New York Times: Davis a ‘Gun-For-Hire’ and Not ‘Diplomat’
by H D S Greenway
There were lots of things to be afraid of in Baghdad in the bad old days — kidnapping, beheading, truck bombs — but nothing scared me more than trigger-happy Americans who careened out of the Green Zone, ready to shoot anybody and anything they saw as a real or imagined threat. Many were not soldiers, but private security guards under government contract who could, and did, kill with impunity — seemingly a law unto themselves.
On a recent visit to Pakistan, I found a country rife with conspiracy theories in which Americans are most often the villains. Blackwater plays a major role in Pakistani fears, no matter how it endeavors to change its name.
Some of these conspiracy theories are fantasies, but in the curious case of Raymond Davis, all of Pakistan’s nightmares about Americans have coalesced. And this flame is fanned by the American refusals to reveal what Davis was supposed to be doing.
The facts are few and mysterious. Davis, 36, an employee at the American consulate in Lahore, was driving through town with a fully loaded Glock automatic pistol. Two men approached his car on a motor bike, Davis says, with intent to rob him. They were found later to have stolen cellphones.
Davis opened up on them with his Glock through the windshield and killed them both. Then he apparently stepped out of his car and photographed their dead bodies before he sped away. He was later arrested.
The case was further complicated when another car sped out of the consulate, apparently coming to Davis’ rescue, killed a Pakistani on a bicycle and sped back to the consulate. Neither the car nor the driver have been produced for the Pakistani authorities to question or inspect.
The Americans claim diplomatic immunity for Davis under Geneva Convention rules, and they are right by their lights. But Pakistani law says that Pakistan has a say in who has diplomatic immunity and who does not, and Pakistan deserves a full explanation.
There the matter stands, with the Pakistani courts threatening to try Davis for murder. The prosecution is saying that the shootings were not in self-defense. The Americans are hinting darkly that Pakistan will suffer dire consequences, canceled visits to Washington and a cut in financial aid.
In the meantime Pakistan is in a spasm of anti-American fury. The question of what an American “diplomat” was doing with a loaded gun, ready to use it, in the streets of a Pakistani city needs a lot more daylight than the Americans are providing.
And, yes, it turns out that Davis was not a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, but a gun-for-hire private operative attached to the “technical and administrative” staff of the consulate, according to the U.S. Embassy.
We all know that the business of private security has ballooned in recent years under very lucrative government contracts. The employees are often Americans, Britons and South Africans with military experience who can put their training to work for a great deal more money than usually awaits them in a fully civilian job. We also know that with U.S. forces stretched to the breaking point, these mercenaries, unhappily, play a major role in guarding American installations and embassies abroad that were once guarded only by U.S. Marines.
But in case after case, these private operatives have used lethal — and not always justified — force, and it is not clear whose laws they are under. Hamid Karzai tried to have them all fired from Afghanistan, but couldn’t do it, so important were these private guns to the American war effort.
The case of Raymond Davis plunged into even deeper mystery when the Pakistanis say they found maps on him of high security installations. The Pakistanis are suggesting he may have known the men whom he killed. The Americans, in the meantime, refuse any further explanation of his activities. The Lahore High Court won’t let the Pakistani government turn him over to the U.S. Embassy until they have ruled on his diplomatic status.
The Davis killings have resonance with a population already infuriated by the frequent drone attacks that often kill as many bystanders as militants. What is “collateral damage” to Americans is extra-judicial murder to many Pakistanis. The image of the careless American gunslinger is ingrained around the world through our greatest cultural export, the movies.
The best outcome would be for the Pakistanis to hand Davis over to the Americans under the terms of the Geneva Conventions, with the Americans giving a full explanation of what Davis was doing, and a worldwide crackdown on these private operatives who kill again and again with impunity or immunity.
And America should stop threatening Pakistan with loss of aid. The aid serves U.S. interests, not just Pakistan’s.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 15, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune.
Since 1947 the Pakistani nation has been facing down adversity with patience and resilience.
There is more than one road that leads to economic success. All that is needed is imagination and acumen. We have several technocrats and business people who can set Pakistan on the road to success.
The only acumen this leadership has , it has so ably demonstrated in by them on a daily basis when they lie daily to the nation whilst filling their own pockets.
If Pakistani private hospitals can run so successfully on Pakistani generosity and donations, then we can run a country without foreign aid. We did not gain the status of the biggest charity-givers for nothing.
The best thing a pakistani should do is, someone from police should do a devil hunting thing. like
Empty the mag in him. Get rid of him and the aid we get from land he’s from.
I think it will wet some one at the very top. Making a “Zard dhari” in someone pants . lolz
hahahhaha… i agree with u dude
The beeline of American officials, statements from American president, and repeated mongering by the officials of American embassy in Islamabad are aimed at only one thing, i.e. to blackmail Pakistan in releasing the mercenary murderer Davis Raymond while bypassing all legal proceedings against him. That is shameless to say the least. Raymond Davis murdered two young Pakistanis in cold blood. The murderer is currently in police custody and legal proceedings are underway against him. Lahore High Court has barred government from handing him over to Americans and has prohibited his departure from the country.
The accused has been on record, right after the crime, saying that he works as a contractor in the American Consulate in Lahore. He is no diplomat or a member of diplomatic staff. The fact is that he was an undercover agent deployed in Pakistan on terror mission. Being on a covert mission in Pakistan, he was never declared as a staff member by the embassy until after he committed the grave crime and ripped off his cover. His case indeed fails to satisfy the terms of Vienna Convention and is not covered by the immunity provided by that convention.
Even if a true diplomat commits a crime as grave as that of Raymond Davis, it the sole prerogative of the court of law in the host country to decide on the applicability of clauses that grant such immunity. There are numerous examples of such court decisions against the diplomats accused in different countries, including the USA. What is then wrong if the court of law in Pakistan takes the matter into its jurisdiction?
Raymond Davis, American Consulate in Lahore, and American Embassy in Islamabad are in fact a party in this case. The relatives of the two young victims, murdered by the accused, are the other party. Raymond Davis is not entitled for immunity just because the officials of American embassy or those in Washington are claiming or insisting on that. These officials are not the judge. At best they are a party in this case. The decision on granting any immunity for the murderer is the sole responsibility of a court of law in Pakistan. The American officials – in Lahore, Islamabad, or Washington – are not a court of law. Americans need to stop abashing and blackmailing. Their repeated claims of and demands for immunity for the murderer carry no weight in legal terms. He must be brought to justice. The American officials are unable or unwilling to understand an important aspect, but let me remind them, that bringing a murderer to justice is actually the American way.
The government of Pakistan is supposed to protect the life, honor, and property of every Pakistani citizen. The illegal demands of American officials, shamelessly repeated in a perpetual way, must not prevent it from following the rule of law and the course of justice. Don’t get cowed down by the sheer intimidation and blackmail. The matter must be decided by the court of law in Pakistan and not by the demands of American officials. It is really amazing to note that the victims are Pakistani citizens, the murderer broke multiple laws of land in Pakistan, and American embassy illegally deployed the murderer as under cover agent in our country. And yet Pakistani government is apologetic on this issue. Americans, starting from third level officials to the US president, are on an offensive. Rather than feeling shameful, showing regret, and respecting our laws and courts, they are brazenly hell bent upon blackmailing this silly Pakistani leadership. If our coward leaders can not enforce the law of the land and can not protect the life of Pakistani citizens, these traitors better get lost from Pakistan. Or Pakistani people will lynch them first before dealing with external criminals and enemies.
Raymond Davis is a ruthless and brutal American terrorist who had deliberately murdered two innocent Pakistani men and his ruthless accomplices murdered an innocent Pakistani man. And the horrible murder caused the death of an innocent Pakistani woman. This ruthless and horrible triple murder reflects the terrorist, ruthless, immoral and corrupt US regime.