The Secret Life of Ahmed Wali Karzai

How America Runs Its Own Private Militias in Afghanistan, And Outsources Them To Drug Barons And Mafia Overlords

INTRODUCTION

The death of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and provincial council chief of Kandahar province, has brought the War in Afghanistan to a crossroads. Beyond his death, both President Karzai and the US and its allies are at a loss for what endgame they plan now.

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Harrowing tale of Pakistani policemen lynched in Bahrain

By Salman Siddiqui

Published: March 21, 2011

Kashif was lynche­d and murder­ed by an angry mob when his police unit was ordere­d to move in agains­t protes­tors.

KARACHI: Kashif Mehmood joined the Bahraini police force soon after he graduated from the Pakistani school in Bahrain.

He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps who joined the Bahraini police after migrating from Gujranwala’s Mandi Bahauddin area, some 30 years ago.

No one from Kashif’s family of four siblings and parents could imagine that one day the 20-year-old’s life would be cut short as brutally as it was last Wednesday.

Kashif was lynched and murdered by an angry mob when a police unit, which Kashif was a part of, was ordered to move in against protesters gathered at Pearl Square in Manama.

The nightmare for Kashif’s family, however, did not end at his death. Gruesome images and videos of his death  have appeared all over the internet. Many have also posted hateful and racist slogans under them, against the Pakistani community in Bahrain.

“I haven’t slept in days,” says Ali, Kashif’s 18-year-old brother, while speaking over the phone as he emailed video links of his brother’s murder.

He sounded horrified when he said that houses of Pakistanis, especially those employed with the security forces, were being marked by protesters, to be attacked later.

Kashif, and another Bahraini policeman of Pakistani origin, Farooq Baloch, were on duty together on Wednesday, when an operation against the protesters was launched. Amid the chaos, the two young policemen, armed just with sticks, broke away from their unit and sought help from an approaching ambulance. Little did they know that the rescue van was actually loaded with protestors.

The ambulance ran them over, killing Baloch who had married three months ago and the sole breadwinner for his family.

Kashif, who barely survived the first onslaught, was kidnapped and taken to an empty ground.

Videos posted online show that groups of young men then took turns in kicking and clobbering with sticks Kashif’s lifeless body.

Even though it was apparent that he was dead, the protesters proceeded to mutilate his body, with groups of young men in their SUVs repeatedly running over the corpse.

The incident bore an eerie resemblance to the Sialkot lynching incident, where the onlookers cheered on as the victim was tortured.

Ali says his father sent his mother back to Gujranwala a few days ago. They have yet to tell her that her son died in such a horrific manner.

Both Kashif and Farooq were buried in Bahrain.

Another victim of the protestors’ wrath was the 54-year-old Saifullah Mohammad Ibrahim, who remains in critical condition after being severely injured in the attacks.

He worked in the police department and moved from Punjab decades ago, to settle in Bahrain.

“When [the protestors] took my uncle to the Lulu roundabout, they not only tortured him, but also heckled him for being a Pakistani,” said Maheen, a relative of Saifullah.

While humiliating him, the protesters chanted “Down down Pakistan, go back to your country,” Maheen added.

At least four Bahrainis of Pakistani origin have been reportedly killed and several dozens injured in the on-going crisis.

The security situation in the country remains volatile even though the state claimed that the protest was successfully being put down by Arab League-backed troops.

The main worry, however, for the Pakistani expatriates, is that the friction that this crisis has created in the Bahraini society will take years to repair.

When asked whether his family was considering leaving Bahrain for good, Ali said that although they were in shock, no one is thinking about leaving Bahrain or going back to Pakistan.

We were born and brought up in Bahrain, how could we just leave our home like that, he said.

“I’m going nowhere. I will join the police force like Kashif,” he added.

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Pakistanis Keep American In Custody Despite U.S. Pressure

If there was any question that Pakistan intended to bow to U.S. demands and quickly release a U.S. official who killed two Pakistanis last month, the public answer came back today as an emphatic no. 

The U.S. wanted Davis released before his court appearance this morning, but the court said he would remain detained for two more weeks. The U.S. has requested Davis be treated well, but the court sent him from a relatively comfortable police station into a crowded jail. And the U.S. continues to argue Davis acted in self defense, but the Lahore police chief today accused Davis of "intentional and cold-blooded murder." 

Davis' continuing detention, his move to a prison, and the apparent impending murder charge could infuriate the United States. A senior U.S. official said that so long as Davis is detained, any major U.S.-Pakistan meeting would be dominated by a discussion about Davis -- making normal bilateral discussions right now difficult to impossible.

But the embassy in Islamabad rejected the claim made by Pakistani officials in an ABC news report that pressure to release Davis included a meeting between National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani in which Donilon threatened Haqqani with expulsion and the closure of U.S. consulates in Pakistan if Davis wasn't released by today.

"ABC News carried a story regarding a conversation in Washington between senior U.S. and Pakistani officials," said the statement, released by embassy spokeswoman Courtney Beale. "Although we are unable to discuss the substance of a private diplomatic meeting, U.S. Embassy Islamabad can state categorically that the description of the conversation in this report is simply inaccurate."

U.S. officials declined to specify which details in the story were inaccurate.

Haqqani also denied that he had been threatened.

"The characterization of my conversation with White House officials by ABC News borders fabrication," he said in a statement to ABC News today. "It is not our policy to reveal details of diplomatic conversations. I can say, however, that National Security Adviser Tom Donilon did, indeed, convey the US government's views about the case of Mr Raymond Davis during a meeting on Monday evening but no ultimatum or threat was given. I conveyed the government of Pakistan's commitment to resolve the matter in accordance with Pakistani and international law. Both sides are working together to resolve the case expeditiously and to continue our multi-faceted strategic partnership."

U.S. Declines To Provide Details About Ray Davis

Davis has become a political and intelligence football: he is caught between a federal government ruled by the Pakistan People's party and a Punjab government led by the opposition, which is more skeptical of U.S. policies; and he is caught in an intelligence game because he killed two men working for Pakistan's premiere intelligence agency, according to four Pakistani officials.

The U.S. continues to decline to answer questions about Davis' precise job in Pakistan, saying only he was a "member of the administrative and technical staff" of the Islamabad embassy and traveled on a diplomatic passport.

"We regret the incident resulted in the loss of life. Eyewitness reports showed the American acted in self defense," Beale told ABC News in response to the court decision. "There's no doubt he has diplomatic immunity, and we're working with the government of Pakistan to resolve this."

But Pakistani government officials are beginning to chafe at the way the U.S. government is going about that. They complain that U.S. pressure is disproportionately falling on them and not on the country's powerful military and intelligence service.

A congressional delegation from the House Armed Services committee visited Pakistan last weekend and raised the possibility that Davis' continuing detention would threaten military aid, according to a committee aide. But a senior Pakistani military official denied that was true.

"There were no threats," he said casually, shrugging his shoulders.

But there have been threats delivered to government officials, and the larger problem, those officials say, is that the pressure is boxing them in -- because it is eroding overall support for the United States.

Speaking in private drawing room conversations or in high-end coffee shops, even some of those who support the United States say they feel like they can't support Davis' release, especially not publicly. In their minds, the ambiguous nature of Davis' job, his killing two Pakistanis in broad daylight, and the wide coverage given to U.S. anger in Pakistan has shrunk the public acceptance of all U.S. policies in Pakistan.

'More Aggressive Anti-American Sentiments'

"I think the response to the U.S. anger is more aggressive anti-American sentiments," said Ahmed Malik, sitting at the upscale Gloria Jean's coffee in Lahore. He and his friends said the U.S. was "bullying" Pakistan. "I think people feel it's totally unjustified for the Americans to ask for a man who's done something like this" to be released, Malik said.

Their increasing skepticism of U.S. diplomacy was echoed by the senior military official, who discussed Davis' detention on the condition of anonymity.

"It should disturb the U.S. when the liberal class, on the account of U.S. attitude and bullying… is showing a lot of frustration, anger, reservations," the official told ABC News.

He argued that the U.S.' repeated and public condemnations of Davis' detention was decreasing its support across Pakistan -- and that would inevitably decrease the military's ability to support U.S. policies.

"The U.S. should help the state and the foreign office rather than putting out one statement [calling for Davis' release] after another. It will multiply the public anger," he said. "No military can take a position that is contrary to the public perception."

And if the anger increased, he argued, the U.S. was risking its already weak popularity among the public and among its most vocal Pakistani supporters.

"If that space is being lost," the official said, "then it's the last nail in the coffin."

Pakistanis Fear Releasing Ray Davis Would Spark Protests

Fears of anti-American protests in Lahore were apparent starting at 7:00 a.m. local time, when broadcast reporters began setting up their cameras outside not one but two courthouses, hoping to catch a glimpse of Davis. Police, judicial, and political officials misled journalists over the previous 24 hours, suggesting Davis would appear before different courts -- apparently an attempt to reduce security threats and media presence.

Police went so far as to send an empty armored personnel carrier to one court as a decoy as the armored personnel carrier carrying Davis arrived at another court.

In Karachi, the radical group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is banned in Pakistan and which U.S. officials tie to the 2008 attacks on Mumbai, led a rally with political parties. "Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor," read one poster, according to the Associated Press.

In Lahore, government officials believe releasing Davis would spark huge protests. The family of one of the men Davis killed warned the government not to release him, and told ABC News today that they wouldn't rest until they had "blood for blood."

"In Islamic law and in Pakistan's law, the punishment for death is death," Imran Haider, Faizan Haider's brother, said in Lahore today. "And god willing, the court will have him hanged."

Pakistan: Captured US official 'in telephone contact with Islamic terror group'

A US official, detained in Pakistan after shooting dead two men, had made contact with Taliban-linked extremists in the country's lawless, tribal region, according to details of phone records leaked by the police.

Security sources have leaked a series of details suggesting that Raymond Davis (centre) may have had a clandestine role Photo: AFP

By Rob Crilly, Islamabad 11 Feb 2011

Sources close to the investigation said Raymond Davis, 36, had made a series of telephone calls to South Waziristan, a tribal area along the border with Afghanistan synonymous with militant activity.

The mystery surrounding Davis has deepened since he was arrested in Lahore two weeks ago. He has told police officers he shot dead two men in self defence.

The US insists he is a diplomat based at the embassy in Islamabad and should be granted immunity.

However, security sources have leaked a series of details suggesting that he may have had a clandestine role.

"His phone records clearly show he was in contact with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, for what reason we can only speculate," said a police officer, referring to a terrorist group with close links to the Pakistani Taliban.

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Hamid Gul, a former head of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, said the phone calls suggested he was a secret agent.

"This is a classic intelligence technique – to get inside the head of the enemy," he said.

Davis, who is due to appear in court on Friday, is a former special forces soldier who left the US army in 2003 after 10 years of service, according to Pentagon records.

Mobile phone footage obtained by the Dunya TV channel shows him pleading for the return of his passport shortly after his arrest.

"I need to tell the embassy where I am at," he said, during a confused interrogation as police officers interrupt and laugh in the background.

He went on to tell them that he was working at the US consulate in Lahore "I just work as a consultant there, with the [Regional Affairs Office]," he said.

His arrest is deeply embarrassing to the governments of both Pakistan and the US, which has suspended some high-level talks in order to increase pressure on Islamabad.

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