Solomon2
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Raymond Davis Case: Developing Story
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Solomon2
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You mean, if the Davis incident had never occurred? I think we would have expelled such a diplomat within hours - before there could be a big media battle about it.
When a diplomat is accused of a crime the opprobrium for the deed properly rests with the nation that sent him, rather than the diplomat himself. That is why I'm thinking it may be best if Pakistan attempts to take its allegations against Davis to U.S. courts. If Davis is cleared in a fair trial U.S. honor will be restored. Unfortunately I doubt that Pakistan will care to do so, or if it does will not present enough evidence to convince a grand jury that a trial is warranted, so America's reputation will remain stained by Pakistan's vile press and irresponsible Foreign Office.
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The removal of Qureshi definitely removes all suspicion that this guy has no immunity and now they are going to falsify the documents. That's why suddenly the US embassy has been emboldened to say by Thursday it would definitely prove immunity in the Pakistani courts.
The public will not agree to it and you can bet this will erupt.
The public will not agree to it and you can bet this will erupt.
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Awesome
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Pakistan: Pakistan public anger rises over U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis - latimes.com
If the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men is granted diplomatic immunity, Pakistan may explode like Egypt and Tunisia, men on the street say.
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan —
Inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Pakistani college student Gulraiz Iqbal is itching for a reason to take his disdain for President Asif Ali Zardari's government to the streets.
If Pakistani authorities grant diplomatic immunity and release Raymond Davis, the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men in Lahore, Iqbal will have the cause he craves.
"We would organize students in Lahore and across the country, and create a movement that would turn into a revolution," said Iqbal, 22, a small, wiry man who is a leader of the Lahore student wing of an opposition party, Movement for Justice. "We're inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt because their leaders were agents for the U.S. We have the same situation here."
Iqbal's fist-shaking can't be brushed aside, if only because his outrage over the Davis case is shared by much of the rest of the country. In a nation fractured along ethnic, sectarian and political fault lines, the case has congealed Pakistani society into a single, cohesive front against what many perceive to be an ideal illustration of American recklessness.
On Jan. 27, Davis, 36, fatally shot two men who he said were trying to rob him at gunpoint. Davis was arrested and told officials he acted in self-defense. But few in Pakistan believe his version of events and many want him tried on murder charges, or worse.
Photos of protesters hoisting banners that read "Hang Raymond Davis!" appear every few days in Pakistani newspapers. Islamist parties capable of mobilizing thousands of demonstrators have vowed to rally against the government if Davis is freed.
The tumult sweeping through the Middle East could give demonstrators in Pakistan momentum that Zardari and his government would struggle to withstand, analysts say.
Zardari's government has reeled from one crisis to the next since the ouster of military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2008. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought Zardari's prosecution on corruption charges leveled in Switzerland. Many Pakistanis harshly criticized his administration for failing to provide relief quickly enough to millions left homeless by last summer's epic floods. The country's economy continues to teeter on the brink of collapse.
If Davis is released without a trial, experts say, it could be the last straw. The U.S. is expected to argue its case for Davis' immunity and release at a hearing Thursday at the Lahore High Court.
"The problem is that the government is so weak," says Talat Masood, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general. "The government thinks that because of what's happening in Egypt, the people need only an excuse, and this might be the one."
As a result, the government has been reluctant to make a decision regarding diplomatic immunity for Davis.
Washington wants Islamabad to declare that Davis is shielded from prosecution by immunity granted by the Vienna Convention to all diplomats and embassy "technical and administrative staff." U.S. officials have described Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, as an official with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but they have declined to state what his job is.
Washington remains mindful of Pakistan's important role in an eventual resolution of the war in Afghanistan and in maintaining pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the country's volatile northwest. Pakistan desperately needs the steady stream of financial aid that the U.S. provides, but it cannot afford to allow the Davis affair to become a trigger for national unrest.
"The question is, when both countries have so much to lose, which one will stand down?" said Zafar Hilaly, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
During a news conference Tuesday in Washington, President Obama called for Pakistan to respect diplomatic immunity for Davis. Arriving in Lahore late Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry said the U.S. deeply regretted the deaths of the two Pakistani men and promised a Justice Department investigation of Davis' actions.
"We cannot allow one incident to break apart a much stronger bond that deals with millions of people in Pakistan, for whom we want to try to help build energy projects, new jobs, decent homes, education and healthcare," Kerry told reporters in Lahore.
Punjab provincial police officials have called the shooting a "clear-cut case of murder." According to the police, Davis says he had stopped his car at a red light when two men pulled up on a motorcycle. When one of the men pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the American, he fired at them through the windshield in self-defense, Davis told police.
Witnesses say Davis then got out of his car and snapped photos of the men before driving away. He was pulled over by police minutes later and arrested.
Police continue to seek the driver of an SUV from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, who rushed to the scene of the shooting after Davis called him. Police say that driver drove the wrong way down a Lahore street and struck and killed another person on a motorcycle. Pakistani police say the Lahore consulate has refused to turn over the driver to authorities.
The men on the motorcycle, Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, were carrying stolen cellphones and handguns, police said. But Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen says Davis' claim of self-defense doesn't hold up because Haider was shot in the back as he tried to flee. Tareen also said that though police found ammunition in the magazine of one man's gun, they found no cartridge in its chamber.
At least one of the witnesses, a traffic police officer, has told investigators he saw one of the Pakistani men pull out a pistol moments before Davis began firing, according to Punjab police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Also, both men were known to police as members of a robbery gang, the sources said.
Fauzia Wahab, a lawmaker and spokeswoman for the country's ruling party, the Pakistan People's Party, said Monday that she agreed that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity, though she emphasized that she was not speaking for the government.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ousted from his post last week as a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, told the Pakistani journalists that Davis was not protected by diplomatic immunity because he had not been certified as a diplomat by the Foreign Ministry.
Along the businesses lining the intersection where the shooting occurred, Pakistanis are bracing for Davis' release and for the eruption of anger expected to spill out into the streets afterward.
"I believe Davis will be released, because it's impossible for Pakistan to withstand pressure from the U.S.," said Irfan Hayat, whose rental car office is just yards from the site of the shooting. "But when that happens, the reaction will be huge. Every Pakistani will come into the streets."
In the working class Lahore neighborhood where Faizan Haider lived, banners draped over dangling power lines proclaim, "Hang the American murderer!" and "Is Pakistani blood so cheap?" In Haider's house, relatives say they are preparing to mount a protest that Islamabad cannot ignore.
"The nation is with us in this cause," said Mukhtar Ahmed, 50, Haider's cousin. "People are saying it will be like Egypt, but it will be beyond that. Even if the government isn't with us, the people are."
If the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men is granted diplomatic immunity, Pakistan may explode like Egypt and Tunisia, men on the street say.
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan —
Inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Pakistani college student Gulraiz Iqbal is itching for a reason to take his disdain for President Asif Ali Zardari's government to the streets.
If Pakistani authorities grant diplomatic immunity and release Raymond Davis, the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men in Lahore, Iqbal will have the cause he craves.
"We would organize students in Lahore and across the country, and create a movement that would turn into a revolution," said Iqbal, 22, a small, wiry man who is a leader of the Lahore student wing of an opposition party, Movement for Justice. "We're inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt because their leaders were agents for the U.S. We have the same situation here."
Iqbal's fist-shaking can't be brushed aside, if only because his outrage over the Davis case is shared by much of the rest of the country. In a nation fractured along ethnic, sectarian and political fault lines, the case has congealed Pakistani society into a single, cohesive front against what many perceive to be an ideal illustration of American recklessness.
On Jan. 27, Davis, 36, fatally shot two men who he said were trying to rob him at gunpoint. Davis was arrested and told officials he acted in self-defense. But few in Pakistan believe his version of events and many want him tried on murder charges, or worse.
Photos of protesters hoisting banners that read "Hang Raymond Davis!" appear every few days in Pakistani newspapers. Islamist parties capable of mobilizing thousands of demonstrators have vowed to rally against the government if Davis is freed.
The tumult sweeping through the Middle East could give demonstrators in Pakistan momentum that Zardari and his government would struggle to withstand, analysts say.
Zardari's government has reeled from one crisis to the next since the ouster of military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2008. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought Zardari's prosecution on corruption charges leveled in Switzerland. Many Pakistanis harshly criticized his administration for failing to provide relief quickly enough to millions left homeless by last summer's epic floods. The country's economy continues to teeter on the brink of collapse.
If Davis is released without a trial, experts say, it could be the last straw. The U.S. is expected to argue its case for Davis' immunity and release at a hearing Thursday at the Lahore High Court.
"The problem is that the government is so weak," says Talat Masood, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general. "The government thinks that because of what's happening in Egypt, the people need only an excuse, and this might be the one."
As a result, the government has been reluctant to make a decision regarding diplomatic immunity for Davis.
Washington wants Islamabad to declare that Davis is shielded from prosecution by immunity granted by the Vienna Convention to all diplomats and embassy "technical and administrative staff." U.S. officials have described Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, as an official with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but they have declined to state what his job is.
Washington remains mindful of Pakistan's important role in an eventual resolution of the war in Afghanistan and in maintaining pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the country's volatile northwest. Pakistan desperately needs the steady stream of financial aid that the U.S. provides, but it cannot afford to allow the Davis affair to become a trigger for national unrest.
"The question is, when both countries have so much to lose, which one will stand down?" said Zafar Hilaly, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
During a news conference Tuesday in Washington, President Obama called for Pakistan to respect diplomatic immunity for Davis. Arriving in Lahore late Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry said the U.S. deeply regretted the deaths of the two Pakistani men and promised a Justice Department investigation of Davis' actions.
"We cannot allow one incident to break apart a much stronger bond that deals with millions of people in Pakistan, for whom we want to try to help build energy projects, new jobs, decent homes, education and healthcare," Kerry told reporters in Lahore.
Punjab provincial police officials have called the shooting a "clear-cut case of murder." According to the police, Davis says he had stopped his car at a red light when two men pulled up on a motorcycle. When one of the men pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the American, he fired at them through the windshield in self-defense, Davis told police.
Witnesses say Davis then got out of his car and snapped photos of the men before driving away. He was pulled over by police minutes later and arrested.
Police continue to seek the driver of an SUV from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, who rushed to the scene of the shooting after Davis called him. Police say that driver drove the wrong way down a Lahore street and struck and killed another person on a motorcycle. Pakistani police say the Lahore consulate has refused to turn over the driver to authorities.
The men on the motorcycle, Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, were carrying stolen cellphones and handguns, police said. But Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen says Davis' claim of self-defense doesn't hold up because Haider was shot in the back as he tried to flee. Tareen also said that though police found ammunition in the magazine of one man's gun, they found no cartridge in its chamber.
At least one of the witnesses, a traffic police officer, has told investigators he saw one of the Pakistani men pull out a pistol moments before Davis began firing, according to Punjab police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Also, both men were known to police as members of a robbery gang, the sources said.
Fauzia Wahab, a lawmaker and spokeswoman for the country's ruling party, the Pakistan People's Party, said Monday that she agreed that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity, though she emphasized that she was not speaking for the government.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ousted from his post last week as a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, told the Pakistani journalists that Davis was not protected by diplomatic immunity because he had not been certified as a diplomat by the Foreign Ministry.
Along the businesses lining the intersection where the shooting occurred, Pakistanis are bracing for Davis' release and for the eruption of anger expected to spill out into the streets afterward.
"I believe Davis will be released, because it's impossible for Pakistan to withstand pressure from the U.S.," said Irfan Hayat, whose rental car office is just yards from the site of the shooting. "But when that happens, the reaction will be huge. Every Pakistani will come into the streets."
In the working class Lahore neighborhood where Faizan Haider lived, banners draped over dangling power lines proclaim, "Hang the American murderer!" and "Is Pakistani blood so cheap?" In Haider's house, relatives say they are preparing to mount a protest that Islamabad cannot ignore.
"The nation is with us in this cause," said Mukhtar Ahmed, 50, Haider's cousin. "People are saying it will be like Egypt, but it will be beyond that. Even if the government isn't with us, the people are."
Awesome
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Davis is not a simple American individual that committed a double murder in Pakistan. He is being accused of being a trained operative carrying out a mission on the behest of America the state. How can we give him to America the state and expect justice.
This can be America's exit strategy from the WoT... If Raymond Davis leaves Pakistan so will every American official. The war will be over.
Hyde
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Davis is ‘a diplomat’, declares FO
Updated at: 0036 PST, Wednesday, February 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD: A letter written to Law Ministry from Foreign Office, declared the US double murderer of two Pakistani citizens, Raymond Davis, ‘a diplomat’, Geo News reported late Tuesday.
According to letter, US citizen Raymond Davis was designated in Pakistan at US consulate in Lahore as ‘a diplomat’ and all the same, he enjoys ‘diplomatic immunity’ according to Vienna Convention.
A few minutes ago, US President Obama and Senator Kerry demanded Pakistan to acknowledge Davis as a diplomat and urged for his early release.
Davis is a diplomat, declares FO - GEO.tv
Updated at: 0036 PST, Wednesday, February 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD: A letter written to Law Ministry from Foreign Office, declared the US double murderer of two Pakistani citizens, Raymond Davis, ‘a diplomat’, Geo News reported late Tuesday.
According to letter, US citizen Raymond Davis was designated in Pakistan at US consulate in Lahore as ‘a diplomat’ and all the same, he enjoys ‘diplomatic immunity’ according to Vienna Convention.
A few minutes ago, US President Obama and Senator Kerry demanded Pakistan to acknowledge Davis as a diplomat and urged for his early release.
Davis is a diplomat, declares FO - GEO.tv
ajtr
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Gayee bhains paani main.FO ne letter de kar saare kiye karaye par paani fer diya.
Solomon2
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What makes you think that this "nervousness" and pressure from the street isn't something the U.S. wants? I want to see the GoP and its officials take responsibility for their own deeds and explain to their own people Pakistan's obligations. and benefits I do not WANT to make their job any easier by an ill-considered compromise. As Raza Rumi wrote in the article Rabzon quoted, Pakistanis "missed the chance to demonstrate that we are a rule-based state, compliant with international law." If the current pressure from the U.S. and the street compels Pakistani officials to explain themselves fully - to set Pakistan back on the path of political maturity - then why would I have an objection to it?
1) The police don't believe he committed murder. Provincial officials are merely claiming this as a matter of political convenience. That alone indicates Davis can't expect justice in Pakistan.
2) He has diplomatic immunity so kick Davis out. Educate your populace (it doesn't matter if Davis was a "trained operative") about what diplomatic immunity means - including the benefits Pakistan accrues from it. Apologize and lose face if necessary with the Pakistani people. Go through U.S. courts and see what happens.
So the terrorists who have been on the ropes will be saved because morally corrupt Pakistani officials value their personal power and control over the populace more than responsible conduct? So the Taliban can grow back and Al Qaeda strike America once more? Why would America be interested in such an "exit strategy"?
Hyde
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aap ko PPP bohat achi lagti hai naa - dekh lo us ke kartoot
usne khud accept kiya ke woh bas Councillors hai Lahore Embassy main aur ab dekho kya kya ho raha hai
ajtr
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PPP aur MQM par bahas un par dedicated threads main karenge..nahi to bekar main yeh thread barbaad ho jayega.
Ghareeb_Da_Baal
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^^^^^^^ I thought your flags were India's? What happenned?
RescueRanger
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Please spare me the sanctimonious lecture. You are more then welcome to your opinion and enjoy your keyboard Jihad my fellow OVERSEAS Pakistani.
Right... Let me just quote somthing you said in your post to me
Very civil of you...
Tell me this, how many times have you been shot at? How many times have you been in or near an explosion? How many times have you entered a collapsed structure that could very well entomb you, but you carry on regardless to help your fellow PAKISTANI?
Do you know why i am scared? My kids are too young. I could very well die tomorrow and not see them again, since i was too an orphan at a very young age i know the pain of growing up without your father... It haunts me, that and the fact i have dealt with people on the worst day of their life. These things i have seen, they haunt me... And will continue to do so till my dying days.
.
au contraire, ask anyone around here i am a very humble man... You don't know anything about me, so please keep these petty personal attacks to yourself.
My flag under my avatar, it is where i was born, bred, live and die. Actions speak louder than words, if you love your country so then come join the Rescue 1122 volunteer program or the many volunteer first responder services opening up around the country...
Please... Can you quote where i insulted you? Clearly you cannot because you are on a high horse, kindly dismount it and end your Keyboard Jihad. If you care so much about Pakistan, come take a month off and volunteer in Pakistan, turn those words you praise so much into ACTION.
Says the guy sitting in Russia. Sure thing my friend. Sure thing.
Omar1984
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In Pakistan, rumbles of a revolution over Raymond Davis
If the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men is granted diplomatic immunity, Pakistan may explode like Egypt and Tunisia, men on the street say.
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan —
Inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Pakistani college student Gulraiz Iqbal is itching for a reason to take his disdain for President Asif Ali Zardari's government to the streets.
If Pakistani authorities grant diplomatic immunity and release Raymond Davis, the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men in Lahore, Iqbal will have the cause he craves.
"We would organize students in Lahore and across the country, and create a movement that would turn into a revolution," said Iqbal, 22, a small, wiry man who is a leader of the Lahore student wing of an opposition party, Movement for Justice. "We're inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt because their leaders were agents for the U.S. We have the same situation here."
Iqbal's fist-shaking can't be brushed aside, if only because his outrage over the Davis case is shared by much of the rest of the country. In a nation fractured along ethnic, sectarian and political fault lines, the case has congealed Pakistani society into a single, cohesive front against what many perceive to be an ideal illustration of American recklessness.
On Jan. 27, Davis, 36, fatally shot two men who he said were trying to rob him at gunpoint. Davis was arrested and told officials he acted in self-defense. But few in Pakistan believe his version of events and many want him tried on murder charges, or worse.
Photos of protesters hoisting banners that read "Hang Raymond Davis!" appear every few days in Pakistani newspapers. Islamist parties capable of mobilizing thousands of demonstrators have vowed to rally against the government if Davis is freed.
The tumult sweeping through the Middle East could give demonstrators in Pakistan momentum that Zardari and his government would struggle to withstand, analysts say.
Zardari's government has reeled from one crisis to the next since the ouster of military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2008. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought Zardari's prosecution on corruption charges leveled in Switzerland. Many Pakistanis harshly criticized his administration for failing to provide relief quickly enough to millions left homeless by last summer's epic floods. The country's economy continues to teeter on the brink of collapse.
If Davis is released without a trial, experts say, it could be the last straw. The U.S. is expected to argue its case for Davis' immunity and release at a hearing Thursday at the Lahore High Court.
"The problem is that the government is so weak," says Talat Masood, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general. "The government thinks that because of what's happening in Egypt, the people need only an excuse, and this might be the one."
As a result, the government has been reluctant to make a decision regarding diplomatic immunity for Davis.
Washington wants Islamabad to declare that Davis is shielded from prosecution by immunity granted by the Vienna Convention to all diplomats and embassy "technical and administrative staff." U.S. officials have described Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, as an official with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but they have declined to state what his job is.
Washington remains mindful of Pakistan's important role in an eventual resolution of the war in Afghanistan and in maintaining pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the country's volatile northwest. Pakistan desperately needs the steady stream of financial aid that the U.S. provides, but it cannot afford to allow the Davis affair to become a trigger for national unrest.
"The question is, when both countries have so much to lose, which one will stand down?" said Zafar Hilaly, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
During a news conference Tuesday in Washington, President Obama called for Pakistan to respect diplomatic immunity for Davis. Arriving in Lahore late Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry said the U.S. deeply regretted the deaths of the two Pakistani men and promised a Justice Department investigation of Davis' actions.
"We cannot allow one incident to break apart a much stronger bond that deals with millions of people in Pakistan, for whom we want to try to help build energy projects, new jobs, decent homes, education and healthcare," Kerry told reporters in Lahore.
Punjab provincial police officials have called the shooting a "clear-cut case of murder." According to the police, Davis says he had stopped his car at a red light when two men pulled up on a motorcycle. When one of the men pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the American, he fired at them through the windshield in self-defense, Davis told police.
Witnesses say Davis then got out of his car and snapped photos of the men before driving away. He was pulled over by police minutes later and arrested.
Police continue to seek the driver of an SUV from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, who rushed to the scene of the shooting after Davis called him. Police say that driver drove the wrong way down a Lahore street and struck and killed another person on a motorcycle. Pakistani police say the Lahore consulate has refused to turn over the driver to authorities.
The men on the motorcycle, Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, were carrying stolen cellphones and handguns, police said. But Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen says Davis' claim of self-defense doesn't hold up because Haider was shot in the back as he tried to flee. Tareen also said that though police found ammunition in the magazine of one man's gun, they found no cartridge in its chamber.
At least one of the witnesses, a traffic police officer, has told investigators he saw one of the Pakistani men pull out a pistol moments before Davis began firing, according to Punjab police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Also, both men were known to police as members of a robbery gang, the sources said.
Fauzia Wahab, a lawmaker and spokeswoman for the country's ruling party, the Pakistan People's Party, said Monday that she agreed that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity, though she emphasized that she was not speaking for the government.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ousted from his post last week as a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, told the Pakistani journalists that Davis was not protected by diplomatic immunity because he had not been certified as a diplomat by the Foreign Ministry.
Along the businesses lining the intersection where the shooting occurred, Pakistanis are bracing for Davis' release and for the eruption of anger expected to spill out into the streets afterward.
"I believe Davis will be released, because it's impossible for Pakistan to withstand pressure from the U.S.," said Irfan Hayat, whose rental car office is just yards from the site of the shooting. "But when that happens, the reaction will be huge. Every Pakistani will come into the streets."
In the working class Lahore neighborhood where Faizan Haider lived, banners draped over dangling power lines proclaim, "Hang the American murderer!" and "Is Pakistani blood so cheap?" In Haider's house, relatives say they are preparing to mount a protest that Islamabad cannot ignore.
"The nation is with us in this cause," said Mukhtar Ahmed, 50, Haider's cousin. "People are saying it will be like Egypt, but it will be beyond that. Even if the government isn't with us, the people are."
alex.rodriguez@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Pakistan: Pakistan public anger rises over U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis - latimes.com
If the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men is granted diplomatic immunity, Pakistan may explode like Egypt and Tunisia, men on the street say.
By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan —
Inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Pakistani college student Gulraiz Iqbal is itching for a reason to take his disdain for President Asif Ali Zardari's government to the streets.
If Pakistani authorities grant diplomatic immunity and release Raymond Davis, the U.S. Embassy employee accused of murder in the deaths of two Pakistani men in Lahore, Iqbal will have the cause he craves.
"We would organize students in Lahore and across the country, and create a movement that would turn into a revolution," said Iqbal, 22, a small, wiry man who is a leader of the Lahore student wing of an opposition party, Movement for Justice. "We're inspired by the examples of Tunisia and Egypt because their leaders were agents for the U.S. We have the same situation here."
Iqbal's fist-shaking can't be brushed aside, if only because his outrage over the Davis case is shared by much of the rest of the country. In a nation fractured along ethnic, sectarian and political fault lines, the case has congealed Pakistani society into a single, cohesive front against what many perceive to be an ideal illustration of American recklessness.
On Jan. 27, Davis, 36, fatally shot two men who he said were trying to rob him at gunpoint. Davis was arrested and told officials he acted in self-defense. But few in Pakistan believe his version of events and many want him tried on murder charges, or worse.
Photos of protesters hoisting banners that read "Hang Raymond Davis!" appear every few days in Pakistani newspapers. Islamist parties capable of mobilizing thousands of demonstrators have vowed to rally against the government if Davis is freed.
The tumult sweeping through the Middle East could give demonstrators in Pakistan momentum that Zardari and his government would struggle to withstand, analysts say.
Zardari's government has reeled from one crisis to the next since the ouster of military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2008. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought Zardari's prosecution on corruption charges leveled in Switzerland. Many Pakistanis harshly criticized his administration for failing to provide relief quickly enough to millions left homeless by last summer's epic floods. The country's economy continues to teeter on the brink of collapse.
If Davis is released without a trial, experts say, it could be the last straw. The U.S. is expected to argue its case for Davis' immunity and release at a hearing Thursday at the Lahore High Court.
"The problem is that the government is so weak," says Talat Masood, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general. "The government thinks that because of what's happening in Egypt, the people need only an excuse, and this might be the one."
As a result, the government has been reluctant to make a decision regarding diplomatic immunity for Davis.
Washington wants Islamabad to declare that Davis is shielded from prosecution by immunity granted by the Vienna Convention to all diplomats and embassy "technical and administrative staff." U.S. officials have described Davis, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, as an official with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but they have declined to state what his job is.
Washington remains mindful of Pakistan's important role in an eventual resolution of the war in Afghanistan and in maintaining pressure on Al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in the country's volatile northwest. Pakistan desperately needs the steady stream of financial aid that the U.S. provides, but it cannot afford to allow the Davis affair to become a trigger for national unrest.
"The question is, when both countries have so much to lose, which one will stand down?" said Zafar Hilaly, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
During a news conference Tuesday in Washington, President Obama called for Pakistan to respect diplomatic immunity for Davis. Arriving in Lahore late Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry said the U.S. deeply regretted the deaths of the two Pakistani men and promised a Justice Department investigation of Davis' actions.
"We cannot allow one incident to break apart a much stronger bond that deals with millions of people in Pakistan, for whom we want to try to help build energy projects, new jobs, decent homes, education and healthcare," Kerry told reporters in Lahore.
Punjab provincial police officials have called the shooting a "clear-cut case of murder." According to the police, Davis says he had stopped his car at a red light when two men pulled up on a motorcycle. When one of the men pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the American, he fired at them through the windshield in self-defense, Davis told police.
Witnesses say Davis then got out of his car and snapped photos of the men before driving away. He was pulled over by police minutes later and arrested.
Police continue to seek the driver of an SUV from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, who rushed to the scene of the shooting after Davis called him. Police say that driver drove the wrong way down a Lahore street and struck and killed another person on a motorcycle. Pakistani police say the Lahore consulate has refused to turn over the driver to authorities.
The men on the motorcycle, Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, were carrying stolen cellphones and handguns, police said. But Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen says Davis' claim of self-defense doesn't hold up because Haider was shot in the back as he tried to flee. Tareen also said that though police found ammunition in the magazine of one man's gun, they found no cartridge in its chamber.
At least one of the witnesses, a traffic police officer, has told investigators he saw one of the Pakistani men pull out a pistol moments before Davis began firing, according to Punjab police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Also, both men were known to police as members of a robbery gang, the sources said.
Fauzia Wahab, a lawmaker and spokeswoman for the country's ruling party, the Pakistan People's Party, said Monday that she agreed that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity, though she emphasized that she was not speaking for the government.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, ousted from his post last week as a result of a Cabinet reshuffle, told the Pakistani journalists that Davis was not protected by diplomatic immunity because he had not been certified as a diplomat by the Foreign Ministry.
Along the businesses lining the intersection where the shooting occurred, Pakistanis are bracing for Davis' release and for the eruption of anger expected to spill out into the streets afterward.
"I believe Davis will be released, because it's impossible for Pakistan to withstand pressure from the U.S.," said Irfan Hayat, whose rental car office is just yards from the site of the shooting. "But when that happens, the reaction will be huge. Every Pakistani will come into the streets."
In the working class Lahore neighborhood where Faizan Haider lived, banners draped over dangling power lines proclaim, "Hang the American murderer!" and "Is Pakistani blood so cheap?" In Haider's house, relatives say they are preparing to mount a protest that Islamabad cannot ignore.
"The nation is with us in this cause," said Mukhtar Ahmed, 50, Haider's cousin. "People are saying it will be like Egypt, but it will be beyond that. Even if the government isn't with us, the people are."
alex.rodriguez@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Pakistan: Pakistan public anger rises over U.S. diplomat Raymond Davis - latimes.com
Omar1984
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Here's an American news article on Raymond Davis.
Is American at Center of US-Pakistani Crisis a Diplomat or Spy?
A telescope, photographs of sensitive defense installations and makeup for a facial disguise were found in the car of a former U.S. Special Forces officer after he fatally shot two young Pakistani men from his car, according to reports.
So was Raymond Davis, now at the center of an increasingly tense standoff between the U.S. and Pakistan, an ordinary diplomat assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad or, as some reports out of Pakistan suggest, a spy?
The shooting of the two Pakistanis, which occurred Jan. 27 when Davis was in Lahore, has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The widow of one of the two men, Shumaila Faheem, committed suicide on Sunday by taking poison, Al-Jazeera reported.
It's also led furious U.S. officials to threaten to withhold millions in aid if Davis is not released from detention based on his diplomatic immunity. A video was recently released that contains the audio recording of Davis' interrogation by police after the shooting.
"I just work as a consultant here," Davis says in the audio recording as several excitable male voices talk over him.
U.S. and Pakistani officials give conflicting versions of the confrontation involving Davis, who maintains he was acting in self-defense when he saw two men on motorcycles approach his car. At least one reportedly brandished a weapon.
Pakistani police said Davis fired five shots from his Glock from his car and then got out of the car to finish off the job by shooting both men two times.
U.S. officials said Davis fired only five shots and remained inside his vehicle, The Washington Post reported.
A third Pakistani was run over and killed by a U.S. consulate vehicle that had come to assist Davis, police said.
Both official government accounts agree on at least one thing: The two dead Pakistani men were probably would-be robbers. That fact was based on a report from two Pakistani citizens who came forward after seeing TV coverage of the crime and recognizing the men as having robbed them previously.
But to further complicate the already murky story, The Washington Post quoted an anonymous Pakistani intelligence official who said the motorcyclists were intelligence agents. A spokesman for Pakistan's main intelligence agency denied that Tuesday.
Alternative websites and the blogosphere -- as well as Pakistani media -- are awash in speculation about whether Davis was a diplomat or a spy or mercenary. He was reportedly found to be in possession of pictures of Pakistani army installations.
Counterpunch magazine investigated the company Davis said he works for in the U.S., Hyperion Protective Consultants. The company website gives an address in Orlando, Fla.
Counterpunch said it could find no evidence that Hyperion is a real company.
"First, there is not and never has been any such company located at the 5100 North Lane address," the site reported. "It is only an empty storefront, with empty shelves along one wall and an empty counter on the opposite wall, with just a lone used Coke cup sitting on it. A leasing agency sign is on the window."
The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Pakistan by sending three members of the House of Representatives to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. They told him that Congress was working on its budget and looking for areas to cut.
"It is imperative that they release him and there is certainly the possibility that there would be repercussions if they don't," Rep. John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, told reporters on his return, Agence France-Presse reported.
In the meantime, anti-American protests have been on the rise since the killings, in a country that the U.S. hoped would become a bastion against radical Islam.
Is Raymond Davis, American at Center of US-Pakistani Crisis, a Diplomat or Spy?
Is American at Center of US-Pakistani Crisis a Diplomat or Spy?
A telescope, photographs of sensitive defense installations and makeup for a facial disguise were found in the car of a former U.S. Special Forces officer after he fatally shot two young Pakistani men from his car, according to reports.
So was Raymond Davis, now at the center of an increasingly tense standoff between the U.S. and Pakistan, an ordinary diplomat assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad or, as some reports out of Pakistan suggest, a spy?
The shooting of the two Pakistanis, which occurred Jan. 27 when Davis was in Lahore, has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The widow of one of the two men, Shumaila Faheem, committed suicide on Sunday by taking poison, Al-Jazeera reported.
It's also led furious U.S. officials to threaten to withhold millions in aid if Davis is not released from detention based on his diplomatic immunity. A video was recently released that contains the audio recording of Davis' interrogation by police after the shooting.
"I just work as a consultant here," Davis says in the audio recording as several excitable male voices talk over him.
U.S. and Pakistani officials give conflicting versions of the confrontation involving Davis, who maintains he was acting in self-defense when he saw two men on motorcycles approach his car. At least one reportedly brandished a weapon.
Pakistani police said Davis fired five shots from his Glock from his car and then got out of the car to finish off the job by shooting both men two times.
U.S. officials said Davis fired only five shots and remained inside his vehicle, The Washington Post reported.
A third Pakistani was run over and killed by a U.S. consulate vehicle that had come to assist Davis, police said.
Both official government accounts agree on at least one thing: The two dead Pakistani men were probably would-be robbers. That fact was based on a report from two Pakistani citizens who came forward after seeing TV coverage of the crime and recognizing the men as having robbed them previously.
But to further complicate the already murky story, The Washington Post quoted an anonymous Pakistani intelligence official who said the motorcyclists were intelligence agents. A spokesman for Pakistan's main intelligence agency denied that Tuesday.
Alternative websites and the blogosphere -- as well as Pakistani media -- are awash in speculation about whether Davis was a diplomat or a spy or mercenary. He was reportedly found to be in possession of pictures of Pakistani army installations.
Counterpunch magazine investigated the company Davis said he works for in the U.S., Hyperion Protective Consultants. The company website gives an address in Orlando, Fla.
Counterpunch said it could find no evidence that Hyperion is a real company.
"First, there is not and never has been any such company located at the 5100 North Lane address," the site reported. "It is only an empty storefront, with empty shelves along one wall and an empty counter on the opposite wall, with just a lone used Coke cup sitting on it. A leasing agency sign is on the window."
The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Pakistan by sending three members of the House of Representatives to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. They told him that Congress was working on its budget and looking for areas to cut.
"It is imperative that they release him and there is certainly the possibility that there would be repercussions if they don't," Rep. John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, told reporters on his return, Agence France-Presse reported.
In the meantime, anti-American protests have been on the rise since the killings, in a country that the U.S. hoped would become a bastion against radical Islam.
Is Raymond Davis, American at Center of US-Pakistani Crisis, a Diplomat or Spy?
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