February 17, 2011
Diplomatic and Consular Immunity
One Rule for Foreign Consulates in the US, Another for US Consulates Abroad
By DAVE LINDORFF
President Obama, before he was a President or a Senator, was a constitutional law professor. He should know the law.
And yet in the increasingly dangerous show-down over Pakistan’s arrest and detention of Lahore consular contract “security official” Raymond Davis, who is charged with two counts of murder for theshooting deaths of two young Pakistanis on January 27, the president has grossly misstated what international law is with respect to the immunity from prosecution of diplomatic and consular officials.
As the president put it on a few days ago at a press conference,
“With respect to Davis, our diplomat in Pakistan, 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. If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country’s local prosecution. We respect it with respect to diplomats who are here. We expect Pakistan, that’s a signatory should recognize Davis as a diplomat, to abide by the same convention.”
The first problem is that Davis isn’t a “diplomat.” At best he’s a consulate employee. Furthermore, whoever wrote the president his lines or gave him his background briefing sure didn’t read the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963! Nor did he or she read a document issued last August by the US State Department titled: Diplomatic and Consular Immunity; Guidance for Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities (Dept. of State Pub. 10524)
US State Dept. has one rule on immunity for consular officials here, another for our guys overseas
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 that the president mentions, and to which the State Department keeps referring when telling Pakistani and American journalists that Davis must be released from jail, is really not even the relevant document. Davis is not a diplomatic employee. He stated himself to police that he is”only a consultant at the Lahore Consulate”. Whether even that statement is true or not, the point is that his legal status would then be determined in accordance with the later treaty, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963.
And as that document states, in Article 41:
Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.
Murder would, of course, constitute such a “grave crime.”
Perhaps police and prosecutors in Lahore, when they arrested Davis and jailed him pending a court hearing on his legal status vis-a-vis possible immunity from prosecution for the crime of murder (and possibly also espionage, which is a charge reportedly also being considered), they were following some kind of protocol of Pakistan’s Department of Foreign Affairs–something similar to the US State Department’s legal advice to American police and judicial authorities.
Here’s what the US State Department says regarding the immunity claims of diplomatic and consular officials of foreign governments in the US:
International law, to which the United State is firmly committed, requires that law enforcement authorities of the United States extend certain privileges and immunities to members of Foreign diplomatic missions and consular posts. Most of the privileges and immunities are not absolute and law enforcement officers retain their fundamental responsibility to protect and police the orderly conduct of persons in the United States.
Ahem.
The document goes on to state:
Diplomatic immunity is not intended to serve as a license for persons to flout the law and purposely avoid liability for their actions.
The State Department guidance document notes that the staff of embassies are afforded the highest level of privileges and immunities in the host country (ambassadors and their immediate subordinates, such as the charge d’affaires) have virtually total immunity from detention and prosecution. But it goes on to state that it is another thing altogether when it comes to consular officials. Here the document states:
There is a common misunderstanding that consular personnel have diplomatic status and are entitled to absolute immunity.
Hmmmm. Sounds like what Obama is suffering just such a misunderstanding.
But as the State Department tells American law enforcement personnel:
Consular officers..have only official acts or functional immunity in respect of both criminal and civil matters and their personal inviolability is quite limited. Consular officers may be arrested and detained pending trial only if their offense is a felony and the arrest is made pursuant to a decision by a competent judicial authority.
The document also makes it clear that it is not up to the arrested consular official’s home country to determine whether the person is properly being held for trial:
No…diplomatic mission or consulate is authorized to determine whether a given set of circumstances constitutes an official act. This is an issue that may only be resolved by the court with subject matter jurisdiction over the alleged crime.
Only (a) court, in the full light of all the relevant facts, determines whether the action complained of was an official act.
Clearly then, the President and the State Department are factually wrong to insist that Davis must be released from jail. Pakistani judicial authorities in Lahore are doing exactly what the police and courts in the US would do with State Department blessing if a similar incident occurred involving a foreign country’s consular employee here in America.
Raymond Davis may never face trial for the execution-style slaying of two Pakistanis, who appear not to have been robbers threatening him, as claimed by the US, but rather Pakistani intelligence agents who were tailing him, suspecting him of being a spy, but if he is released without facing a judicial hearing, or if that hearing is less than a thorough evidentiary proceeding, it will be not because of the Vienna Conventions, but because of the intense pressure, diplomatic, military and economic, being brought to bear on the Pakistani government by the US, which has dispatched Congressional representatives and senators and the Secretary of State, and now the President, to send the message: Let him go or else!
They might want to reconsider.
The president, the secretary of state and myriad government flaks and Congressional stooges like Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. John Kerry aren’t just insulting Americans’ intelligence with this “absolute immunity” nonsense. They are insulting the Pakistani people.
At this point, if Davis is sprung because of US pressure, the anger that has led Pakistanis to take to the street by the thousands over this case, demanding that Davis face justice for his actions, could well explode in a revolution that will make Egypt’s People Power uprising a distant memory.
DAVE LINDORFF is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent, collectively-owned, journalist-run, reader-backed online alternative newspaper
amir jafri
CIA Spy Captured Giving Nuclear Bomb To Terrorists
Posted by EU Times on Feb 11th, 2011 // 26 Comments
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While all eyes in the West are currently trained on the ongoing revolution taking place in Egypt, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned “grave” as it appears open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States.
Fueling this crisis, that the SVR warns in their report has the potential to ignite a total Global War, was the apprehension by Pakistan of a 36-year-old American named Raymond Allen Davis (photo), whom the US claims is one of their diplomats, but Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI) claim is a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Davis was captured by Pakistani police after he shot and killed two men in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27th that the US claims were trying to rob him.
Pakistan, however, says that the two men Davis killed were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered he had been making contact with al Qaeda after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani Taliban and a dozen other militant groups have forged a safe haven and former CIA agent Tim Osman (also known as Osama bin Laden) is believed to be in hiding.
Of the actual gunfight itself we can read as reported by the Time News Service which, in part, says:
“The scene could have been scripted in a Hollywood action thriller: For two hours at the end of last month in Lahore, U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis was closely pursued by two visibly armed men on a motorbike. He noticed them tailing him from a restaurant to an ATM, and through the crowded streets of Pakistan’s second [largest] city. They were close by when, in a crowded intersection, Davis produced his own handgun and fired seven shots.
The diplomat was apparently a crack shot, and all seven bullets found their mark, killing his two pursuers. Davis then called for back-up, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle raced onto the scene, striking a Pakistani bystander who was killed by the impact. But the people in the vehicle, whose identities remain unknown, escaped from the scene having failed to retrieve Davis, who was later arrested nearby.”
The combat skills exhibited by Davis, along with documentation taken from him after his arrest, prove, according to this report, his being a member of the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) black operations unit currently operating in the Afghan War Theater and Pakistani tribal areas comprised of US Military Special Forces Soldiers, CIA spies and freelance mercenaries.
Further information about Davis discovered by the Times of India includes:
“According to records from the Pentagon, Davis is a former Special Forces soldier who left the army in August 2003 after 10 years of service. A Virginia native, he served with infantry divisions prior to joining the 3rd Special Forces Group in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 1994, he was part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Macedonia. His record includes several awards and medals, including for good conduct.
Public records also show Davis runs a company with his wife registered in Las Vegas called Hyperion Protective Services, though it was not immediately clear whether the company has had many contracts with the U.S. government.”
Since Davis’s capture the US has exerted extraordinary pressure upon Pakistan to release him, including the American Ambassador warning President Asif Ali Zardari to release him “or else” and the cancellation of all talks between these two nuclear powered Nations.
Today, according to this SVR report, this most critical of situations became even worse when a Pakistani judge refused to bow to American pressure and ordered a further 14-day detention of Davis, and which sparked an immediate threat from US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, who told Pakistani envoy Hussain Haqqani that the Obama administration will “kick him out of the US”, close American consulates in Pakistan and cancel President Zardari’s upcoming visit to Washington if their CIA spy wasn’t released immediately.
Fearing that the conflict over Davis may lead to open warfare, the Pakistanis were quick to let the Americans know they would not come out any conflict unscathed with their firing yesterday of their new Hatf-VII nuclear cruise missile (also called Babur after the 16th-century Muslim ruler who founded the Mughal Empire) that Major General Athar Abbas said “…can carry strategic and conventional warheads, has stealth capabilities, is a low-flying, terrain-hugging missile with high manoeuvrability, pinpoint accuracy and radar avoidance features.”
The United States Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) further reported yesterday that Pakistan appears to be building a fourth military nuclear reactor, signaling its determination to produce more plutonium for atomic weapons.
Most ominous in this SVR report, though, is Pakistan’s ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis’s possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists “nuclear fissile material” and “biological agents” they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to reestablish the West’s hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse.
Not known to the masses of the American people is that the $20 Trillion they have spent on their longest wars in history has bankrupted their Nation to such an extent that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called yesterday for replacement of the US Dollar as the World’s reserve currency.
More crucially that the American people are ignoring is the fact that their own government has unleashed against them a 21st Century update to the dreaded US Military “Operation Northwoods” campaign of terror designed to enrage them to accepting war as their main way of life.
Operation Northwoods was a series of false-flag operation proposals that originated within the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the CIA, or other operatives, to commit acts of terrorism in US cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which had recently become communist under Fidel Castro. One part of Operation Northwoods was to “develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.”
Operation Northwoods proposals included hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. It stated:
“The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.”
Several other proposals were included within Operation Northwoods, including real or simulated actions against various US military and civilian targets. The plan was drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed by Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to the Secretary of Defense. Although part of the US government’s Cuban Project anti-communist initiative, Operation Northwoods was never officially accepted and the proposals included in the plan were never executed.
James Bamford summarizes Northwoods as follows:
“Operation Northwoods, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.”
Though Operation Northwoods had the “approval” of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it did not have the approval of their boss, President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), but who barely one year after his outright rejection of this monstrous plan to kill thousands of innocent Americans was gunned down as an example to any future US leader what would happen to them if they dared go against the wishes of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC).
Today, as the US Department of Homeland Security has just issued a grim warning that the threat of terror strike on America is at a higher level than it has been since September 11, 2001, and the WikiLeaks release of secret US government cables reveals that al Qaeda is on the brink of using a nuclear bomb, a new President stands between his people and the CIA warmongers with the only question being will he protect them like Kennedy did?
The answer to that question, sadly, appears to be “no” as new information recently obtained by US journalists show that not only has Obama failed to discipline those CIA officers who have led the United States to near total collapse, he has promoted them in numbers never before seen in history.
saqib
allah kry hakomat is pr tawjho dy lekin umeed kam ha
Dr Ijaz
يہ ڈيوس والا معاملہ تو پانی ميں مدھانی کے مصداق ہے اور اسکا جلد يا بدير ہمارے معتبر سياستدان بذريعہ قصاص حل نکال ليں گے۔ باقی سب لوگوں کو سياست چمکانے کا موقع مل گيا ہے ۔ آپ کی روٹی ورزی بھی اللہ نے اس چيز سے منسلک رکھی ہے کہ ايسے واقعات سے دو چار کالم آپ کے بھی کھرے ہو جاتے ہيں ۔ شائد ايک دو پروگرام بھی ہو جائيں !!!!
جناب فتح ملک صاحب کا مردہ جس طرح آپ نے ادھيڑا ہے شائد ہی کوئی اور ايسے کر سکے ۔ ويسے سوچنے کی بات ہے کہ کوئی کتنا ہی بڑا دانشور کيوں نہ ہو پچھتر کی عمر ميں تو اسکو گھر والے ماننے سے انکاری ہو جاتے ہيں ۔ اور طرح طرح کی دماغی بيمارياں آ گھيرتی ہيں ۔ جن فيصلوں کا آپ نے ذکر کيا يہ بھی کسی دماغی بيماری ہی کی پيداوار لگتے ہيں ۔ باہر ملکوں ميں تو ان بزرگوں کی منزل اولڈ ہاؤسز ہوتے ہيں ۔ ملک صاحب کو کسی جيارٹک سائيکاٹرسٹ ( ماہر نفسيات برائے بزرگان ) سے ملنا چاھيے ۔ آپ حيران ہونگے کہ ملک صاحب کی عمر ميں نفسياتی امراص بھی بوڑھی ہوتی ہيں ۔ جوان نفسياتی امراض کے ليے جسم کا جوان ہونا ضروری ہے ۔ نٹشے نے کہا تھا کہ ” دا فرسٹ پری رکوزٹ ٹو بی اے جنٹل مين از ٹو بی اے گڈ انيمل ”
والسلام
ّڈاکٹر اعجاز
riaz ali
har shakh pay ullu baita hay ,andaze gulistan keya hoga.
amir jafri
Raymond A. Davis is not Raymond A. Davis: American terrorism is a plague on the world
By Christopher King
19 February 2011
Christopher King considers the case of “Raymond A. Davis”, the US citizen who murdered two Pakistanis in Lahore. He argues that Washington’s insistence that “Davis” should get away with the murders derives from its fear that he would expose illegal, undercover US activities in Pakistan.
You have probably heard of Raymond A. Davis who is being held by Pakistani police in Lahore police for killing two motorcyclists — shooting them through the windscreen of his car then getting out to finish them off. Both were shot in the back, one while running away. An American consulate vehicle that attempted to rescue him killed another person and injured others then sped off. Davis’s car contained two handguns, a great deal of ammunition, several cell phones, military wire (a garotte?), a telescope and a camera with pictures of a large number of madrasas (religious schools) on it. There’s more detail here.
“President Obama himself claims that Davis has diplomatic immunity and, by implication, that he can shoot whomever he likes, get on a plane and go home without further fuss.”
President Obama himself claims that Davis has diplomatic immunity and, by implication, that he can shoot whomever he likes, get on a plane and go home without further fuss. There has been a lot of discussion about Davis’s post with the consulate, the status of his visa, the applicability of the Geneva Conventions and suchlike. High level contacts have been made and withdrawn; aid withdrawal has been threatened and aid offered. The US insists on his diplomatic status. But he cannot be a diplomat despite all this.
The reason that he cannot be a diplomat is that Raymond A. Davis is not Raymond A Davis. That is not his name. According to Najmuddin A. Shaikh, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, writing in the Karachi-based Express Tribune, a US State Department spokesperson has said that the person involved in the Lahore “accident” was not named Raymond Davis. His name has not been made known. Accordingly, he has made a false visa application, holds a passport in a false name and has entered the country illegally. His visa was therefore never valid and he cannot have gained diplomatic immunity by these means.
This is spelled out in the Daily Times:
The Lahore High Court chief justice on Monday [7 February] called a reply from the federal government on a petition seeking directions for the government to prosecute double murder accused American national Raymond Davis, for committing forgery by applying for a visa under a fake name. The chief justice directed the deputy attorney-general to submit a reply until 17 February. The chief justice issued the direction while hearing a petition of Barrister Iqbal Jafree. The petitioner submitted that the accused obtained a fake diplomatic visa with a false name and he could be involved in unlawful activities in the country. He said Davis got a visa under a fake name, which made the whole process of visa doubtful, and his visa stood cancelled ab intio [from the beginning]. He submitted that no immunity obtained fraudulently was valid anywhere in world. He said Davis used excessive force while shooting two Pakistanis on 27 January that shifted all burden on him. The petitioner stated that Davis deserved no special treatment and should be punished for killing and committing fraud. He said issuance of a passport under a fake name to Davis by US government explains everything.
Curiously, I have never seen this vital fact, which destroys all claim by the US to Davis’s diplomatic status, mentioned in any US or British news report. Here is a 17 February report from the British government-controlled BBC, for example, which still treats the US government claims of diplomatic immunity as plausible. Even the US anti-war sites do not mention it, whereas it is in plain sight in the Pakistani papers.
Who, then, is the man whose pseudonym is Raymond A. Davis? Since he has no diplomatic status, he is an ordinary illegal visitor who is liable to conviction for double murder. It should be remarked that the US consulate/embassy is not cooperating by identifying the driver of the second vehicle that also killed a man. Nor is it cooperating in properly identifying the man posing as Davis, which name I will continue to use for convenience.
Davis’s actions in killing the motorcyclists are remarkably competent. Whereas most people would not think of shooting through a car windshield, he clearly knew how to do this and that his bullets were of a type that could do it accurately. He is also an excellent marksman and reports give his background as special forces. That might well be true, although his true identity is not known. It is clearly not the first time Davis has killed. He is well trained and has done it before. He is not a very fast thinker, however, since he was unable to make a successful getaway.
“If the Pakistanis really want to know what the US is doing in their country, the man calling himself Davis is the man to tell them. That’s why the US wants him back as soon as possible.”
Together with the highly suspicious materials found in his car, it seems reasonable to conjecture that he is with the CIA and is a terrorist on behalf of the United States, perhaps an agent provocateur. I have suggested previously that US agents provocateurs might have recruited the amazingly incompetent Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, as well as being involved in bombing in Iraq. Davis is a good candidate for such a role.
If the Pakistanis really want to know what the US is doing in their country, the man calling himself Davis is the man to tell them. That’s why the US wants him back as soon as possible. Davis should be prosecuted as an ordinary criminal. Surely someone should tell President Obama that Davis has a passport in a false name and save him further embarrassment. Does he know but not understand the implications? Does he hope that no-one will notice? Does he care? These are more interesting questions than the exact identity of this ghastly Davis person who can serve life in prison perfectly well under any name.
The United States’ disrespect for law and insistence on its own exceptionalism is becoming more blatant every day. I suspect that a groundswell of disgust at its behaviour is growing in the world. It is a nasty, hypocritical, extremely dangerous country and a plague on the world. When it collapses, few will grieve and the only people to be surprised will be its own inhabitants.
m shahbaz79
ch sahib ye masla zardari sahib nahi hal kar saktay ye b ap ko hi karna paray ga kio k wo is mulak k leay so rahay hay lakin usa k leay jag rahay hay ye masla wo hi hal kar sakta hay jo apnay mulak k leay jag raha ho himat kejeay allah ap ki madad karay
hussain
javed bhai
islamic university main ab islam ki taleem nahi sechularism pe islam ki tareef o tashree hoti ho gi….quke hamrey hokmrno ko on ki mrzi ka ISLAM pasand haye na KE QURAN OR SUNAT WALA ISLAM….
pakistan ka islam ab reema,veena malik,atif aslam,rahat ali khan,,,,or stage dramoo pe nazar aata haye…quke pak army,,,or all governments department es pakistan ko nhi chala skte or na hi india se KASAB le sktey hain….tu ab pakistan ki government se EK ISLAMIC COUNTRY ki KISTMAT OR DEFENCE EN LOGO KO DE DIYA HAYE…LANAT HO ESI HAKOOMAT OR HOKMRANO PE jo es country main ye behayei or nam nihad tarki ko frogh de rhe hain….
INSHALLAH RAB EN SAB KO esi mosibat or takaleef de ga ke poori kainaat or dunya keliye ibrat ka nishaan ban jaye gain…..INSAHALLAH
moon
good column
Muhammad Umer
good javed chaudhry .i m student of islamic university .
give us the solution for that and what student can do for university
Ammara, Uzma; students of iiui
AoA..
ap ne hmare dil ki awaz logon tak phnchai he..even Masters level k lie aesi teachrs appoint ki gai hen jin ki abi apni qualifications puri nai huin..bgher ksi experiens k in ko permanent kr dia gea he..
Rector sahab ki sharafat kis kam ki, jb un ki wja se hazaron students ka mustakbil tareek ho rha he..Rector sahb ko is umer me ALLAH ALLAH krni chye..
fees asmaan pe phnchi hui he, aur parhane k lie bachian appoint ki hui hen..
Ab students k paise , wqt aur mehnat ka hasab kaun de ga..
farhat
sir i am a stdnt of islamic university and i really want to see my uni at top level..plzzzz u shud hav to take some steps to solve this issue…………do u thnk govt will pay attention to ths matter??????????????????
February 17, 2011
Diplomatic and Consular Immunity
One Rule for Foreign Consulates in the US, Another for US Consulates Abroad
By DAVE LINDORFF
President Obama, before he was a President or a Senator, was a constitutional law professor. He should know the law.
And yet in the increasingly dangerous show-down over Pakistan’s arrest and detention of Lahore consular contract “security official” Raymond Davis, who is charged with two counts of murder for theshooting deaths of two young Pakistanis on January 27, the president has grossly misstated what international law is with respect to the immunity from prosecution of diplomatic and consular officials.
As the president put it on a few days ago at a press conference,
“With respect to Davis, our diplomat in Pakistan, 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. If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country’s local prosecution. We respect it with respect to diplomats who are here. We expect Pakistan, that’s a signatory should recognize Davis as a diplomat, to abide by the same convention.”
The first problem is that Davis isn’t a “diplomat.” At best he’s a consulate employee. Furthermore, whoever wrote the president his lines or gave him his background briefing sure didn’t read the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963! Nor did he or she read a document issued last August by the US State Department titled: Diplomatic and Consular Immunity; Guidance for Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities (Dept. of State Pub. 10524)
US State Dept. has one rule on immunity for consular officials here, another for our guys overseas
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 that the president mentions, and to which the State Department keeps referring when telling Pakistani and American journalists that Davis must be released from jail, is really not even the relevant document. Davis is not a diplomatic employee. He stated himself to police that he is”only a consultant at the Lahore Consulate”. Whether even that statement is true or not, the point is that his legal status would then be determined in accordance with the later treaty, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963.
And as that document states, in Article 41:
Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.
Murder would, of course, constitute such a “grave crime.”
Perhaps police and prosecutors in Lahore, when they arrested Davis and jailed him pending a court hearing on his legal status vis-a-vis possible immunity from prosecution for the crime of murder (and possibly also espionage, which is a charge reportedly also being considered), they were following some kind of protocol of Pakistan’s Department of Foreign Affairs–something similar to the US State Department’s legal advice to American police and judicial authorities.
Here’s what the US State Department says regarding the immunity claims of diplomatic and consular officials of foreign governments in the US:
International law, to which the United State is firmly committed, requires that law enforcement authorities of the United States extend certain privileges and immunities to members of Foreign diplomatic missions and consular posts. Most of the privileges and immunities are not absolute and law enforcement officers retain their fundamental responsibility to protect and police the orderly conduct of persons in the United States.
Ahem.
The document goes on to state:
Diplomatic immunity is not intended to serve as a license for persons to flout the law and purposely avoid liability for their actions.
The State Department guidance document notes that the staff of embassies are afforded the highest level of privileges and immunities in the host country (ambassadors and their immediate subordinates, such as the charge d’affaires) have virtually total immunity from detention and prosecution. But it goes on to state that it is another thing altogether when it comes to consular officials. Here the document states:
There is a common misunderstanding that consular personnel have diplomatic status and are entitled to absolute immunity.
Hmmmm. Sounds like what Obama is suffering just such a misunderstanding.
But as the State Department tells American law enforcement personnel:
Consular officers..have only official acts or functional immunity in respect of both criminal and civil matters and their personal inviolability is quite limited. Consular officers may be arrested and detained pending trial only if their offense is a felony and the arrest is made pursuant to a decision by a competent judicial authority.
The document also makes it clear that it is not up to the arrested consular official’s home country to determine whether the person is properly being held for trial:
No…diplomatic mission or consulate is authorized to determine whether a given set of circumstances constitutes an official act. This is an issue that may only be resolved by the court with subject matter jurisdiction over the alleged crime.
Only (a) court, in the full light of all the relevant facts, determines whether the action complained of was an official act.
Clearly then, the President and the State Department are factually wrong to insist that Davis must be released from jail. Pakistani judicial authorities in Lahore are doing exactly what the police and courts in the US would do with State Department blessing if a similar incident occurred involving a foreign country’s consular employee here in America.
Raymond Davis may never face trial for the execution-style slaying of two Pakistanis, who appear not to have been robbers threatening him, as claimed by the US, but rather Pakistani intelligence agents who were tailing him, suspecting him of being a spy, but if he is released without facing a judicial hearing, or if that hearing is less than a thorough evidentiary proceeding, it will be not because of the Vienna Conventions, but because of the intense pressure, diplomatic, military and economic, being brought to bear on the Pakistani government by the US, which has dispatched Congressional representatives and senators and the Secretary of State, and now the President, to send the message: Let him go or else!
They might want to reconsider.
The president, the secretary of state and myriad government flaks and Congressional stooges like Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. John Kerry aren’t just insulting Americans’ intelligence with this “absolute immunity” nonsense. They are insulting the Pakistani people.
At this point, if Davis is sprung because of US pressure, the anger that has led Pakistanis to take to the street by the thousands over this case, demanding that Davis face justice for his actions, could well explode in a revolution that will make Egypt’s People Power uprising a distant memory.
DAVE LINDORFF is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent, collectively-owned, journalist-run, reader-backed online alternative newspaper
CIA Spy Captured Giving Nuclear Bomb To Terrorists
Posted by EU Times on Feb 11th, 2011 // 26 Comments
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While all eyes in the West are currently trained on the ongoing revolution taking place in Egypt, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned “grave” as it appears open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States.
Fueling this crisis, that the SVR warns in their report has the potential to ignite a total Global War, was the apprehension by Pakistan of a 36-year-old American named Raymond Allen Davis (photo), whom the US claims is one of their diplomats, but Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI) claim is a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Davis was captured by Pakistani police after he shot and killed two men in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27th that the US claims were trying to rob him.
Pakistan, however, says that the two men Davis killed were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered he had been making contact with al Qaeda after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani Taliban and a dozen other militant groups have forged a safe haven and former CIA agent Tim Osman (also known as Osama bin Laden) is believed to be in hiding.
Of the actual gunfight itself we can read as reported by the Time News Service which, in part, says:
“The scene could have been scripted in a Hollywood action thriller: For two hours at the end of last month in Lahore, U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis was closely pursued by two visibly armed men on a motorbike. He noticed them tailing him from a restaurant to an ATM, and through the crowded streets of Pakistan’s second [largest] city. They were close by when, in a crowded intersection, Davis produced his own handgun and fired seven shots.
The diplomat was apparently a crack shot, and all seven bullets found their mark, killing his two pursuers. Davis then called for back-up, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle raced onto the scene, striking a Pakistani bystander who was killed by the impact. But the people in the vehicle, whose identities remain unknown, escaped from the scene having failed to retrieve Davis, who was later arrested nearby.”
The combat skills exhibited by Davis, along with documentation taken from him after his arrest, prove, according to this report, his being a member of the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) black operations unit currently operating in the Afghan War Theater and Pakistani tribal areas comprised of US Military Special Forces Soldiers, CIA spies and freelance mercenaries.
Further information about Davis discovered by the Times of India includes:
“According to records from the Pentagon, Davis is a former Special Forces soldier who left the army in August 2003 after 10 years of service. A Virginia native, he served with infantry divisions prior to joining the 3rd Special Forces Group in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 1994, he was part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Macedonia. His record includes several awards and medals, including for good conduct.
Public records also show Davis runs a company with his wife registered in Las Vegas called Hyperion Protective Services, though it was not immediately clear whether the company has had many contracts with the U.S. government.”
Since Davis’s capture the US has exerted extraordinary pressure upon Pakistan to release him, including the American Ambassador warning President Asif Ali Zardari to release him “or else” and the cancellation of all talks between these two nuclear powered Nations.
Today, according to this SVR report, this most critical of situations became even worse when a Pakistani judge refused to bow to American pressure and ordered a further 14-day detention of Davis, and which sparked an immediate threat from US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, who told Pakistani envoy Hussain Haqqani that the Obama administration will “kick him out of the US”, close American consulates in Pakistan and cancel President Zardari’s upcoming visit to Washington if their CIA spy wasn’t released immediately.
Fearing that the conflict over Davis may lead to open warfare, the Pakistanis were quick to let the Americans know they would not come out any conflict unscathed with their firing yesterday of their new Hatf-VII nuclear cruise missile (also called Babur after the 16th-century Muslim ruler who founded the Mughal Empire) that Major General Athar Abbas said “…can carry strategic and conventional warheads, has stealth capabilities, is a low-flying, terrain-hugging missile with high manoeuvrability, pinpoint accuracy and radar avoidance features.”
The United States Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) further reported yesterday that Pakistan appears to be building a fourth military nuclear reactor, signaling its determination to produce more plutonium for atomic weapons.
Most ominous in this SVR report, though, is Pakistan’s ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis’s possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists “nuclear fissile material” and “biological agents” they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to reestablish the West’s hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse.
Not known to the masses of the American people is that the $20 Trillion they have spent on their longest wars in history has bankrupted their Nation to such an extent that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called yesterday for replacement of the US Dollar as the World’s reserve currency.
More crucially that the American people are ignoring is the fact that their own government has unleashed against them a 21st Century update to the dreaded US Military “Operation Northwoods” campaign of terror designed to enrage them to accepting war as their main way of life.
Operation Northwoods was a series of false-flag operation proposals that originated within the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the CIA, or other operatives, to commit acts of terrorism in US cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which had recently become communist under Fidel Castro. One part of Operation Northwoods was to “develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington.”
Operation Northwoods proposals included hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. It stated:
“The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.”
Several other proposals were included within Operation Northwoods, including real or simulated actions against various US military and civilian targets. The plan was drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed by Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to the Secretary of Defense. Although part of the US government’s Cuban Project anti-communist initiative, Operation Northwoods was never officially accepted and the proposals included in the plan were never executed.
James Bamford summarizes Northwoods as follows:
“Operation Northwoods, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.”
Though Operation Northwoods had the “approval” of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it did not have the approval of their boss, President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), but who barely one year after his outright rejection of this monstrous plan to kill thousands of innocent Americans was gunned down as an example to any future US leader what would happen to them if they dared go against the wishes of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC).
Today, as the US Department of Homeland Security has just issued a grim warning that the threat of terror strike on America is at a higher level than it has been since September 11, 2001, and the WikiLeaks release of secret US government cables reveals that al Qaeda is on the brink of using a nuclear bomb, a new President stands between his people and the CIA warmongers with the only question being will he protect them like Kennedy did?
The answer to that question, sadly, appears to be “no” as new information recently obtained by US journalists show that not only has Obama failed to discipline those CIA officers who have led the United States to near total collapse, he has promoted them in numbers never before seen in history.
allah kry hakomat is pr tawjho dy lekin umeed kam ha
يہ ڈيوس والا معاملہ تو پانی ميں مدھانی کے مصداق ہے اور اسکا جلد يا بدير ہمارے معتبر سياستدان بذريعہ قصاص حل نکال ليں گے۔ باقی سب لوگوں کو سياست چمکانے کا موقع مل گيا ہے ۔ آپ کی روٹی ورزی بھی اللہ نے اس چيز سے منسلک رکھی ہے کہ ايسے واقعات سے دو چار کالم آپ کے بھی کھرے ہو جاتے ہيں ۔ شائد ايک دو پروگرام بھی ہو جائيں !!!!
جناب فتح ملک صاحب کا مردہ جس طرح آپ نے ادھيڑا ہے شائد ہی کوئی اور ايسے کر سکے ۔ ويسے سوچنے کی بات ہے کہ کوئی کتنا ہی بڑا دانشور کيوں نہ ہو پچھتر کی عمر ميں تو اسکو گھر والے ماننے سے انکاری ہو جاتے ہيں ۔ اور طرح طرح کی دماغی بيمارياں آ گھيرتی ہيں ۔ جن فيصلوں کا آپ نے ذکر کيا يہ بھی کسی دماغی بيماری ہی کی پيداوار لگتے ہيں ۔ باہر ملکوں ميں تو ان بزرگوں کی منزل اولڈ ہاؤسز ہوتے ہيں ۔ ملک صاحب کو کسی جيارٹک سائيکاٹرسٹ ( ماہر نفسيات برائے بزرگان ) سے ملنا چاھيے ۔ آپ حيران ہونگے کہ ملک صاحب کی عمر ميں نفسياتی امراص بھی بوڑھی ہوتی ہيں ۔ جوان نفسياتی امراض کے ليے جسم کا جوان ہونا ضروری ہے ۔ نٹشے نے کہا تھا کہ ” دا فرسٹ پری رکوزٹ ٹو بی اے جنٹل مين از ٹو بی اے گڈ انيمل ”
والسلام
ّڈاکٹر اعجاز
har shakh pay ullu baita hay ,andaze gulistan keya hoga.
Raymond A. Davis is not Raymond A. Davis: American terrorism is a plague on the world
By Christopher King
19 February 2011
Christopher King considers the case of “Raymond A. Davis”, the US citizen who murdered two Pakistanis in Lahore. He argues that Washington’s insistence that “Davis” should get away with the murders derives from its fear that he would expose illegal, undercover US activities in Pakistan.
You have probably heard of Raymond A. Davis who is being held by Pakistani police in Lahore police for killing two motorcyclists — shooting them through the windscreen of his car then getting out to finish them off. Both were shot in the back, one while running away. An American consulate vehicle that attempted to rescue him killed another person and injured others then sped off. Davis’s car contained two handguns, a great deal of ammunition, several cell phones, military wire (a garotte?), a telescope and a camera with pictures of a large number of madrasas (religious schools) on it. There’s more detail here.
“President Obama himself claims that Davis has diplomatic immunity and, by implication, that he can shoot whomever he likes, get on a plane and go home without further fuss.”
President Obama himself claims that Davis has diplomatic immunity and, by implication, that he can shoot whomever he likes, get on a plane and go home without further fuss. There has been a lot of discussion about Davis’s post with the consulate, the status of his visa, the applicability of the Geneva Conventions and suchlike. High level contacts have been made and withdrawn; aid withdrawal has been threatened and aid offered. The US insists on his diplomatic status. But he cannot be a diplomat despite all this.
The reason that he cannot be a diplomat is that Raymond A. Davis is not Raymond A Davis. That is not his name. According to Najmuddin A. Shaikh, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, writing in the Karachi-based Express Tribune, a US State Department spokesperson has said that the person involved in the Lahore “accident” was not named Raymond Davis. His name has not been made known. Accordingly, he has made a false visa application, holds a passport in a false name and has entered the country illegally. His visa was therefore never valid and he cannot have gained diplomatic immunity by these means.
This is spelled out in the Daily Times:
The Lahore High Court chief justice on Monday [7 February] called a reply from the federal government on a petition seeking directions for the government to prosecute double murder accused American national Raymond Davis, for committing forgery by applying for a visa under a fake name. The chief justice directed the deputy attorney-general to submit a reply until 17 February. The chief justice issued the direction while hearing a petition of Barrister Iqbal Jafree. The petitioner submitted that the accused obtained a fake diplomatic visa with a false name and he could be involved in unlawful activities in the country. He said Davis got a visa under a fake name, which made the whole process of visa doubtful, and his visa stood cancelled ab intio [from the beginning]. He submitted that no immunity obtained fraudulently was valid anywhere in world. He said Davis used excessive force while shooting two Pakistanis on 27 January that shifted all burden on him. The petitioner stated that Davis deserved no special treatment and should be punished for killing and committing fraud. He said issuance of a passport under a fake name to Davis by US government explains everything.
Curiously, I have never seen this vital fact, which destroys all claim by the US to Davis’s diplomatic status, mentioned in any US or British news report. Here is a 17 February report from the British government-controlled BBC, for example, which still treats the US government claims of diplomatic immunity as plausible. Even the US anti-war sites do not mention it, whereas it is in plain sight in the Pakistani papers.
Who, then, is the man whose pseudonym is Raymond A. Davis? Since he has no diplomatic status, he is an ordinary illegal visitor who is liable to conviction for double murder. It should be remarked that the US consulate/embassy is not cooperating by identifying the driver of the second vehicle that also killed a man. Nor is it cooperating in properly identifying the man posing as Davis, which name I will continue to use for convenience.
Davis’s actions in killing the motorcyclists are remarkably competent. Whereas most people would not think of shooting through a car windshield, he clearly knew how to do this and that his bullets were of a type that could do it accurately. He is also an excellent marksman and reports give his background as special forces. That might well be true, although his true identity is not known. It is clearly not the first time Davis has killed. He is well trained and has done it before. He is not a very fast thinker, however, since he was unable to make a successful getaway.
“If the Pakistanis really want to know what the US is doing in their country, the man calling himself Davis is the man to tell them. That’s why the US wants him back as soon as possible.”
Together with the highly suspicious materials found in his car, it seems reasonable to conjecture that he is with the CIA and is a terrorist on behalf of the United States, perhaps an agent provocateur. I have suggested previously that US agents provocateurs might have recruited the amazingly incompetent Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, as well as being involved in bombing in Iraq. Davis is a good candidate for such a role.
If the Pakistanis really want to know what the US is doing in their country, the man calling himself Davis is the man to tell them. That’s why the US wants him back as soon as possible. Davis should be prosecuted as an ordinary criminal. Surely someone should tell President Obama that Davis has a passport in a false name and save him further embarrassment. Does he know but not understand the implications? Does he hope that no-one will notice? Does he care? These are more interesting questions than the exact identity of this ghastly Davis person who can serve life in prison perfectly well under any name.
The United States’ disrespect for law and insistence on its own exceptionalism is becoming more blatant every day. I suspect that a groundswell of disgust at its behaviour is growing in the world. It is a nasty, hypocritical, extremely dangerous country and a plague on the world. When it collapses, few will grieve and the only people to be surprised will be its own inhabitants.
ch sahib ye masla zardari sahib nahi hal kar saktay ye b ap ko hi karna paray ga kio k wo is mulak k leay so rahay hay lakin usa k leay jag rahay hay ye masla wo hi hal kar sakta hay jo apnay mulak k leay jag raha ho himat kejeay allah ap ki madad karay
javed bhai
islamic university main ab islam ki taleem nahi sechularism pe islam ki tareef o tashree hoti ho gi….quke hamrey hokmrno ko on ki mrzi ka ISLAM pasand haye na KE QURAN OR SUNAT WALA ISLAM….
pakistan ka islam ab reema,veena malik,atif aslam,rahat ali khan,,,,or stage dramoo pe nazar aata haye…quke pak army,,,or all governments department es pakistan ko nhi chala skte or na hi india se KASAB le sktey hain….tu ab pakistan ki government se EK ISLAMIC COUNTRY ki KISTMAT OR DEFENCE EN LOGO KO DE DIYA HAYE…LANAT HO ESI HAKOOMAT OR HOKMRANO PE jo es country main ye behayei or nam nihad tarki ko frogh de rhe hain….
INSHALLAH RAB EN SAB KO esi mosibat or takaleef de ga ke poori kainaat or dunya keliye ibrat ka nishaan ban jaye gain…..INSAHALLAH
good column
good javed chaudhry .i m student of islamic university .
give us the solution for that and what student can do for university
AoA..
ap ne hmare dil ki awaz logon tak phnchai he..even Masters level k lie aesi teachrs appoint ki gai hen jin ki abi apni qualifications puri nai huin..bgher ksi experiens k in ko permanent kr dia gea he..
Rector sahab ki sharafat kis kam ki, jb un ki wja se hazaron students ka mustakbil tareek ho rha he..Rector sahb ko is umer me ALLAH ALLAH krni chye..
fees asmaan pe phnchi hui he, aur parhane k lie bachian appoint ki hui hen..
Ab students k paise , wqt aur mehnat ka hasab kaun de ga..
sir i am a stdnt of islamic university and i really want to see my uni at top level..plzzzz u shud hav to take some steps to solve this issue…………do u thnk govt will pay attention to ths matter??????????????????