ISI wary of American special trainers over spying fears

By: Reuters And Shaiq Hussain | Published: April 13, 2011

Gen Pasha’s request for fewer US trainers reflects ISI’s concerns that Americans are spying on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme or having contact with militant groups

ISLAMABAD - Request by the ISI for a cut in the number of US Special Forces trainers working in sensitive regions in Pakistan is due to fears they are also spying, according to Pakistani sources with knowledge of the request, illustrating the extent to which growing mutual mistrust is hampering security co-operation, according to a Reuters report. The request was conveyed when ISI chief General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited his counterpart Leon Panetta at CIA headquarters on Monday. 

A US military official in Islamabad confirmed that a reduction in the number of Special Forces troops involved in training Pakistanis in counter-insurgency was being discussed. “Throughout the history of the training mission there have been discussions about the force structure and location of the training,” the official said. “So this should not be perceived as a done deal. But it’s something that we’re talking about.” 

The Pakistani military declined to comment. About 120 US Special Forces soldiers are in Pakistan’s northwest to train local security forces in counter-insurgency, but given the increasing strain in the US-Pakistan alliance over the past six months, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani now wants those numbers reduced. 

A senior Pakistani intelligence official would not officially comment on the reduction, but said it might be more about appearances than genuine pique, given the sensitivity over foreign troops on Pakistani soil. “It makes it look like the Americans are here conducting operations,” the official said. Any reduction would impact Washington’s ability to gather intelligence for its drone campaign and Pakistan’s counter-insurgency efforts. 

“We want American Special Forces to come and train our people so we can collaborate, but if they get into other activities we don’t want them,” said an instructor at the National Defense University in Islamabad. He said “other activities” could include spying on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme or having contact with militant groups. There is a suspicion among the senior military leadership that Americans troops are gathering intelligence on such groups and not sharing the information, or even actively helping them. 

“The main suspicion is why are they staying after completing their job? Their job was to train the trainers so they should have gone back after that,” another security official said. “But they are over-staying.” The crucial meeting between the intelligence chiefs of the US and Pakistan failed to break the stalemate, as Washington showed its inability to extend firm assurance to Pakistan regarding the withdrawal of CIA operatives from Pakistan, while Pakistan expressed its unwillingness to resume the cooperation suspended since the release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis. After the meeting, a CIA spokesman reportedly said the relations between the two agencies remained on “solid footing”. 

He said, “Director Panetta and General Pasha held productive discussions and the CIA-ISI relationship remains on solid footing.” However, diplomatic circles said despite the four-hour talks being held cordially, with both sides trying hard to iron out differences on contentious issues such as presence of a large number of CIA operatives in Pakistan, the meeting proved to be a “non-starter”.

 

***

 

For your information, consideration and perusal.

 

Best Regards,

 

Shemrez Nauman Afzal

Research Analyst

Spearhead Research

Office # 17, Second Floor, Park Lane Towers,
172 Tufail Road, Cantonment,
Lahore – Pakistan

Ph: +92 42 36622335-6  

Our ranting and raving

What is it that makes us really mad about the Raymond Davis saga? Is it that two Pakistani lives have been lost and no one has been made to account for them? Is it that big, bad America has rubbed our noses in the dirt, robbed us of honour and established that with power and money one can even get away with murder in Pakistan? Is it that our civilian and military leaders have proved yet again that their personal servitude to US interests takes precedence over all else? Is it that with the acceptance of blood money the families of the slain Pakistanis have reminded us that ordinary citizens are as eager to sell their souls for the right price as our leaders? 

Or is it a vile conspiracy against Islam that a Shariah-inspired law has been used by an infidel to get away with murder? Has the manner and speed of the Davis trial established that our justice system isn’t really blind and does play favourites if they are powerful enough? 

How does one explain the outpour of national outrage at the death of two Pakistanis (with suspect backgrounds at best) and nothing comparable at the killing of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti? Why are the lives claimed in Fata by drone attacks, in Balochistan by national security, and across Pakistan by morality, honour and intolerance any less valuable? 

Does Shariah-inspired law not endorse the concept of blood money, the role of a victim’s legal heirs in granting forgiveness and the legal system letting a killer off the hook if he manages to buy his pardon? Why is the use of this law acceptable when it comes into play to excuse premeditated murders of women by family members for the sake of ‘honour’ or to allow the rich to purchase their way out of the criminal justice system, but not in the case of Davis? 

Why criticise Hussain Haqqani for showing the Americans a legal way out of the Davis debacle? Could he have shown such a way if none existed? If the Davis case has made a mockery of justice why is no one interested in plugging loopholes in the Qisas and Diyat law even today? Has the justice system faltered in this particular case? Do we not know that thousands use money and influence every day to grease the wheels of our judicial system? Is financial or intellectual corruption kosher when it comes to cases involving Pakistanis but swift judicial process abhorrent if it benefits someone like Davis? 

The ability of a legal system to produce justice is contingent on the merit and substance of laws together with the integrity of procedures that comprise the system. 

As a nation we are loath to critique and revisit abusive statutory provisions such as the blasphemy law or the diyat law. We understand that bigots in the past conceived flawed legal provisions in the name of religion, present-day bigots defend them tooth and nail for their public survival rests on their ability to continue to drag religion into politics and abuse it, and yet we are too timid to stand for our beliefs and confront the abuse of religion in our state. 

How can a legal system comprising flawed laws and compromised procedural practices miraculously produce justice? 

Leaving our hypocrisy and internal contradictions aside, let us form a fair estimate of what happened in the Davis case. The fact that an undercover CIA operative was formally arrested and information about the case was released to the media was extraordinary. 

The federal government refused to declare that Raymond Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity despite US pressure backed by all its might having been brought to bear upon it. The US administration was forced to backtrack and consider ‘amicable’ alternatives when Pakistan insisted that Davis’ release must be the outcome of our court process. 

At a time when the US is plunged into one of the most Islamophobic phases of its history (with legislators in more than 13 states having introduced bills requiring courts to disregard Shariah laws), the US administration has had to rely on a Shariah-inspired Pakistani law to buy the release of a spook in full public glare. 

Notwithstanding current US status as the sole superpower and the arrogance that comes along, the Davis episode (in the midst of the Middle East turmoil) would have driven home the point that even in satellite states such as Pakistan business-as-usual might not work for much longer. The formula of relying on compliant elites within client states eager and willing to do the master’s bidding is on an extended lease of life if not outdated. 

In Pakistan with the judiciary and the media emerging as new sources of influence more responsive to public opinion, power is no longer as centralised and monopolised as it used to be. Such change in the power-distribution pattern will make it harder for the US to rely on a coterie of individuals within the ruling regime to secure its interests in utter disregard of street opinion. 

But here lies the rub as well. The manner in which the Raymond Davis saga wound up has further entrenched the sense of disempowerment of the average Pakistani. We are angry most of all for we feel used. Our elites have not undergone a change of heart it now seems. They are still eager to sleep with the enemy. It is obvious that public anger was deliberately provoked in this case as a tactical maneuver to drive up the price. 

Our faceless khakis were running the show all along. Once they extracted their pound of flesh things became hunky-dory and the ‘system’ started to speak with one voice again. The biggest winners in this haggle have been the army and the ISI, and the democratic process, civilian control of the military and a rational tolerant society the sorest losers.

Punishing Raymond Davis was not going to rid Pakistan of any of its problems. We feel violated because this episode has thrown into our faces the ugly realities that characterise our state and our society. Our reaction is twofold: a sense of fatalism reflected in self-loathing commentary on how we are a failed people and deserve the hand we have been dealt; or a sense of denial obvious in theories about the US-Euro-Zino-Indian hegemonic-nexus conspiring to hold down the tremendous potential of the faithful in this land of the pure. 

Neither position helps one indulge in constructive self-criticism and take corrective measures. The real tragedy surrounding the Davis saga is that while getting all riled up against the US, we are refusing to learn the right lessons.

The Raymond Davis episode transpired because our security apparatus is not accountable to the people of Pakistan and the national security policy is not subject to public scrutiny. We will never know the details of why the CIA and the ISI fell out in the first place and the terms on which they made up and so more Davises will exist and thrive without our knowledge. 

What we do know is that the khakis have established conclusively that anyone interested in doing business in Pakistan must go through them (first by stirring up a national crisis over the Kerry-Lugar law and then taming it, and now by getting Davis wound up in a legal conundrum and then disentangling him). 

This will remind the US and other foreign actors of the necessity of building direct ties with the army, further perpetuate the civil-military imbalance in Pakistan and weaken the democratic process. Meanwhile the nation addicted to hollow notions of pride will continue to confuse jingoism with national interest and growing anti-Americanism will keep religious parties, bigotry and intolerance alive and well in Pakistan.

Babar Sattar
Saturday, March 19, 2011

The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.

US 'blocks' aid over Raymond Davis issue

By: Ismail Dilawar | Published: March 15, 2011

KARACHI - The United States has finally resorted to punitive measures against Pakistan after Islamabad’s failure to comply with Washington’s covert and overt but pressing demand for the release of Raymond Davis, accused of killing two Pakistani youths in Lahore. The revelation came after the US House of Representatives recently nodded to a Republicans-backed resolution calling for the suspension of economic aid to Pakistan as it was not complying with Washington’s demand for the immediate release of Davis. The resolution is, reportedly, awaiting approval of the American Congress scheduled to reassemble by end of this month. 

Official sources in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs told Pakistan Today that the US disbursements of military and civilian aid to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and Kerry-Lugar aid package were “practically blocked” at present. “A high-level American delegation visited and pointed out to Pakistan that if it did not release Davis, the US will block the funding,” an official of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) told Pakistan Today. If true, the suspension of US aid and assistance would fall heavily on the country’s economic managers who have repeatedly been calling upon their strategic partners in Washington to ensure a ‘timely’ reimbursement of war expenses to Pakistan under CSF.

Victim's Brother Demands US Killer Be Hanged!

Victim's Brother Demands Detained U.S. Official Be Hanged

Raymond Davis, Accused of Killing Two Pakistanis, to Be Held at Least Three More Weeks as Government Decides Immunity

By LEE FERRAN, MATTHEW COLE, KIRIT RADIA and NICK SCHIFRIN
Feb. 17, 2011

Watch: American Accused of Multiple Murders in Pakistan

Watch: U.S. Official Held in Pakistan for Murder

Moments after a Pakistani court once again rejected U.S. demands to release an American "technical advisor" accused in a deadly shooting, the brother of one of the shooting victims told reporters today he and his family demand Raymond Davis be executed.

"Our demand from the first day is that we want him hanged, nothing other than this," the man said after a court decided Davis would be detained for at least another three weeks while the Pakistani central government determines Davis' eligibility for immunity.

"We curse their money, visa and country," the man said, possibly referring to Pakistani news reports that the families have been offered financial compensation for their loss.

The wife of the same man who was shot committed suicide earlier this month, but not before telling local media she wanted Davis' "blood."

After the hearing, Cameron Munter, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, said today he was "disappointed" the Pakistani central government did not certify Davis as a diplomat and release him under diplomatic immunity.

Davis, 36, is accused of shooting and killing two men who the U.S. State Department said were trying to rob him. Ever since his arrest, mystery has surrounded the man President Barack Obama called "our diplomat."

In the days after the shooting, the U.S. State Department denied that the man in Pakistani custody was Raymond Davis, despite Pakistani officials, court documents and one source close to Davis saying otherwise. Eventually Davis was revealed to be a member of the embassy's "technical and administrative staff," but the State Department has refused to answer questions about his specific job in Pakistan. When Davis was arrested, he reportedly possessed a loaded gun, GPS equipment, pictures of what Pakistani police called "sensitive areas" of Pakistan, as well as a diplomatic passport.

Public records show Davis has experience with the U.S. Special Forces and runs a small security company that provides "loss prevention specialists," according to the company website which is no longer active.

Complicating matters, several Pakistani officials told ABC News that the men Davis allegedly shot were not small time criminals, but agents of the country's premier intelligence service, the ISI, who had been tracking Davis -- a claim the U.S. government vehemently denies.

Davis is being held in a "high security" prison where he is being treated like any other inmate, Carmela Conroy, the U.S. Consul General in Lahore, said Tuesday -- a claim disputed by a Pakistani lawyer today. That lawyer claimed in court today that Davis had access to alcohol, cell phones, television and "other things of pleasure."

"Ray is being treated like a regular prisoner," Conroy said earlier this week. "He has no access to a television, telephone, internet or any other electronic devices, and cannot communicate directly with his family." 

Obama: Pakistan Recognizes Davis as a Diplomat

While the Pakistani central government may be taking three weeks to determine whether Davis should enjoy diplomatic immunity, U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the matter is clear.

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

Kerry: U.S. Will Open Criminal Investigation Into Shooting

Earlier Wednesday, Sen. John Kerry, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, left Pakistan without Davis after a short trip meant to help smooth over relations between Pakistan and the U.S.

"President Obama and Secretary Clinton have personally asked me to convey to the people of Pakistan our deepest sorrow for the loss of life that occurred there in that tragic incident," Kerry said before leaving the country. "And there is nothing that the United States wants more than to see those kinds of incidents disappear forever in the lives of Pakistanis and in our relationship. I was encouraged today in the meetings that I had in all levels of your government."

Upon landing in the country, Kerry told local media the U.S. Department of Justice would open a criminal investigation into the shooting should Raymond Davis be released.

"I think during the course of Senator Kerry's stay there, we made clear that with such incidents it is practice of the United States government to conduct its own criminal investigation," Crowley told reporters Wednesday. "And we intend to follow that practice here."

Taliban: Release Davis, Prepare to Die

On Sunday a spokesman for the Taliban said should Davis be released for any reason, the terrorist group would kill anyone involved.

"Whether he is a judge, police, lawyer, army, policy maker or a politician, we will target him. We will kill him," the spokesman told The Associated Press Sunday.

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.