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by vanlose kid » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:37 am
Nordic wrote:So how is this gonna play in Pakistan? They were already up in arms about this.
Seems like this would be like a "Rodney King moment" there.
by Nordic » Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:55 am
by 8bitagent » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:35 pm
Peachtree Pam wrote:http://tribune.com.pk/story/134313/the-forgotten-victim/
@8Bitagent:
Raymond Davis case: the forgotten victimLAHORE:
The heirs of Ibadur-Rehman, the man who had been crushed to death by a would-be rescuer of Raymond Davis, are being neglected by all political parties, even those seeking to capitalise on the Davis affair, claimed Mashood-ur-Rehman, Ibad’s younger brother.
“Political parties do not care whether my family will get justice or not,” said Mashhood in an interview with The Express Tribune. “Politicians are working for their vote bank.”
He said that the poor masses of this country were disappointed whenever they needed the assistance of ruling parties. Lashing out at the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, he said that Sharif routinely left for abroad whenever sensitive developments occurred in the country.
When asked whether they would make a deal if offered, he adamantly claimed that they would never do this as did the families of the other victims. He said that they would never sell our brother’s blood and would fight till the last drop of their blood.
Mashhood said that their family decided to protest on the streets and will remain on the streets till they were granted justice. He said that their mother wept inconsolably for her son Ibad. When asked if his relatives would back him if he comes on roads, he replied that they were united. He claimed that his family members and what he called “all Pakistanis” would pour out onto the streets and join them.
“They would kill us like the wife of Faheem if justice was not awarded them,” he said, apparently alleging that the wife of one of Davis’ victims, who had committed suicide, may have been murdered.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met with Mashhood’s family a few days ago, promising them justice. After the release of Davis, however, Mashhood is not hopeful.
None of the US officials allegedly in the car that killed Ibad have been arrested.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 18th, 2011.
by 8bitagent » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:38 pm
vanlose kid wrote:`Blood money was paid by S. Arabia`
By Anwar Iqbal | From the Newspaper
(12 hours ago) Today
WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia is believed to have arranged the blood money that allowed CIA contractor Raymond Davis to go home after nearly two months in a Lahore jail, diplomatic sources told Dawn.
They said that the Saudis joined the efforts to resolve the dispute late last month after it became obvious that Davis`s continued incarceration could do an irreparable damage to US-Pakistan relations.
The Saudis agreed to pay the money, “at least for now”, to get Davis released, the sources said, but did not clarify if and how would the Saudis be reimbursed.
“This is something that needs to be discussed between the United States and the Kingdom,” one source said. “Mr Davis`s surprise departure from Pakistan came after it became obvious that the Americans were getting impatient,” he added.
The New York Times, however, quoted US officials as saying that the money would be paid by members of the Pakistan government, and then reimbursed by the Obama administration.
US officials, who spoke to the media, also insisted that the CIA had made no pledges to scale back covert operations in Pakistan to earn Davis`s release. The CIA also refused to give the Pakistani government or its intelligence agency a roster of American spies operating in the country, the officials said.
In an interview broadcast on Thursday by the US National Public Radio, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not clarify the situation either. “Well, you`ll have to ask him what he means by that,” said Ms Clinton when informed that Punjab`s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah was insisting that the blood money had been paid.
“And a lawyer involved in the case said it was $2.34 million. There is no money that came from anywhere?” she was asked.
“The United States did not pay any compensation,” the secretary replied. “Did someone else, to your knowledge?”
“You will have to ask whoever you are interested in asking about that,” she said.
“You`re not going to talk about it?” the interviewer insisted.
“I have nothing to answer to that,” she replied.
According to the US media, the case was resolved after Pakistani officials met family members of the victims for more than six hours on Wednesday to arrange compensation. The issue of payments was first raised with Pakistani officials by Senator John Kerry during a trip to Islamabad last month.
Since then, American and Pakistani officials had regularly discussed the matter, and CIA director Leon Panetta had spoken frequently to ISI chief Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the media report said.
At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney referred reporters to the State Department when asked if he knew the blood money had been paid.
At the State Department, deputy spokesman Mark Toner said he would “go with the secretary`s statement”.
“I`m not an expert in Pakistani law, so I`m not comfortable discussing the legal process that took place. I understand that they signed a document that then pardoned Mr Davis, and the case is, in our mind, resolved,” he explained.
“I don`t think so. No,” said Mr Toner when asked if the US was in direct contact with the victims` family.
“We want to move on now and get to the issues that we`re working together with Pakistan on,” said Mr Toner when asked what would be the impact of the release on US-Pakistan relations.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/18/blood-mo ... rabia.html
more like "shut up money" than "blood money" it seems. but then, "blood money" plays better in the islamofascist "narrative".
*
by seemslikeadream » Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:34 pm
Admiral Mullen's Secret Deal
How the Pentagon Supervised Raymond Davis' Release and How the CIA Took Its Revenge
By SHAUKAT QADIR
On February 23, at a beach resort, Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan army’s chief assisted by a two star officer met with Admiral Mike Mullen, US Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, assisted by Gen. David Petraeus, and three other high ranking officials, to find a military-diplomatic solution to untangle this web that CIA operatives had spun around both governments. This has been a fairly consistent tradition. On every occasion when relations between Pakistan and the United States have soured (a not infrequent occurrence) the militaries have remained in contact and, invariably, have found a way forward.
The day after this meeting, a military officer posted at the US Embassy in Islamabad travelled to Lahore and met Davis in Kot Lakpat jail. Within 48 hours of this meeting, almost 50 individuals associated with the Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP), including Pashtuns, Punjabis, and some foreigners (nationalities unknown, though one of them is said to be an Aryan) who had been in contact with Davis were arrested. Presumably, Davis ‘sang’, though probably to only a limited degree, on instructions.
Within the same period, a large number of Americans, estimated at between 30 to 45, who had been residing in rented accommodations (like Davis and his associates who had killed a motorcyclist while unsuccessfully attempting to rescue Davis) outside the Embassy/Consulate premises in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, and Quetta left for the US. It is safe to conclude that these were either CIA, Black ops, or associated personnel from security agencies like Xe.
The intelligence business is broadly divided into two categories: human intelligence, known as HUMINT and electronic intelligence, known as ELINT. The latter has numerous subdivisions: SIGINT (Signals intelligence, also known as COMINT; communication intelligence), Imagery intelligence etc. It appears, therefore, that the deal struck between the military leadership included a shut down of CIA’s HUMINT operations in Pakistan, retaining only ELINT, Davis would ‘sing’, within limits, of course, and only then could Blood Money be negotiated for his release. And the US would be bled in that final deal also so as to ensure the safety and the future of the immediate families of both Davis’s victims.
At the height of the debate on the question of Raymond Davis’ immunity from trial for murder, this writer emphasized that Pakistan could not release him without a trial. A trial took duly place and, in accordance with prevalent law in Pakistan, the next of kin of the deceased young men, pardoned Davis in return for ‘Blood Money’. However outlandish this law might seem to those peoples whose countries have their based on Anglo-Saxon principles, such is the law in Pakistan and so there was nothing underhand in what transpired.
Amongst analysts and journalists there were basically two opposing responses to his release, though there was (and is) an occasional sane voice to be heard, throughout the saga. One category of people had been arguing since Davis’ arrest that he should be granted immunity since Pakistan, given its precarious economy, weak government, and the prevalent security situation, could not afford to fall afoul of the US. For this factionhis release through the judicial system was the next best outcome of the disastrous mistake that had been committed in arresting him!
The opposing view was that it is time and more, that Pakistan asserts its sovereignty and national pride to ensure that Davis is awarded no less than his due: the death penalty. It is ironic that the bulk of those who held this view are all supporters of the imposition of Islamic laws including those on blasphemy, Blood Money (the law that ensured Davis’ pardon), and a host of other issues and, even after Davis’ release under these laws, any attempt to get rid of such laws would be opposed by them, tooth and nail.
While the accusations leveled by the prosecution that the families of Faizan and Faheem, the two men killed by Davis, were coerced into accepting the deal offered to them in exchange for their pardoning Davis, is a pack of nonsense, since the entire family was under the active protection of the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, there is absolutely no doubt that the ISI (and, therefore, GHQ) assisted in brokering the deal. In fact, I would be very surprised if both families had not been continuously advised by fairly senior-level representatives of the ISI as to what and how much they should ask for.
Accusations leveled against the provincial government for being complicit in brokering this deal are, in my view, unfair, since both, the central and provincial governments were helpless bystanders. Both governments might, however, have heaved a sigh of relief, at the final outcome, since the official stand that both governments took was that the case was to be decided by the courts and, to that extent, they stand vindicated. It was the court that released Davis.
What is more, if the dirt poor next of kin to both deceased decide to take a pragmatic view and accept, what would be for them, a fortune, in exchange for two loved ones; but dead loved ones, who is anybody to tell them nay? While details of the settlement vary in estimate, I am reliably informed that about $ 1.5 million per family has been paid, with US citizenship (the Promised Land; however unpromising it might be in real life!) for a dozen or more members of each family, with job guarantees for those of age and education opportunities guaranteed for children -- more than they could ever dream of and sufficiently tempting for them to pardon the killer.
But how did all this happen so suddenly? After all, it seemed that not only had the CIA and ISI fallen out, but US-Pak relations were endangered by the arrest of such a low ranking individual. Even Obama had to lie about his diplomatic status, seeking immunity from trial for Davis!
Let me state quite categorically that no one outside those who negotiated this deal are privy to what actually transpired and they aren’t talking. What is more, neither side (American or Pakistani) would know the discussions that took place within each side. Having said that; there are some things that some of us do know.
It is my considered opinion that, after Musharaf opened all doors permitting CIA and its contract agents unlimited access to Pakistan, Pakistan’s GHQ/ISI could not have struck a better deal! This was a priceless opportunity to get rid of the CIA; it was also a success that could hardly have pleased Langley, on which subject, more below.
With Davis milked, even if not for everything he knew, all that Pakistan could gain from letting the trial run its course would be to humiliate the US further. On the other hand, though the ISI would have compensated the families of its operatives killed by Davis; it could not have dreamt of providing them with a tithe of what they have received. To add icing to that cake, CIA HUMINT operatives have, more or less left (it is a virtual certainty that there are plenty left, but they are confined to the Embassy/Consulate compounds); and to put cream on the icing, all aid is resumed, withheld payments are being made and mutual relations are close to normal.
There was however one strong jolt to the spirit of renewed amity, administered by the CIA.
When the US began drone strikes in Pakistan in 2006, drone attacks were notoriously inaccurate. Their kill ratio was approximately 2 militants to 8-10 ‘collateral damage’. This was in the Musharaf era. In 2007, after Kiyani took over as the army chief, a US drone was threatened and it pulled back, another was fired upon. Pakistan’s central government, however, reined Kiyani in and the drone attacks recommenced. However, from about March/April 2008, they became increasingly accurate, probably due to more accurate HUMINT. In recent times, the kill ratio swung dramatically; 8-10 militants to 2 in collateral damage.
While public protests against drone strikes continued, privately there was considerable support for them. In fact, it would surprise readers in the US to know that, off the record, even tribesmen were also reconciled, so long as the strikes had this degree of precise success.
Following Davis’ arrest, there was a lull in drone strikes before they resumed, with the same deadly accuracy.
Three days prior to his court appearance on March 16, the strikes again stopped and on March 17, the day after Davis was whisked away, another drone attack occurred in North Waziristan, but this time it did not target a single militant. It killed 41 people, including women and children; all ‘collateral damage’. The drone was initially chasing a vehicle crossing the Durand Line to approach a village, where a local Jirga (council of elders) was gathered to settle some disputes. Having hit it, the drone deliberately turned its missiles towards the gathering in the village and let loose a barrage. Eyewitnesses cannot agree whether these were four or six, but not less than four missiles; sufficient to cause the carnage. Nor was there any evidence found to support the possibility that the four passengers in the vehicle the drone was chasing were militants. Locals are usually well-informed on such matters.
About a month ago, some helicopter-borne snipers killed nine children in Afghanistan who were out gathering firewood. An ex-marine turned journalist accused the snipers of deliberate murder. He argued that, with the technology available, it was impossible not to be able to differentiate between children aged nine to thirteen, carrying sticks, and armed militants.
It is my judgment that the drone attack on March 17 was deliberate, not only because of the technology available, but also because the CIA was furious over the deal negotiated between the two militaries to oust them from Pakistan. Given their record of pretty consistent accuracy for over two years, during which, never more than a total of twenty people have been killed, the majority being militants, and the manner of the attack, no other credible conclusion comes to mind.
My contention is lent credence by Pakistan’s reaction. Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington DC, Husain Haqqani, delivered the most strongly worded protest that he could muster. The US Ambassador in Islamabad was summoned to the Foreign Office and was told in no uncertain terms that Pakistan will ‘have to reconsider its relations with the US’. So forcefully was he told that, while leaving the FO, he was overheard cursing! But most of all, for the first time since he took office, three and a half years ago, Gen Kiyani personally condemned this attack and, since March 17 , the Pakistan air force is on alert and again patrolling the Durand Line.
This drone attack killed forty one; though unlikely, it might also cause some temporary problems between the Pakistan army and the Wazir tribe. However, if this is deliberate provocation, what the CIA does not appreciate is that it has cut off its own nose (or, to be more accurate, the nose of US forces in Afghanistan) to spite itself. Members from forty one families will swell the numbers of the Wazirs engaged in fighting US forces in Afghanistan; and, in this part of the world, the term ‘family’ is a very extended one and their memories are very long.
by chump » Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:38 pm
Frail shoulders, mighty agendas
April 2011 By Urooj Zia
Checking in on the families of the men who were recently shot in Lahore by CIA contractor Raymond Davis.
Muhammad Faheem’s family is clearly suffering, and not just because of the obvious financial constraints. Too poor to even buy detergent regularly, they insist that we have chai with them in their sparse living room. Guests and visitors sit on the ground, as does the rest of the family.
On 27 January, Muhammad Faheem and Faizan Haider were gunned down near Mozang Chowk in Lahore by US citizen Raymond Davis. As has eventually become clear, Davis is a CIA operative, whose primary brief was to report on the activities of the Punjabi Taliban. According to sources whose information has been multiply corroborated, he had also been keeping an eye on alleged members of an international nuclear-proliferation network, of which Pakistan and Iran are said to be key players. This has potentially been backed up by media reports that Davis was carrying photographs of nuclear installations and was reviewing security at the installations.
‘Davis had managed to infiltrate the network and pinpoint some of the people involved. One of the major reasons for his Lahore trip was a meeting with one of the members of this proliferation network, who was warned to desist from his activities because his cover had been blown,’ said one informant, who works with a security company. ‘Also, he had been asking too many questions about the Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] and its connection with the Punjabi Taliban – a fact that intelligence officials whom he met refused to acknowledge. Due to Davis’s proximity to details regarding the nuclear proliferation network and the LeT, both of which are patronised by a section the ISI, intelligence officers felt that he needed to be warned.’
This ‘warning’, it was evidently decided, would be sent through two men, later identified as Faheem and Faizan. ‘These two were not direct operatives of the ISI, but were on the agency’s payroll because of their familiarity with their assigned areas of operation, and the fact that they could ‘blend in easily’ into their surroundings. They were low-level informants – very dispensable,’ said the source, corroborated by others. ‘They were told to intimidate Davis, and by extension, the US, into staying out of the nuclear issue.’
According to this individual, the encounter went as follows. At Mozang Chowk, Faizan pulled his bike up beside Davis’s car, while Faheem, who was riding pillion, pulled out a gun. Davis had no means of knowing that the men were merely trying to intimidate him. He reverted to his Special Forces training, opened fire, and then went about documenting evidence like he had been taught. Davis’s backup vehicle, which was parked nearby, rushed in to help, crushing and killing a motorcyclist, Ibadur Rehman, en route. Realising that the situation could quickly become violent, the back-up vehicle then turned back towards the US consulate, and Davis gave himself up to the police.
Even though Faheem, the youngest of his siblings, was killed in the line of duty, he was not given a state funeral. His picture does not adorn the walls of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) offices in Pakistan; he has not been accorded the official title of shaheed (martyr), and his family has not been offered any monetary compensation by the state. Instead, in order to hide the ISI’s involvement in the saga, flimsy cover-ups were initially put forward by various parts of the government. Soon after the incident, the Punjab police made a public announcement, claiming that Faheem and Faizan were ‘robbers’ with ‘long criminal records’ – a claim that was later unofficially rescinded, in that it was proven incorrect and the Punjab police stopped making statements to this effect.
Mandi ‘work’
‘Do you understand how we feel when we hear things of this sort in the news?’ Faheem’s older brother, Muhammad Waseem, said ‘It makes us wish we could die too. My brother was not a criminal. He made an honest living.’ . Waseem’s indignation, however, does not mean that he is going to reveal what, exactly, his brother did for a living. ‘He used to work at the fruit mandi nearby,’ he claimed. ‘Faizan used to work there too, until he set up a mobile repair shop.’
A visit to the mandi in question, however, brought forth a different story altogether. Curious stall owners and workers crowded around at first when this reporter walked up to a stall, Faheem’s picture in hand. When they saw the photo, they glanced around nervously and tried to melt away. Some stayed, though. ‘Faheem used to work here on and off as a loader,’ one of them said. ‘So did his friend, Faizan – you know, the other man who was killed? But they weren’t very regular, and we haven’t seen them around for quite a few months now.’ Another one continued: ‘You can’t really say that they “worked” here. They used to be around, on and off, and sometimes helped load or unload a truck or two. They always stayed close together.’
What was Faheem doing at Mozang Chowk on 27 January? ‘You see, someone in Faizan’s family had been murdered, and there was a court case that Faizan was attending to,’ Waseem said. ‘At every hearing, he used to take Faheem along. There was a lot of enmity between Faizan’s family and that of the murderer’s, so he used to carry a pistol – but only on the days when he had to go to court. My brother never carried a pistol.’
He was carrying a gun, though, in the pictures that Davis and later, the police, took at the murder site. ‘The police must have planted that gun,’ Waseem said. ‘You know how they are.’ But security officials were now siding with Faheem and Faizan, and were saying that they had been killed for no reason. To this, Waseem did not reply. After a few seconds, he continued: ‘Faheem and Faizan were coming back from court, when Davis’s car cut across them on the road. They didn’t know who was in it, because the windows were tinted, so they followed the car to see who it was that had cut them off so rudely. They pulled up alongside the vehicle at the signal, when suddenly, shots rang out. They were hit. They tried to turn and escape, but they were shot again from the back. They died on the spot.’
How does he know all this happened when the only two men who could corroborate the story are dead? ‘Our lawyer told us,’ Waseem replied. ‘He came to us and volunteered to be the counsel, pro bono. He is from the Jamaat-e-Islami’ – Pakistan’s oldest religious party – ‘and he also told us that a special type of bullet was used to kill my brother and Faizan, which caused a lot of internal damage. Even if Faheem and Faizan had not died on the spot, they could not have been saved. This man, Raymond Davis, was vicious. What was he doing, driving around with all sorts of hi-tech equipment in his car? The police showed me all of it.’
A quick look at court records, meanwhile, shows that no hearing was scheduled on 27 January in which Faizan might have had to be present. This story, like the one about the fruit mandi, does not add up.
No, John Kerry
Waseem himself looks like an anomaly within his poverty-ridden surroundings. The small brick-and-mortar house, near Nain-Sukh Chowk on the outskirts of Lahore, is in an area that is an interesting mix of lush farmland alongside factories and warehouses. Trucks and containers wind their way through the narrow lanes throughout the day. Waseem says that he works at a factory, but owns a Nokia 5800, a phone worth around three months’ pay for regular factory workers – if they are paid the government-sanctioned minimum wage of PKR 6500 a month, that is, which is rarely the case. He says he cannot type or send text messages, but deftly enters names and telephone numbers into the phone’s address book. When I called him up at noon to set up a meeting, he was at home. ‘Come whenever you want,’ he said. ‘I haven’t gone to work since my brother died.’ Will his job be waiting for him when he’s ready to go back? He does not answer.
The family, meanwhile, is under immense pressure from multiple quarters. ‘You know what’s sad,’ Waseem suddenly speaks up. ‘This is a stronghold for the PML-N’ – the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) – ‘which is heading the Punjab government. Despite that, not only have we not received any assistance from them, the party is complicit in the pressure being mounted on us.’ He says that members and leaders from every religio-political party and group have come to meet them, listing Fazlur Rehman (the head of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam), Imran Khan (the former cricketer, now head of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf) and many leaders from religious organisations. ‘But no one from the [ruling] Pakistan People’s Party or the PML-N has bothered to ask how we’re doing,’ he continued. ‘I’m glad we never voted for anyone.’ Waseem’s mother and father, sitting nearby, nod in agreement.
At the end of February, the family claimed that they had yet to speak with any US official. ‘The consulate-wallas called us up, but we refused to talk to them,’ Waseem had said. When [US Senator John] Kerry was visiting, they said that he wanted to talk to us too. But we said no, we don’t want to talk to them – we have nothing to say to them. We will seek justice in court. Plus, what will they do, offer us money? We can’t take it. We can’t even accept diyat [blood money], given the pressure we’re under, even though we have every right to accept that if we want.’
He continued: ‘A few days ago, a local weekly English-language magazine printed news saying that we had accepted a load of dollars and US visas. Everyone in our mohalla spat at us. We’re thinking of suing the magazine. Humaari itni budnaami huee! [We were maligned] We had to go around reassuring everyone that we had not been offered money, and that neither would we accept it.’
Do people in the area read a lot of English-language publications? ‘They don’t! I don’t know how they got to know, but they did,’ Waseem said. ‘Someone obviously told them in order to increase pressure on us to not settle the case.’
Why would anyone do that? ‘You’re a journalist, you should know that better than us,’ he shot back. ‘Humaara mu na khulwaen. Hum ghareeb loge hain.’ (Don’t make us talk. We are poor people.)
Grief poisoning?
The family, meanwhile, is grieving the loss of not one but two lives: Faheem’s young widow, Shumaila, is said to have committed suicide. ‘No. She tried to commit suicide; there’s a difference,’ Waseem explained after much coaxing. ‘She was extremely depressed after Faheem’s death. Her family decided to take her to her maternal home near Faisalabad for a while. We thought that a change in atmosphere, and being far away from the frenzy here might calm her. It obviously didn’t.’
Waseem said that Shumaila took wheat-storage poison one afternoon, then sat down to read from the Quran when suddenly she keeled over and started to vomit. Her family rushed her to a nearby hospital, where doctors pumped her stomach twice. ‘Now, even though we’re illiterate, we know that even if someone’s stomach is pumped once, a lot of the poison is removed,’ Waseem said. ‘Pumping twice would ensure a complete cleansing. The doctors said that she was stable and recovering. Her family met her and she appeared fine – as well as could be under the circumstances. She gave interviews to television teams. You can look at the footage to see how she was at the time.’ He paused, before saying, ‘Then, all of a sudden, we were told that she was dead. Moreover, for several hours after what doctors are saying was her time of death, they kept her on a ventilator, and kept telling us that she was okay. How does someone who appeared to be recovering die suddenly?’
Thereafter, Waseem recounted, police in riot gear began to surround the hospital. ‘We were told that even if they had to lose an officer to two, they wouldn’t care, but under no circumstances were we to take Shumaila’s body out of Faisalabad,’ he said. ‘She would have wanted to be buried beside her husband in Lahore, but they didn’t let us even fulfil her last wishes. They had strict orders from the Punjab government – the PML-N. No one, apart from the closest family members, were allowed to participate in her janaza (funeral). They forced us to bury her at the graveyard in Faisalabad. Even now, the graveyard is heavily guarded to make sure no one takes her body out.’
Some media outlets have reported that Shumaila was pregnant at the time of death. ‘We don’t know. Faheem and Shumaila hadn’t told us anything of this sort,’ Waseem said. ‘Perhaps her autopsy report will clarify that, but they’re not giving us a copy. When we asked in Faisalabad, we were told that it has been sent to Lahore. When we asked in Lahore, we were told that it was sent to Islamabad. Why can’t they at least give us a photocopy? We have a right to see the autopsy report.’
Medical experts have told this reporter that wheat-storage poison is rarely lethal, primarily due to its poor absorption in the human body. As such, Shumaila almost certainly did not die from this alone. Until the autopsy report is made public, then, her death remains suspect.
Since Shumaila’s death, her own family says it has been receiving threats. Her maternal uncle, Muhammad Sarwar, who had been her legal guardian since her father died several years ago, has been attacked twice. The second attack, by unknown assailants, almost killed him when he was beaten up brutally and forced to swallow what Waseem claims were ‘poisonous pills’. ‘We don’t know who the men who attacked Sarwar were. All we know is that they want him to stop giving statements to the media,’ Waseem said.
The family, meanwhile, does not wish to pursue Shumaila’s case in the courts just yet. ‘We know a lot of things about a lot of aspects of this case,’ Waseem maintained. ‘But we will speak about them only after we know for sure where the case against Davis is headed. We just want to know whether he will be tried or whether he has [diplomatic] immunity. Why is something so simple taking so long? Once we know where that part of the case is headed, we will think about disclosing other facts that we know.’
Diyat denouement
‘You know, we are actually quite lucky, if you could use that word here,’ Waseem had said towards the end of our meeting. ‘We at least had a person who had been identified as the killer. We could have some hope for justice, no matter how thin that hope was. But Ibad’s family doesn’t even have that – they don’t know who killed him. No one from that second car has been identified. From whom will they seek justice?’
‘Ha!’ his father had suddenly interjected. ‘What justice are we getting? Everyone, the government, riasati idarey’ – the ‘organs of the state’, though used as a synonym for intelligence agencies – ‘political parties, the mullahs, are using our shoulders to forward their own agendas. What justice are you talking about? We expect nothing. We just want to be left in peace. Let us mourn our loss in peace.’
This despondence, however, came to an end soon after. On 16 March, exactly 10 days after Faheem’s chehlum, the ceremony marking the 40th day after his death, members of Faheem and Faizan’s families fired their old lawyers, signed on a new one, and accepted diyat, blood money, in return for pardoning Davis. All of this happened within hours of the court’s indictment of Davis on two counts of murder. The settlement, while enacted in strict accordance with Sharia law, has sparked outrage amongst rightwing and fundamentalist groups, despite the fact that such groups typically support Sharia-based laws. The families’ old lawyers have claimed that their clients were pressured into accepting diyat.
If one goes by what Waseem and his parents said, however, they were not being pressured by the government into accepting blood money. Rather, they were actually being pressured by powerful religious forces into not accepting any settlement at all, thus letting the case hang and provide fodder for their own agendas. Eventually, however, they appear to have broken free of this pressure, and did what they considered best. ‘We’re poor people and can’t be expected to keep running after court cases forever,’ Waseem maintained. ‘We wanted a quick, just conclusion; and short of sentencing Davis, we got a solution that was in accordance with Sharia.’
Urooj Zia is a journalist based in Karachi. Her other writings are online at uroojzia.com/work.
by elfismiles » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:43 pm
elfismiles wrote:8bitagent wrote:Wasn't Ray Davis caught trying to stir up networks in Pakistan, more nuclear subterfuge and more post AQ Khan planting?
Whoa whoa ... don't resurrect that Sorcha Faal "Epic Fail" psyop:
Sites Getting Punked By David Booth/Sorcha Faal Right Now
http://cryptogon.com/?p=20740
“CIA spy” Davis was giving nuclear bomb material to Al-Qaeda, says report
http://in.news.yahoo.com/cia-spy-davis- ... 3-452.html
I think I actually heard Alex recapitulate this on his show yesterday... <facepalm>
OSAMA BIN LADEN ANNOUNCED DEAD BY OBAMA (renamed thread)
viewtopic.php?p=399796#p399796
by crikkett » Sun Jun 05, 2011 12:04 pm
by Nordic » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:45 pm
by semper occultus » Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:43 am
Mir Aimal Kansi The Most Wanted Man on the FBI list, Arrested
30 June 1997
SAPRA Research Bureau
"After a four-and-a-half-year manhunt that reached from Washington`s suburbs to Afghanistan`s deserts, the suspect, Mir Amal Kansi, a 33-year-old Pakistani,was handed over by "Afghan individuals" after the United States had placed a $2 million reward on his head, the FBI said on Tuesday night (17 June 1997). Government officials refused to say whether the money had been paid to the Afghans or how they had captured the suspect".
On 25 January 1993, Mir Aimal Kansi , a Pakistani living in the US since 1991, stood waiting near the gate of the CIA`s 258 acre headquarters in Langley. He was looking for two CIA agents and obviously knew his men. He spotted the car carrying the targets and went to it when it halted at the stop light on Dolly Madison Boulevard, barely 500 yards from the main gate. He pulled out a AK-47 assault rifle and shot the men inside, spared a woman passenger and sped away. His victims were Lansing C. Bennet, who was described in a Washington Post story as a "physician and intelligence analyst for the CIA", and Frank Darling, who was "assigned to tasks involving covert operations. Three others inside were ermanently injured, also identified as CIA agents. The next day Ansi was reported to have fled to Pakistan from the National Airport. His whereabouts were not known for years and the FBI did not got any information on him despite offering the largest reward ever - US $ 2 million - for any information leading to his arrest.
Who was Kansi and why did he kill the two CIA operatives? The answers are still not clear. Some have suggested that he was an Iranian agent; others say he was a CIA operative betrayed by the men who later became his victims. The big question is how he got into the US and how he got out despite a full alert.
His Pakistani passport had expired in March 1992 and according to Pakistani officials had not been renewed. What did he travel on? Aimal Kansi`s life in the US also had its mysterious aspects. On arrival in March 1991 - on a business visa - he sought asylum, claiming that he was persecuted in Pakistan for supporting the Balochi separatist cause. Not only did he get permission to stay but also got a job with Excel Courier Inc. on a salary of $700 a week, an unusual windfall for one with limited qualification. The company is owned by Chris Marchetti, son of Victor Marchetti, a former CIA official who had once been an aide to its Director, Richard Helms. The Kansi family lives in Quetta, a city from where the CIA had engaged in covert operations during the Afghan war years. Apart from anything else, the Kansi case suggests that there is a network within the US capable of helping men like Kansi to flee justice after committing a heinous crime.
Fugitive at Large
Kansi is reported to have flown to Karachi from Washington D.C., and from there to his home town, Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan Province in Pakistan. In Quetta, he went home, had a meal with his family, and subsequently disappeared without an apparent trace. From time to time he was reported to have been spotted but nobody could get a fix on him. In 1994 January, a Pakistani correspondent claimed that he had met Kansi in Sehwan in Sindh. The correspondent, who happened to be in Sehwan for a visit, saw a clean-shaven, fair and tall person and said he recognised him immediately as Aimal Kansi. Pictures of Kansi have appeared on wanted posters all over the world. Between puffs of hashish, the person said that he was in the transport business in Karachi; but refused to give his residential address in that city. Kansi was apparaently very impressed by the quality of the hashish available in Sehwan. After this chance encounter Kansi disappeared from the hotel and was never seen again.
The Arrest
According to the Washington Post, "Government officials said U.S. investigators, working with Pakistani military and intelligence officials, launched at least one operation to lure Kansi across the mountain passes from Afghanistan into a trap. In the end, judging from the FBI`s and CIA`s statement saying that "Afghan individuals" had delivered up Kansi, it appeared on Tuesday night that word of a rich reward for Kansi`s capture had reached a tribal leader in Afghanistan.
"Federal investigators have said in interviews over the last three years that they still do not know the source of the rage against the United States. They said it might have to do with the death of his father, or his uncle -- a Pakistani government official killed in an 1984 ambush in Quetta -- or a friend who had fought with the CIA-backed rebels in Afghanistan. But they noted that Kansi is a member of the Pathan tribe, which flourishes on both sides of the Kyhber Pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that an old Pathan saying states that 100 years is too short a time to wait for revenge."
Mystery remains over CIA deaths
By Keith Somerville
Friday, 15 November, 2002, 06:57 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk
High security was evident at Mir Aimal Kasi's trial
On 25 January 1993, Aimal Khan Kansi (also known as Mir Aimal Kansi) waited outside CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and shot dead two CIA agents when their car stopped at nearby traffic lights.
Armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, he waited for the men to drive by and then killed them when their car had to stop.
He did not shoot a woman passenger in the car.
After the killing, he made his escape and within a day had left the United States for Pakistan.
Revenge for US policy
He was not then found for over four years, despite being put on the FBI's most wanted list.
In a complex, covert operation, the FBI captured him in Pakistan and he was returned to the US where he stood trial, was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.
His only explanation for the killings was to say that it was to avenge the US bombing of Iraq and US foreign policy which, he said, had harmed Islamic nations.
He repeated this justification hours before being taken the death chamber, telling the BBC Urdu service that he wanted register his "objection to [US] foreign policy... specifically their pro-Israel policy, their anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian policy".
He denied having links to Osama Bin Laden, although he admitted having friends among the Taleban and having met the al-Qaeda leader once in Kandahar.
Kasi eluded capture for four years
"I saw Osama Bin Laden once in Kandahar. I was standing there. People were shaking his hands - I, too, shook hands with him."
But he stressed: "He didn't know me".
The convicted man undertook several appeals against the death sentence to the Virginia and federal supreme courts but the appeals were rejected and the death sentence upheld.
He was executed by lethal injection on 14 November for the murder of the two CIA employees.
Fearing that there could be a violent response to his execution, the US State Department has warned of the danger of attacks that could target the United States or its foreign interests.
Petroleum workers killed
One reason to fear attacks in response to the execution is that immediately after Mr Kansi was found guilty of murdering the CIA agents, four Americans working for the Union Texas Petroleum Company were shot dead in Pakistan.
Those killings were linked by the US media to the Kansi case and a group in Pakistan was reported to have claimed responsibility and warned of more killings if he was sentenced to death.
Beyond his reported confession that the killings avenged US policy towards Muslim countries, Aimal Kasi has not said why he killed the two men or how he chose or identified them.
But his conviction brought not only the killings in Pakistan and the claim of responsibility by those sympathising with him, but also protests in many Muslim countries.
The US fears more Bali-type attacks
In Pakistan, there was widespread anger at the way in which he was captured and taken out of the country.
Having fled the United States for Pakistan, the convicted man then disappeared for over four years, but was believed to be hiding either along the Pakistan-Afghan border or inside Afghanistan.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation organised a major operation to find him.
In June 1997, he was captured by FBI agents in Pakistan and then taken back by them to the United States.
Brain damage
A CIA press release following his capture said that he had "been delivered abroad by Afghan individuals to the custody of United States authorities" and then transported to the US.
He was said to have confessed to the killings after his capture.
The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, opposes the death penalty on principle and has campaigned against its use in this case.
The organisation says that he was forcibly abducted from Pakistan.
His own appeals against the death sentence were concerned with the manner of his capture and transfer to the US rather than pleas of innocence or mitigating circumstances in relation to the killings.
At his trial, Mr Kansi's uncle testified that his nephew had not been politically active and bore no hatred for the US.
His defence attorney argued that he had suffered brain damage as a child which left him unable to appreciate the consequences of his actions.
Little evidence of political activity
The jury was unimpressed with the argument and found him guilty of murder.
Mr Kansi had been in the United States since 1991 and had applied for political asylum saying that he faced persecution in Pakistan.
He came from the province of Baluchistan in Pakistan and is reported to have taken part in demonstrations at the university there.
That is the only evidence, apart from his confession, of political activity or beliefs.
His execution brings his story to an end - but there will remain little real explanation of his motives or why the two CIA agents who died were his targets.
by Nordic » Sun Oct 02, 2011 4:52 am
by chump » Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:07 pm
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- The CIA contractor who was freed from a Pakistani prison after the U.S. paid $2.3 million in blood money was arrested Saturday morning in Highlands Ranch after he allegedly fought with another man over a parking spot, CALL7 Investigators have learned.
Raymond Allen Davis was arrested outside an Einstein Bros Bagels at the Town Center at Highlands Ranch, at Highlands Ranch Parkway and South Broadway, sources close to the investigation told Call7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski.
Sources told Kovaleski that Davis and another man with him had been arguing with a third man about a parking spot when the verbal argument escalated into a physical altercation.
In the argument, Davis was the aggressor, reliable sources said.
The 50-year-old victim, Jeff Maes, was treated at the scene and released.
"He literally parked his car behind me and started shouting at me and I says, 'You need to relax'. And he got out of the car," Maes said Saturday. "When I got hit I went back, I hit my back straight on the concrete and then, I don't know, I must've got up. I looked, he's standing there and I got up to defend myself and started again."
Maes said his daughters, ages 6 and 8, cried after witnessing the fight but Maes didn't learn until afterwards his alleged attacker also did work for the CIA.
"I thought to myself, he's a pretty tough guy. I guess I'm somewhat grateful there's five men that broke it up," Maes said, adding he spent most of the afternoon at Sky Ridge medical center...
.By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press–6 hours ago
DENVER (AP) — Prosecutors have filed a felony assault charge against a CIA contractor accused of getting into a fight over a parking space in Colorado months after he was involved in a fatal shootout in Pakistan.
Thirty-seven-year-old Raymond Davis was arrested Saturday after an altercation outside a bagel shop in Highlands Ranch, a community south of Denver where he lives.
Prosecutors announced Monday Davis would be charged with second-degree assault, which carries a possible prison term of five to 16 years in prison.
Davis' attorney William Frankfurt didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
In January, Davis said he shot two Pakistani men who tried to rob him in Lahore. He was released in March under a deal in which the victims' families agreed to accept $2.34 million in "blood money" under Islamic tradition
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