US Double Standards: Kerry -Obama Begging

[Guest Thaqalain]

but there is a broader principle at stake

 

Washington says Davis has diplomatic immunity and should be released but the Pakistan government, fearful of a backlash at home, says the matter should be decided in court. "If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution," Obama told a news conference in Washington, referring to the Vienna Conventions. "We respect it with respect to diplomats who are here."

 

President Obama said his administration wanted the release of Davis. "We're going to be continuing to work with the Pakistani government to get this person released," he added. "Obviously, we're concerned about the loss of life. We're not callous about that, but there is a broader principle at stake," Obama said.

 

Senator Kerry said that both Pakistan and the United States are signatory to the Vienna Conventions. "We respect your courts, but everyone should respect the international laws," he added.

 

He also sought to tone down rhetoric on the issue, calling for restraint. "All politicians, ours and yours, should step back. We did not show any arrogance but we should respect the law applicable since 50 years."

 

 

But an official source said that Washington's sole concern was not Davis's fate rather it was concerned about over 500 American intelligence agents who are in Pakistan apparently involved in counter-terrorism operations.

These agents had been given long-term Pakistani visas during the rule of former President Pervez Musharraf and also during the last few months to chase Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, the source said.

 

The source said that US has already demanded diplomatic status for all of its "men" engaged in counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan..

 

Read more at:

 

 

AlertNet Newsdesk

[Guest Desert Rat]

Don't you consider it a good idea to reinstate agents visas. Both our countries are fighting together against terrorist cells.

[Guest Thaqalain]

Don't you consider it a good idea to reinstate agents visas. Both our countries are fighting together against terrorist cells.

 

It depends on the definition of terror. The unrest, chaos, terror is created by a wide aggression, onslaught, US continued invasions of several territories. One can't expect to dine and dance in glazed honeymoon rooms until delivery of peace, security, justice for all.

 

US CIA has carved not just agents, it has an army of double and triple agents and its hard to know who works for whom, if a country is destroyed,

 

There is popular resistance, hatred from north to south, east to west and its not going to die until US change its aggressive policies, dual standards.

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

Don't you consider it a good idea to reinstate agents visas. Both our countries are fighting together against terrorist cells.

 

To mr Davis hard luck, he didn´t shoot common thieves or bulglars in self defence as he claimed, but two ISI agents following him. The behaviour of Mr. Davis, the trigger-happy CIA or DIA agent is common for Americans sent to work in countries like Pakistan, Iraq or Afghanistan. They are simply cold-blooded and uncivilised cowboys whom the US has sent to teach people democracy and freedom. In Iraq, Blackwater men killed 17 innocent Iraqis at day time in Baghdad. They were put on a show trial in the US and freed for lack of evidence. Mr Kerry wants Mr Davis to be put on trial in the US, to be freed and be given medals as a hero for killing two muslims.

Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

[Guest LAW]

Senator Kerry has no plans or power to give Raymond Davis medals. Why embellish your argument with a false statement? Raymond Davis is a diplomat that will be tried in U.S. court that will do justice for all parties involved. For the record.

 

http://islamabad.use...-110215003.html

 

Islamabad - U.S. Consul General Lahore Carmela Conroy corroborated statements made in the press by several prison officials, who confirmed that detained American diplomat Raymond Davis has behaved appropriately at all times during his incarceration.

 

At the same time, Conroy strongly refuted reports in some Pakistani newspapers suggesting that Davis and U.S. officials visiting him in prison have acted rudely.

 

Conroy has visited Davis regularly since his illegal detention began on January 27.

 

"I would like to commend prison staff for their professionalism," Conroy said. "Ray is being treated like a regular prisoner. He has no access to a television, telephone, internet or any other electronic devices, and cannot communicate directly with his family."

 

"He is being held under the same conditions as a Pakistani would be, in such a high-security facility. He sleeps on a foam mattress on a concrete pad," Conroy added.

 

Davis has regular consular access visits, as all foreign prisoners are entitled under international and Pakistani law. He has received only basic clothing, groceries, medicine and toiletries.

 

.......

 

John Kerry did not go to Pakistan to be the arbitrator of this case.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LPyh8sqQ7U

 

You might want to review the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.

 

http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/vcdr/vcdr.html

[Guest Thaqalain]

US Justice sucks

Written by Yvonne Ridley

Monday, 03 January 2011

America’s international standing as a fair and just country does not match its superpower status as the world's greatest democracy.

 

When it comes to basic human rights it is there in the gutter alongside some of the world's most toxic, tinpot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.

 

So there's little surprise that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fears being extradited to The States where some politicians and Pentagon officials have already called for his execution and Attorney General Eric Holder admits his government may invoke the US Espionage Act.

 

But it's not just the persecution and the prosecution Assange should fear, either – the wheels of justice can be agonisingly slow in a process which could take years. And in the case of the Guantanamo detainees there is no end in sight – the majority of them have not been charged but simply forgotten.

 

Having stepped inside US prisons – both military and civilian – I can tell you there is nothing civilised about the penal institutions in the United States.

 

Four days of filming inside Guantanamo and half a day at one of California’s largest young offenders prisons provided me with enough material to reach this conclusion, bearing in mind as a journalist I was just shown “the good bits”!

 

Having also viewed CCTV footage of detainees in US institutions being strip and cavity searched was equally traumatic and for those who showed the slightest resistance a procedure would follow which in my view is tantamount to gang rape.

 

Frankly, I was appalled by what I saw inside American jails and the interviews and research which followed did not make easy reading.

 

I wondered how the US could really describe itself as a civilised, mature democracy.

 

And if you doubt my judgment here are a few statistics to play with in a prison system where 70 per cent of the inmates are non-whites.

 

* The US has a higher percentage of its citizenry in prison than any other country in history.

 

* 25 percent of the world’s prison population – around 2.3 million – are caged in America.

* More than a quarter of US inmates are black males between the ages of 20 and 39 and over the course of a lifetime, 28 percent of all black American men will have spent some time behind bars in what can only be described as a racist-driven judicial system.

As 2011 dawns the British Prime Minister David Cameron is faced with some hard choices this year, none more difficult than probably deciding whether or not to scrap our extradition treaty with the US and refuse to hand over a group of British citizens to Barak Obama’s America.

 

And make no mistake, if he wanted to, he could tell the Obama Administration to “get stuffed”. His coalition government is stronger than the previous Labour governments … under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown human rights, civil liberties and freedoms were diminished both at home and abroad.

 

It was Blair’s government that introduced the one-sided 2003 Extradition Treaty to please and appease the Bush Administration. Legislation drawn up in panic and haste is never a good idea nor was it wise to allow America to extend its jurisdiction in to the UK for that is exactly what has happened. And I wonder if the legislation was really drawn up by UK lawyers since a close inspection of the original documents reveal the liberal use of American English.

 

I would urge Cameron to resist all of the existing US Extradition requests just as he would if the same demands were being made by some Banana Republic.

 

This has nothing to do with innocence or guilt, by the way, but everything to do with the just treatment of human beings – justice should be meted out equally, without fear or favour but in America the accused are often judged by the colour of their skin, religion and class.

 

The evidence is there for all to see – America’s human rights record is appalling, the prison system is a disgrace and the way it treats its own convicted citizens, let alone foreigners, is primitive.

 

Gareth Peirce, an internationally acclaimed and respected solicitor based in London explains in her book Dispatches from the Dark Side: “Guilty pleas resolve 97% of US trials, an extraordinary statistic inevitably achieved by the defendant's apprehension of what lies ahead – not just for the 'worst of the worst' – and a desire to avoid, at any cost, the US law's most extreme application.”

 

A number of her clients including Syed Talha Ahsan, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdel Bary and Khalid al-Fawwaz have been held in British prisons for a record amount of years fighting extradition to the US.

 

All of these men protest their innocence and would welcome their day in court – a British court. However the evidence against them is either so flimsy or non existent that police in the UK have no intention of wasting public money on trials which will end up being laughed out of court.

 

Which takes us back to the 2003 US Extradition agreement in which the Blair government tied the hands of the UK judiciary beyond sound judgment. Now any slight allegation made by the US should be regarded in British courts as solid proof.

 

By the way it’s not a two-way system. Should the UK ever wish to extradite a US citizen the evidence supplied must be well documented, concrete and factual and able to withstand the scrutiny of a US judge.

 

Britain’s legal system became the basis for most others in the world. It is based on presumed innocence and a trial by a jury of one’s peers which emanates from our rights as set out in the Magna Carta of 1215, a noble document which has stood the test of time.

 

pet·it jury also pet·ty jury (pĕt'ē)

n.

A jury that sits at civil and criminal trials. Also called trial jury

 

The 2003 extradition treaty is a complete betrayal of those basic rights. A victim of the treaty faces being locked up without evidence and has no right to a trial by jury and gone is the presumption of innocence.

 

We cannot allow anyone in UK custody or under 'house arrest' like Julian Assange to be extradited to the US. You just have to look at the treatment of its own citizens to realise this.

 

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old US Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months, despite not having been convicted of any crime.

 

Manning has been kept alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, barred from exercising in that cell, deprived of sleep, and denied even a pillow or sheets for his bed. Unsurprisingly he now relies on anti-depressants to cope with the effects of isolation. No date for a court hearing has been set.

 

Make no mistake, this sort of treatment is torture and we, as a civilised nation can not send anyone in to the hands of the US judicial system which openly tortures its own citizens as well as others.

 

By the time his brains are completely scrambled and he’s addicted to his medication I'm sure some sleazy, government prosecutor will offer him a plea bargain which is another disgraceful and routine feature of US justice. In exchange for dishing the dirt, real or imagine, on Julian Assange, Manning will be pressurised to cut a deal.

 

I would urge the British Prime Minister to tear up the 2003 extradition treaty now, tell Obama to get stuffed and instruct the Foreign Office to issue a travel warning advisory for any UK citizens contemplating a trip to America.

 

Yvonne Ridley is the European President of the International Muslim Women’s Union who came to fame when she ventured into Afghanistan after 9/11 and was captured by Taliban. Later released and then she studied Islam and became a Muslim. She is an activist, present everywhere against tyranny, injustice and oppression.

[Guest HUMAN]

http://www.caica.org/NEWS%20Deaths%20Main.htm

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

US Justice sucks

Written by Yvonne Ridley

Monday, 03 January 2011

America’s international standing as a fair and just country does not match its superpower status as the world's greatest democracy.

 

When it comes to basic human rights it is there in the gutter alongside some of the world's most toxic, tinpot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.

 

So there's little surprise that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fears being extradited to The States where some politicians and Pentagon officials have already called for his execution and Attorney General Eric Holder admits his government may invoke the US Espionage Act.

 

But it's not just the persecution and the prosecution Assange should fear, either – the wheels of justice can be agonisingly slow in a process which could take years. And in the case of the Guantanamo detainees there is no end in sight – the majority of them have not been charged but simply forgotten.

 

Having stepped inside US prisons – both military and civilian – I can tell you there is nothing civilised about the penal institutions in the United States.

 

Four days of filming inside Guantanamo and half a day at one of California’s largest young offenders prisons provided me with enough material to reach this conclusion, bearing in mind as a journalist I was just shown “the good bits”!

 

Having also viewed CCTV footage of detainees in US institutions being strip and cavity searched was equally traumatic and for those who showed the slightest resistance a procedure would follow which in my view is tantamount to gang rape.

 

Frankly, I was appalled by what I saw inside American jails and the interviews and research which followed did not make easy reading.

 

I wondered how the US could really describe itself as a civilised, mature democracy.

 

And if you doubt my judgment here are a few statistics to play with in a prison system where 70 per cent of the inmates are non-whites.

 

* The US has a higher percentage of its citizenry in prison than any other country in history.

 

* 25 percent of the world’s prison population – around 2.3 million – are caged in America.

* More than a quarter of US inmates are black males between the ages of 20 and 39 and over the course of a lifetime, 28 percent of all black American men will have spent some time behind bars in what can only be described as a racist-driven judicial system.

As 2011 dawns the British Prime Minister David Cameron is faced with some hard choices this year, none more difficult than probably deciding whether or not to scrap our extradition treaty with the US and refuse to hand over a group of British citizens to Barak Obama’s America.

 

And make no mistake, if he wanted to, he could tell the Obama Administration to “get stuffed”. His coalition government is stronger than the previous Labour governments … under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown human rights, civil liberties and freedoms were diminished both at home and abroad.

 

It was Blair’s government that introduced the one-sided 2003 Extradition Treaty to please and appease the Bush Administration. Legislation drawn up in panic and haste is never a good idea nor was it wise to allow America to extend its jurisdiction in to the UK for that is exactly what has happened. And I wonder if the legislation was really drawn up by UK lawyers since a close inspection of the original documents reveal the liberal use of American English.

 

I would urge Cameron to resist all of the existing US Extradition requests just as he would if the same demands were being made by some Banana Republic.

 

This has nothing to do with innocence or guilt, by the way, but everything to do with the just treatment of human beings – justice should be meted out equally, without fear or favour but in America the accused are often judged by the colour of their skin, religion and class.

 

The evidence is there for all to see – America’s human rights record is appalling, the prison system is a disgrace and the way it treats its own convicted citizens, let alone foreigners, is primitive.

 

Gareth Peirce, an internationally acclaimed and respected solicitor based in London explains in her book Dispatches from the Dark Side: “Guilty pleas resolve 97% of US trials, an extraordinary statistic inevitably achieved by the defendant's apprehension of what lies ahead – not just for the 'worst of the worst' – and a desire to avoid, at any cost, the US law's most extreme application.”

 

A number of her clients including Syed Talha Ahsan, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdel Bary and Khalid al-Fawwaz have been held in British prisons for a record amount of years fighting extradition to the US.

 

All of these men protest their innocence and would welcome their day in court – a British court. However the evidence against them is either so flimsy or non existent that police in the UK have no intention of wasting public money on trials which will end up being laughed out of court.

 

Which takes us back to the 2003 US Extradition agreement in which the Blair government tied the hands of the UK judiciary beyond sound judgment. Now any slight allegation made by the US should be regarded in British courts as solid proof.

 

By the way it’s not a two-way system. Should the UK ever wish to extradite a US citizen the evidence supplied must be well documented, concrete and factual and able to withstand the scrutiny of a US judge.

 

Britain’s legal system became the basis for most others in the world. It is based on presumed innocence and a trial by a jury of one’s peers which emanates from our rights as set out in the Magna Carta of 1215, a noble document which has stood the test of time.

 

pet·it jury also pet·ty jury (pĕt'ē)

n.

A jury that sits at civil and criminal trials. Also called trial jury

 

The 2003 extradition treaty is a complete betrayal of those basic rights. A victim of the treaty faces being locked up without evidence and has no right to a trial by jury and gone is the presumption of innocence.

 

We cannot allow anyone in UK custody or under 'house arrest' like Julian Assange to be extradited to the US. You just have to look at the treatment of its own citizens to realise this.

 

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old US Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months, despite not having been convicted of any crime.

 

Manning has been kept alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, barred from exercising in that cell, deprived of sleep, and denied even a pillow or sheets for his bed. Unsurprisingly he now relies on anti-depressants to cope with the effects of isolation. No date for a court hearing has been set.

 

Make no mistake, this sort of treatment is torture and we, as a civilised nation can not send anyone in to the hands of the US judicial system which openly tortures its own citizens as well as others.

 

By the time his brains are completely scrambled and he’s addicted to his medication I'm sure some sleazy, government prosecutor will offer him a plea bargain which is another disgraceful and routine feature of US justice. In exchange for dishing the dirt, real or imagine, on Julian Assange, Manning will be pressurised to cut a deal.

 

I would urge the British Prime Minister to tear up the 2003 extradition treaty now, tell Obama to get stuffed and instruct the Foreign Office to issue a travel warning advisory for any UK citizens contemplating a trip to America.

 

Yvonne Ridley is the European President of the International Muslim Women’s Union who came to fame when she ventured into Afghanistan after 9/11 and was captured by Taliban. Later released and then she studied Islam and became a Muslim. She is an activist, present everywhere against tyranny, injustice and oppression.

[Guest Always Red]

This is a response to Thaqalain and Yvonne,

 

You remind me of many ignorant Liberals here.

 

Did you expect to that prisoners to be sitting down to tea debating U.S. foreign policy? I am quite sure they do not do that in any prison around the world.

 

Prisons Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan are far more dangerous and corrupt than the U.S. Our prisoners are treated better and get quality health care. Just review the expenses of our facilities compared to theirs.

 

If the United States had that much power over Britain, then Julian Assange would be in U.S. custody now.

 

When are you going to take responsibility for your own actions and try to better your country's economic standing? You can start by burning every poppy field. Then stop every drug dealer from pushing dope on kids. I am sure Mohamed did not condone drugs.

[Guest Thaqalain]

This is a response to Thaqalain and Yvonne,

 

You remind me of many ignorant Liberals here.

 

Did you expect to that prisoners to be sitting down to tea debating U.S. foreign policy? I am quite sure they do not do that in any prison around the world.

 

Prisons Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan are far more dangerous and corrupt than the U.S. Our prisoners are treated better and get quality health care. Just review the expenses of our facilities compared to theirs.

 

If the United States had that much power over Britain, then Julian Assange would be in U.S. custody now.

 

When are you going to take responsibility for your own actions and try to better your country's economic standing? You can start by burning every poppy field. Then stop every drug dealer from pushing dope on kids. I am sure Mohamed did not condone drugs.

 

Answer following questions:

1-US keep issue of wikileak low and its owner trial may bring miseries for US Janta. He may be murder soon by a mission accomplished or will be asked to execute him before he confesses more leaks as they did to Saddam hanging him for killing 20 persons only.

 

2-Investigators believe that the three American nationals who had come to Davis’s rescue are also US spies and they had come to the scene to take safe custody of secret documents and photographs from Davis.

 

 

3-“The evidence was provided by Davis in his confessional statement during investigation,” a senior police official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity. “We have concluded that a gang of American spies is active in Punjab and other parts of the country,” he added.

The official said that “besides Davis’s confessional statement we have every reason to believe that the three absconding persons were his collaborators.”

 

“They must be involved in spying like Davis. If this was not the case why did they flee the crime scene in panic,” the official said. “In their panic, they had crushed to death a motorcyclist under their SUV while fleeing the scene.”

4- The driver of the vehicle held the same diplomatic visa as Davis, US officials told ABC News. Authorities in Punjab said that they sent five letters to the US Embassy asking that the driver and vehicle be handed over, but have reportedly received no response. It is unclear when the driver and his passenger were spirited out of Pakistan, but a senior US official said it happened soon after the shooting incident.

 

So US is authorised to torture, hang, poison, inject, waterjet the prisoners but it doesn't asks its own criminals to face fair judicial system!! Isn't it a triple standadrd? Do you think US Embassy Attorneys are more smarter then others?

[Guest Desert Rat]

Wikileaks is a national story in the U.S. Millions of Americans know about it.

 

Saddam Killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

 

He mustard gassed 40 Kurdish villages

In his next campaign he killed 182,000 Kurds during his Anfal campaign

Saddam Hussein's regime killed thousands of Marsh Arabs

 

I am guessing that your news is filtered.

 

 

At the same time many Americans do not understand why your country harbors Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Do you think what they are a good peaceful organization? What about Benazir Bhutto?

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

Senator Kerry has no plans or power to give Raymond Davis medals. Why embellish your argument with a false statement? Raymond Davis is a diplomat that will be tried in U.S. court that will do justice for all parties involved. For the record.

 

http://islamabad.use...-110215003.html

 

Islamabad - U.S. Consul General Lahore Carmela Conroy corroborated statements made in the press by several prison officials, who confirmed that detained American diplomat Raymond Davis has behaved appropriately at all times during his incarceration.

 

At the same time, Conroy strongly refuted reports in some Pakistani newspapers suggesting that Davis and U.S. officials visiting him in prison have acted rudely.

 

Conroy has visited Davis regularly since his illegal detention began on January 27.

 

"I would like to commend prison staff for their professionalism," Conroy said. "Ray is being treated like a regular prisoner. He has no access to a television, telephone, internet or any other electronic devices, and cannot communicate directly with his family."

 

"He is being held under the same conditions as a Pakistani would be, in such a high-security facility. He sleeps on a foam mattress on a concrete pad," Conroy added.

 

Davis has regular consular access visits, as all foreign prisoners are entitled under international and Pakistani law. He has received only basic clothing, groceries, medicine and toiletries.

 

.......

 

John Kerry did not go to Pakistan to be the arbitrator of this case.

 

R

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LPyh8sqQ7U

 

You might want to review the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.

 

http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/vcdr/vcdr.html

[Guest Adnan Darwash]

but there is a broader principle at stake

 

Washington says Davis has diplomatic immunity and should be released but the Pakistan government, fearful of a backlash at home, says the matter should be decided in court. "If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution," Obama told a news conference in Washington, referring to the Vienna Conventions. "We respect it with respect to diplomats who are here."

 

 

 

Senator Kerry said that both Pakistan and the United States are signatory to the Vienna Conventions. "We respect your courts, but everyone should respect the international laws," he added.

 

The trigger-happy Mr Davis was infact a CIA agent shooting people in the back!

Guardian.co.uk, 21.02.11

The American who shot dead two men in Lahore, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and the US, is a CIA agent who was on assignment at the time.

 

Raymond Davis has been the subject of widespread speculation since he opened fire with a semi-automatic Glock pistol on the two men who had pulled up in front of his car at a red light on 25 January.

 

Pakistani authorities charged him with murder, but the Obama administration has insisted he is an "administrative and technical official" attached to its Lahore consulate and has diplomatic immunity.

 

Based on interviews in the US and Pakistan, the Guardian can confirm that the 36-year-old former special forces soldier is employed by the CIA. "It's beyond a shadow of a doubt," said a senior Pakistani intelligence official. The revelation may complicate American efforts to free Davis, who insists he was acting in self-defence against a pair of suspected robbers, who were both carrying guns.

 

Pakistani prosecutors accuse the spy of excessive force, saying he fired 10 shots and got out of his car to shoot one man twice in the back as he fled. The man's body was found 30 feet from his motorbike.

 

"It went way beyond what we define as self-defence. It was not commensurate with the threat," a senior police official involved in the case told the Guardian.

 

The Pakistani government is aware of Davis's CIA status yet has kept quiet in the face of immense American pressure to free him under the Vienna convention. Last week President Barack Obama described Davis as "our diplomat" and dispatched his chief diplomatic troubleshooter, Senator John Kerry, to Islamabad. Kerry returned home empty-handed.

 

Many Pakistanis are outraged at the idea of an armed American rampaging through their second-largest city. Analysts have warned of Egyptian-style protests if Davis is released. The government, fearful of a backlash, says it needs until 14 March to decide whether Davis enjoys immunity.

 

A third man was crushed by an American vehicle as it rushed to Davis's aid. Pakistani officials believe its occupants were CIA because they came from the house where Davis lived and were armed.

 

The US refused Pakistani demands to interrogate the two men and on Sunday a senior Pakistani intelligence official said they had left the country. "They have flown the coop, they are already in America," he said.

 

ABC News reported that the men had the same diplomatic visas as Davis. It is not unusual for US intelligence officers, like their counterparts round the world, to carry diplomatic passports.

 

The US has accused Pakistan of illegally detaining him and riding roughshod over international treaties. Angry politicians have proposed slashing Islamabad's $1.5bn (£900m) annual aid.

 

But Washington's case is hobbled by its resounding silence on Davis's role. He served in the US special forces for 10 years before leaving in 2003 to become a security contractor. A senior Pakistani official said he believed Davis had worked with Xe, the firm formerly known as Blackwater.

 

Pakistani suspicions about Davis's role were stoked by the equipment police confiscated from his car: an unlicensed pistol, a long-range radio, a GPS device, an infrared torch and a camera with pictures of buildings around Lahore.

 

"This is not the work of a diplomat. He was doing espionage and surveillance activities," said the Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah, adding he had "confirmation" that Davis was a CIA employee.

 

A number of US media outlets learned about Davis's CIA role but have kept it under wraps at the request of the Obama administration. A Colorado television station, 9NEWS, made a connection after speaking to Davis's wife. She referred its inquiries to a number in Washington which turned out to be the CIA. The station removed the CIA reference from its website at the request of the US government.

 

Some reports, quoting Pakistani intelligence officials, have suggested that the men Davis killed, Faizan Haider, 21, and Muhammad Faheem, 19, were agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency (ISI) and had orders to shadow Davis because he crossed a "red line".

 

A senior police official confirmed US claims that the men were petty thieves – investigators found stolen mobiles, foreign currency and weapons on them – but did not rule out an intelligence link.

 

A senior ISI official denied the dead men worked for the spy agency but admitted the CIA relationship had been damaged. "We are a sovereign country and if they want to work with us, they need to develop a trusting relationship on the basis of equality. Being arrogant and demanding is not the way to do it," he said.

 

Tensions between the spy agencies have been growing. The CIA Islamabad station chief was forced to leave in December after being named in a civil lawsuit. The ISI was angered when its chief, General Shuja Pasha, was named in a New York lawsuit related to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

 

Although the two spy services co-operate in the CIA's drone campaign along the Afghan border, there has not been a drone strike since 23 January – the longest lull since June 2009. Experts are unsure whether both events are linked.

 

Davis awaits his fate in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. Pakistani officials say they have taken exceptional measures to ensure his safety, including ringing the prison with paramilitary Punjab Rangers. The law minister, Sanaullah, said Davis was in a "high security zone" and was receiving food from visitors from the US consulate.

 

Sanaullah said 140 foreigners were in the facility, many on drug charges. Press reports have speculated that the authorities worry the US could try to spring Davis in a "Hollywood-style sting". "All measures for his security have been taken," said the ISI official. "He's as safe as can be."

 

 

 

But an official source said that Washington's sole concern was not Davis's fate rather it was concerned about over 500 American intelligence agents who are in Pakistan apparently involved in counter-terrorism operations.

These agents had been given long-term Pakistani visas during the rule of former President Pervez Musharraf and also during the last few months to chase Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, the source said.

 

The source said that US has already demanded diplomatic status for all of its "men" engaged in counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan..

 

Read more at:

 

 

AlertNet Newsdesk

[Guest LAW]

I look for constructive messages from both sides.

 

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Thursday that the government of Pakistan has told US Senator John Kerry in categorical terms that Raymond Davis case is sub judice and only courts will decide his fate.While addressing her maiden press briefing after the first meeting of new federal cabinet here she said the President, Prime Minister and other Pakistani leadership made it clear to him that as Pakistan cannot interfere in the process of other countries judicial matters, similarly no other country can interfere in the affairs of Pakistan’s judiciary.

 

She said that the Minister for Law and Justice briefed the Cabinet on the Raymond Davis issue. He apprised them of various aspects of the matter including legal aspects. The Cabinet reviewed the implementation status of the decisions taken by the Cabinet and reasons for pending decisions. She said that the government was not an aggrieved party in the case and if the aggrieved party agrees on Qasas and Diyat, it has this right. She said that law enforcement agencies of the Punjab Government were handling the case and the Federal Government was coordinating with them.

 

The Cabinet directed that the courts should be facilitated and it should be ensured that no one else interferes in the courts’ proceedings so they can decide the matter.

 

http://ftpapp.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131210&Itemid=1

 

The Spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry has contradicted reports appearing in the media about any pronouncement, public or official, made by the Foreign Ministry relating to the question of immunity of Raymond Allen Davis.

 

Speculation in this regard is unfounded.

 

http://www.mofa.gov.pk/Press_Releases/2011/Feb/PR_046.htm

 

War is delicate when the enemy hides in ally lands.

 

Now, from the beginning, we have recognized the fundamental connection between our war effort in Afghanistan and the extremists’ safe havens and enablers in Pakistan. It is no secret that we have not always seen eye-to-eye with Pakistan on how to deal with these threats or on the future of Afghanistan. But as a result of growing cooperation between our governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies, and determined action by the Pakistani army, we have been able to dramatically expand our counterterrorism and intelligence efforts.

 

Pakistan has legitimate concerns that should be understood and addressed by the Afghan Government under any reconciliation process, with steps that provide transparency and reassurance. But Pakistan also has responsibilities of its own, including taking decisive steps to ensure that the Afghan Taliban cannot continue to conduct the insurgency from Pakistani territory. Pressure from the Pakistani side will help push the Taliban toward the negotiating table and away from al-Qaida. - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

[Guest Thaqalain]

I look for constructive messages from both sides.

 

 

 

 

 

War is delicate when the enemy hides in ally lands.

Chief justice Lahore High Court has ordered the inclusion of reports by the international media in the record of the case regarding Raymond Davis.

 

 

 

 

Advocate Azhar Siddique filed an application in the Lahore High Court requesting the inclusion of reports by the western media on Raymond Davis in the record of the case. The reports say that Raymond Davis is a CIA spy working in Pakistan.

 

 

 

Chief Justice Ijaz Ahemd Chaudhry remarked that there is no need to make the American government a party in the Raymond Davis case because Pakistan will decide the outcome of the hearing and not America. He added that, the American government will involve itself if it wants to provide immunity to Raymond Davis.