The bearer shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention, but may be given a notice of violation. The bearer shall be treated with due respect and all appropriate steps taken to prevent any attack on the bearer’s person, freedom, or dignity.

LAW ENFORCEMENT INQUIRIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED                                            IF FOUND, RETURN TO:
TO (202) 647-1985 FROM 8 AM TO 5 PM EASTERN TIME                                           Office of Foreign Missions—
AND (202)647-7277 AT ALL OTHER TIMES.

Does the Pakistan Foreign Office issue such identification after it has been ‘duly notified ‘by the sending country about the status of an Embassy employee? If not, why not? If yes, then did Davis have such identification and was his status notified by the US Department of State to the Pakistan Foreign Office and if it was then surely there is a record of that notification. Why does a court have to decide the diplomatic status of a covert CIA agent? The Foreign Office should do so---especially after Davis has been exposed for what he actually is, so that the court can then concentrate on the killing of three Pakistanis, the suicide of a fourth, the ‘disappearance’ of those in the follow-up vehicle and their status and manner of extradition to the US. Having a diplomatic passport does not automatically qualify a person for diplomatic immunity.

The undercover CIA operation uncovered must now be closed down including the ‘safe house’ being used by them under cover of the US Consulate in Lahore. Pakistan’s entire counter intelligence apparatus must swing into action to discover, apprehend and expose all other Davis types operating under cover in the country. Citizens should be advised to exercise extreme caution in interaction with US personnel and be aware of the pitfalls of renting property to them without verification and clearance. There have been cases in the past where US personnel in unmarked cars refused police checks and refused to even lower their windows to answer questions. This calls for a proper agreement that must define status and behavior and visa procedures. Pakistan has to assert itself regardless of the consequences---this is what Pakistanis are demanding from their government. If Pakistan is a US ally and the US-Pakistan relationship is strategic then surely there is no need for covert CIA-Special Forces Operations deep inside Pakistan unless the entire relationship is a cover for gaining access for sinister designs. This is the perception that must be dispelled. ‘Davis ‘ is time for a new beginning.

Reports of a CIA-ISI feud, of danger to Davis while in custody, of US trying to foster a proxy war in Pakistan in connivance with some Indian and Afghan interests, of US plans to destabilize Pakistan especially Baluchistan—all need a response and the best response is a renewed US-Pakistan relationship with  suspicious underhand activity suspended. Before weighing in with coercive pressure President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Senator Kerry and Admiral Mullen needed to have their facts straight unless they still think what happened in Lahore does not matter. To Pakistanis it does matter.

By Ahsan Waheed

http://www.zoneasia-pk.com/ZoneAsia-Pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3673:our-diplomat-in-pakistan&catid=70:free-talk&Itemid=84&sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4d638e4da93c7cd6,0

Obama proposes $3.1b for Pakistan in 2012 budget

Obama proposes $3.1b for Pakistan in 2012 budget. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has proposed $3.1 billion in the 2012 budget for US economic and security assistance and diplomatic operations in Pakistan, said a senior American official on Tuesday.

The administration’s spending for Pakistan is broken into two parts, the “enduring core part” – meaning long-term  assistance programs – and the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), an administration official said at a briefing on President Barack Obama’s budget proposals for the fiscal year 2012, beginning October 1, 2011.

As part of the long-term economic and security assistance, President Obama is seeking $1.9 billion in the year 2012. The amount will also cover the cost of American aid operations and diplomatic presence.

Of the $1.9 billion, around $1.5 billion is annual money to be allocated under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman five-year aid measure.

It also includes $350 million in foreign military financing programs, which is part of the five-year agreement between the two countries.

Under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman initiative, the US funds a number of programs including development of democracy and wide-ranging infrastructure projects to assist Pakistan’s economic progress.

On the OCO side of the budget, the administration has proposed $1.2 billion, out of which $146 million is for operational expenditure.

Under the OCO, $1.1 billion is to be devoted to the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund (PCCF). The PCCF seeks to train Pakistani forces for a more effective fight against insurgents along the country’s western border with Afghanistan

By APP

Published: February 15, 2011

Raymond Davis Case: Obama administration has suspended all high-level dialogue with Pakistan!

The Washington Post
Staff Writers
Monday, February 7, 2011; 8:45 PM

The Obama administration has suspended all high-level dialogue with Pakistan, a key U.S. partner in the Afghanistan war, over the case of an American diplomat the Pakistanis have detained on possible murder charges, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The case of Raymond Allen Davis, who has admitted he fatally shot two Pakistanis he said threatened him from a motorcycle while he was driving in Lahore on Jan. 27, has severely strained relations between the two governments and threatens to scuttle a planned summit among U.S., Afghan and Pakistani leaders scheduled for the end of this month in Washington.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton canceled a meeting last weekend with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at an international security conference in Munich to protest Allen's detention, according to officials from both countries who were not authorized to discuss the situation on the record.
The administration has twice summoned Pakistani Ambassador Husain Haqqani to the White House for formal complaints and demands that Pakistan recognize Davis's diplomatic immunity and release him immediately. The message was repeated in a meeting in Islamabad Monday between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter.
Davis, 36, holds a diplomatic passport and is a member of the "technical and administrative staff" at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad "entitled to full criminal immunity in accordance with the Vienna Convention," the State Department said Monday.
The administration and Congress, the statement said, "have repeatedly made clear at the highest levels that this matter must be resolved by the Pakistan government or it could impact other bilateral initiatives."

In Pakistan, the issue has become embroiled in widespread anti-Americanism and suspicions, fanned by the Pakistani media and used for political advantage, that U.S. spies and intelligence contractors are secretly operating in the country. It has also posed a challenge to Pakistan's weak civilian government as it struggles to wrest control of national security policy from the powerful military and fends off opposition political parties.

The most powerful opposition group, the Pakistan Muslim League headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, rules Punjab province and its capital, Lahore, where Davis is being held and several hearings have taken place in the case.
Although the administration has been unequivocal in its insistence that David has diplomatic status, it has been less than clear on the nature of his job in Pakistan over the last two years. An early embassy statement said it was "security" related, while officials in Washington have said that he vetted questionable visa applicants. The CIA has declined to comment on the case.
On Thursday, the Lahore court extended Davis's detention for another eight days. The U.S. Embassy complained that it was given no notice of the hearing, that Davis had no attorney present, and that he was not provided with an interpreter.
"He was denied due process and a fair hearing," the statement said. "His continued detention is a gross violation of international law."
Although Zardari's Pakistan People's Party government has close relations with the administration, and depends on the billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic assistance, it fears being painted as a U.S. lackey.

A foreign ministry official said that the government itself is divided over the case. The ministry has determined that Davis is immune from prosecution based on his passport and diplomatic visa, and the fact that Pakistan "accepted" that when the Davis first arrived in the fall of 2009, the official said.
Other parts of the government, he said, see some advantage in using the situation to prove the government's independence from Washington. But the Americans, he said, "have dropped hints they could go to any extent" to get Davis released.
Further complicating the situation, a Pakistani intelligence official said that the two men Davis killed were not, as he has said, armed robbers intent on stealing money, his telephone and perhaps his car, but intelligence agents assigned to tail him. This official said the two intended to frighten Davis because he crossed a "red line" that the official did not further define.
Both the military's Inter-Services Intelligence service (ISI) and the Interior Ministry's Intelligence Bureau regularly use motorcycle tails to track the movement of U.S. officials, another Pakistani official said.
The Pakistani media has also suggested that Davis is being held hostage to a wrongful death case brought in New York by family members of four Americans killed in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. U.S. and Indian officials have blamed the attack on the Pakistani organization Lashkar-i-Taiba, which has long-standing ties to ISI. Four senior ISI officials, including the organization's director, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, have been called as witnesses in the case.
According to his 2009 visa application, Davis was born in Wise, Va. He gave an address in Las Vegas, where he is listed in Nevada state registration records as the co-owner of a firm called Hyperion Protective Services.
On Sunday, the widow of one of the men killed by Davis committed suicide in the city of Faisalabad. According to a doctor at the hospital where she was admitted after ingesting rat poison, she said she did it because she feared Davis would be released without facing trial.



Brulliard reported from Islamabad. Special correspondent Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.