ISI leaks to their media team: “Running short of Patsies; need more Raymond Davises” – by Azaad Mir
Related article: On the so called ISI-CIA rift on the Raymond Davis issue
It seems that Aabpara and its media division (Geo, ARY, AAj etc) have realized that breaking the news of Raymond Davis being a CIA operative can be counterproductive. As he has already been in Pakistan for the last two years, it can’t be possible that this was without their prior information and approval.
So they have now added more spice to a poorly written Bollywood thriller by revealing his alleged links with the Talibans and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and also his role in recruiting Jihadis.
In other words, the Aabpara brigade have decided to crucify Raymond Davis for their own sins. No one can beat them in passing the buck!
Let’s make a list of all the major sins of our security apparatus that could be absolved if they can publically crucify Raymond. As he was the Taliban’s (rogue /bad ones) godfather, under his able leadership:
A) The Taliban were able to sign and breach their own peace accords in Waziristan as well as in Swat.
B) As per the story of Kane and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve; when the former killed the latter, a crow taught him to bury the dead. In the same manner, it was Raymond who taught the Taliban on how to behead civilians opposing them and do the same to the police and Shia soldiers of FC and the Army in Waziristan, Bajaur and Swat. Before Raymond came on the scene, the Taliban used to shower rose petals on their opponents.
C) Taliban made mines using domestic appliances such as pressure cookers although to be fair, this evil American did provide them with a box set of MacGyver.
D) The Taliban attacked Pakistan’s high ranking security officials and instalments.
E) Punjabi Taliban ignored pleas from their allies, the Punjab Govt. and kept on attacking. Raymond even provided assistance to them by facilitating SSP/LeJ and releasing Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a Jihadi leader who was being trained by Raymond when the latter was still in his teens.
F) He was responsible for planning attacks on Mosques, Shrines and other holy places and inciting hatred against GHQ and masterminding an attack on it. It was thanks to Pro-Pakistan Jihadi groups like HuM, JeM, and LeJ leadership and Honorable Fazlurehman Khalil, Abdur Rauf and Malik Ishaq who helped the GHQ in coming out of the mess and the surrender of the attackers.
G) Setting targets for the predator drones in collaboration with his accomplices.
These charges were already put against him via various vigorously publicized stories and news reports that were dictated to national and international media.
However, this list is not complete and there are more scapegoats required. The military establishment have so many more (alleged of course, we all know it is the tyrant Bhutto and his evil spawn that is the cause of all the problems in Pakistan) sins in their names to be forgiven and for that, they need to find and crucify even more Raymonds.
For instance, who can they charge for the violence, killings, abductions and bullet riddled bodies in Balochistan. The ISI sponsored media is making hectic efforts to find other Americans who can be blamed for the following:
A) The explosion in the cave when an Army colonel was busy in talks with Nawab Akbar Bugti.
B) The responsibility for the killings of moderate Baloch leaders like Habib Jalib Baloch, Sher Muhammad Baloch, Ghulam Muhammad Baloch, Mola Baksh Dashti and Lawyers and journalists Ali Sher Kurd, Lala Hameed Baloch and hundreds of political workers and student leaders and common people.
C) The responsibility for the killings of poor Punjabi workers and settlers in Balochistan.
Clearly, even this does not finish the list! At this point in time, yet another Raymond type patsy is required to explain the situation in Karachi. For example, how does one explain the ethnic clashes, murders and extortions in Karachi. We can’t go around blaming the obvious and undermining strategic assets and investments.
Nonetheless, a solution has been found. Through a combination of a dozen Raymond-like crucifications, we will be freed from all the issues threatening the security of the Fortress of Islam aka Pakistan.
Or we should we kidnap another Raymond, say a Ravi from India; we will call him a RAW operative as this Raymond needs to share the burden of wrongdoings; the list is just too large.
Thanks, Mir sahib, for writing this original and refreshing post.
I have only a tiny issue with the caption of a picture in this post. Contrary to what Declan Walsh etc would like us to believe, I don’t see any “spy wars” between the CIA and the ISI. http://criticalppp.com/archives/40955
dil ke behlane ko Ghalib ye khayal acha hai
It should be fictitious wars and fictitious rivalries…
I think this is the whole reason the leaks are taking place:
ISI wants US to quash case against its chief
http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=28_02_2011_005_001
WASHINGTON, Feb 27: Any arrangement for improving relations between Pakistani and US intelligence services would include the withdrawal of a civil lawsuit against the ISI chief, Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, diplomatic sources told Dawn.
The lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn, New York, last year implicates the ISI chief in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Pakistani officials familiar with the dispute say that the case has “really upset” the Pakistani establishment. “The Pakistanis say that the intelligence chief of a friendly nation is not dragged through courts,” said a diplomatic source familiar with USPakistan negotiations on this issue.
“This obviously does not send a friendly signal.” The Pakistanis believe that although it’s a private case, “the US administration can quash it by using the provision of a sovereign immunity”, the source said. Other sources claim that the two sides were close to an understanding on this issue.
Another issue that the two sides are said to be working on is that of the CIA network in Pakistan, the sources added.
The ISI wants the CIA to share with it the number of private agency contractors in Pakistan. The demand is driven by the suspicion that the American spy service has slipped many secret operatives like Raymond Davis into Pakistan in the past six months.
The sources say that both the CIA and the ISI appear worried about the media coverage of the Davis dispute which, they fear, can seriously damage US-Pakistan relations. “And that’s why they are keen to mend their relations,” a source said.
Pakistan Media Termed ‘Conspiracy-Palooza’
February 24th, 2011
American news magazine Wired has termed the Pakistani media ‘Conspiracy-Palooza’ due to the number of conspiracy theories being circulated about the Raymond Davis case and notes that such rumours are fueling the very crisis. The article specifically mentions the role of The Nation and Express Tribune in spreading “transparently silly stories”.
Al-Qaeda’s nuclear arms dealer? The top recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban? A terrorist “mastermind?” These are just some of the explanations that have been picked up by the Pakistani press ever since Raymond Davis, an employee of the U.S. embassy in Pakistan, shot two Pakistani men he claimed were menacing him on the streets of Lahore.
The nature of Davis’ work — now acknowledged to be on contract for the CIA — and the prolonged vacuum of information regarding it has invited in a host of outlandish theories to fill the void.
Early on in the Davis affair, The European Union Times, an online news site printed a transparently silly story about Davis running weapons of mass destruction for al-Qaeda. You see, a Russian intelligence report indicated that Davis had documents detailing U.S. shipments of”nuclear fissile material” and “biological agents” to al-Qaeda for the purpose of starting a world war that would restore the American economy to global dominance. Absurd as it is, the story has since been picked up by Pakistan’s The Nation, as well as by Pakistani journalists on press listservs and Twitter.
The narrative of the U.S. colluding with terrorists to attack Pakistan was later taken up by the Express Tribune , which ran a story claiming that Davis had gone rogue on the U.S. and started working for the Pakistani Taliban. “Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the bloody insurgency,” according to an anonymous senior police official from Punjab quoted in the story. The source called Davis’ arrest a “blessing in disguise” because he was suspected of “masterminding terrorist activities in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.”
In support of the allegations, the Tribune quotes more anonymous sources claiming Davis’ cell phone records indicate he was in contact with members of the Pakistani Taliban the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, another Pakistani terrorist group.
Of course, those phone records, if valid, could also be the hallmarks of someone spying on, rather than recruiting for, Pakistani terrorist groups, as the CIA now claims was Davis’ job.
But the choice of interpretation speaks to a deep distrust among the Pakistani public of the United States and its covert war in the country. Last week, Pakistani sources claimed (fairly dubiously) that the Davis shootings were responsible for a month-long halt in drone strikes. Now, as Pakistan’s intelligence service warns of a “split” with the CIA over the incident, all eyes are again looking to see whether the already tense relationship will buckle under the weight of public outrage, distrust and the rumors that help fuel it.
http://pakistanmediawatch.com/2011/02/24/pakistan-media-termed-conspiracy-palooza/
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