Pakistanis condemn CIA agent release

Pakistanis shout slogans as they march toward the US embassy during a protest against the release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Islamabad on Wednesday March 16.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170317.html

Pakistani people have staged street protests to voice their outrage at the release of a CIA contractor charged with killing two men in Lahore.

Anti-US demonstrations broke out on Wednesday in the capital, Islamabad, and similar protests were held in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

In Lahore, baton-wielding police forces tried to disperse the demonstrators who had gathered in front of the US consulate, injuring several protesters.

Pakistani officials say Davis was released after he paid the blood money for the victims. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denied any payments for securing the release.

Family members of the slain men appeared in the court and confirmed that they had pardoned Davis. But the move was clouded with reports that they were pressured by police into signing the agreement.

Davis killed two locals in the eastern city of Lahore in January in a move repeatedly claimed by Washington to be an act of “self-defense.”

The US insisted that as a consulate official, Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity, but he eventually turned out to be working for CIA.

Pakistan has since been under mounting pressure to release Davis. US lawmakers had threatened to cut millions of dollars in military and other aid to Islamabad.

The case has soured relations between Islamabad and Washington since January and intensified anti-US sentiments in Pakistan.

Pakistanis outraged at Davis acquittal

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170314.html

Outrage on the streets of Islamabad! Within hours of the release of the American CIA agent Raymond Davis, angry protests erupted across Pakistan. Many were injured after protestors attempted to remove road barricades in a failed attempt to attack US Consulate General Office in the eastern city of Lahore.

The release of Raymond Davis has caused an outcry in Pakistan. The CIA agent who was charged with killing two men in the eastern city of Lahore in January.

There have been reports that the victims' families were kidnapped and coerced into pardoning the CIA contracor.

An official statement by the US embassy in Islamabad said that Raymond Davis was acquitted of murder after being pardoned by the victims' families in exchange for compensation; a claim backed by the government. But it is hard to find people on the street who will buy into that version of the story.

Many Pakistanis are of the opinion that the government and the opposition mainstream somehow knew what pattern the events around the case would follow.

The Taliban may now have found some reasons to politically cash-in on public resentment. Militants have vowed to target officials and political leaders involved in the alleged backroom deal to release the CIA agent who is believed to be a key CIA operative to carry out espionage operations in Pakistan.

CIA man free after 'blood money' payment

Court frees Raymond Davis, contractor accused of murdering two men, after he agreed to pay money to their families.

The case prompted widespread protests across Pakistan, with demonstrators calling for Davis to be hanged [REUTERS]

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/2011316121616279778.html

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor accused of murdering two men in Lahore, Pakistan, has been released after the families to the two men he killed were given "blood money" and the case was dropped, Pakistani officials said.

While Davis, who had earlier admitted to the killings but said he was acting in "self-defence", was indicted for the murders earlier on Wednesday, Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab law minister, said he was immediately pardoned by the families of the victims in exchange for compensation or "blood money".

The practice of pardoning those accused of murder under such an arrangement is permitted under Pakistani law.

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Peshawar, said the families' lawyer had claimed they were forced to sign the agreement over the blood money, but none of the family members have spoken out so far.

"There is likely to be a public reaction, despite the fact that the court had moved according to the law of the land," he said.

The amount of money agreed to has not been made clear.

Davis had been arrested on January 27, after having killed the two men on a street in Lahore. He said that the two men were attempting to rob him, and that he acted in self-defence.

Chaudhry Mushtaq, superintendent at Kot Lakhpat jail, said Davis left the jail with US consulate officials after the hearing.

US officials were not immediately available for comment.

Patty Culhane, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Washington, said there had been a lot of criticism about how the Obama administration had handled the case since the beginning.

The United States has consistently insisted that Davis had diplomatic immunity and had demanded that the Pakistani authorities release him immediately. The case has caused a diplomatic row between the countries, with the Pakistani government, under pressure from the public not to allow Davis immunity, leaving the matter up to the courts.

Pakistani officials had earlier suggested that the payment of "blood money" was the best solution. Lawyers for the victims however suggested that they were forced to sign the deal.

"We were put in detention for four hours and not allowed to meet our clients who were called by authorities to the court," Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the family of one of victims told Reuters.

Sanaullah said Davis was formally indicted on murder charges before members of the two victims' families were taken into the court, where they signed papers formally forgiving him in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money.

Judges then acquitted him on all charges, he said.

Davis case fueling anger across Pakistan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167561.html

Anti-US protests are raging across Pakistan following the murder of two Pakistanis by a US national in late January.

People from all walks of life have staged protests almost every day since then to put pressure on the government to punish Raymon Davis who killed two Pakistani citizens on a busy road in the eastern city of Lahore.

His case has also sparked a bitter diplomatic row between Washington and Islamabad. The US claims he is an embassy official; while other sources say he is a CIA contractor.

Legal experts believe Davis may be given either life sentence or death punishment amid rising anti-US sentiments never seen before in Pakistan. They say this was the specific reason that former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lost his job and is now attracting tens of thousands of people rallying around anti-US sentiments in Pakistan.

Many here are furious that the US has urged Pakistan to release Raymond Davis. The official records reportedly dispatched by the US embassy to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry a day before the incident, shows that Davis was not even registered with the government as a non-diplomatic member of the embassy .

Despite the rising public anger, the US remains engaged in what appears to be an offensive diplomacy putting tremendous pressure on Islamabad to secure the release of Davis without prosecution.

Washington has threatened to oust the Pakistani ambassador and close down US consulates in Pakistan if Islamabad did not immediately free him

With 47 eyewitness accounts, Davis is being prosecuted in the court after police concluded that he killed the two citizens not in self-defense.

Pakistani court puts CIA agent on trial

Thousands of Pakistanis have demanded the execution of a CIA contractor

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167033.html

A court in Pakistan has adjourned the trial of a CIA contractor charged with killing two Pakistani men, dismissing Washington demands for his release.

The next hearing has been scheduled for March 3.

The US initially claimed that Raymond Davis -- a former US Special Forces officer -- was a diplomat. Washington insisted that Islamabad must repatriate Davis as he has diplomatic immunity.

However, it was later revealed that Davis is a CIA contractor.

If convicted, Davis could face execution for double homicide. Davis claims he acted in self-defense when he shot the men in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

The killings have inflamed anti-US sentiments in Pakistan, where people are already angry with Washington over its non-UN-sanctioned airstrikes.

The unauthorized strikes, which were initiated by former US President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama, have drastically increased in recent months.

Washington claims the airstrikes target militants. However, according to statistics, the attacks have left hundreds of civilians dead in Pakistan since 2008.

'CIA agent Davis linked to Taliban'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166139.html

Documents show Raymond Davis, an American who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January, had links with CIA's espionage and sabotage plans in the Asian country.

“The documents, photographs and the evidence that has come out from Davis' sofa almost confirms his links with Taliban terrorism…the attacks on ISI and the security establishment as well as the drone attacks,” Pakistani defense analyst and security consultant Zaid Hamid said in an interview with Press TV's US Desk on Saturday.

Hamid added that there is evidence confirming Davis has been a US undercover operative in Pakistan.

“With this kind of evidence the issue is not just the assassination of those two boys on the streets of Lahore but it is an indication of a much larger network of CIA espionage and sabotage inside Pakistan,” he said.

Earlier, US President Barack Obama urged Pakistan to free the US official saying he enjoys diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention.

However, under public pressure, Lahore High Court adjourned a decision on whether Davis had diplomatic immunity.

The court gave the foreign ministry more time to answer on whether full diplomatic status was held by Davis, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest following the incident on January 27.

Pakistani police have pressed charges of espionage against Davis, saying he is an employee of the notorious US security firm Xe/Blackwater, working in Pakistan under the cover of the so-called war on terror.

Arrest warrant issued for Musharraf

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164838.html

A Pakistani court has issued an arrest warrant against former President Pervez Musharraf for his alleged involvement in assassination of ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan's anti terrorism court responsible for conducting the trial of suspects charged with involvement in the murder case, asked the country's the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present the former military ruler before court on 19th of February, a Press TV correspondent reported Saturday.

At the hearing of the Bhutto's murder case in Adiala Jail, the court ordered Musharraf to appear in court for the hearing, and also issued the bail-able arrest warrant of the former leader.

In a previous hearing, the FIA listed Musharraf's name among the accused in the charge sheet of the Bhutto's murder case.

According to the FIA report, Musharraf had appointed two senior policemen, who were suspected of not giving adequate protection to opposition leader Bhutto at the time of her murder.

Musharraf is accused of giving the pair their orders.

In December 2010, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court issued warrants for the arrest of the two officers for their failure to protect Bhutto, as they also, later, refused to conduct a post-mortem on her body.

The two were Rawalpindi's police chief at the time, Saud Aziz, and another senior police officer, Khurram Shahzad.

Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, as she was leaving Liaquat Bagh in a motorcade after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad capital.

A report by a UN commission that probed Bhutto's assassination had also blamed Musharraf for failing to take adequate steps to provide security to the former premier.

FIA accuses Musharraf of Bhutto murder

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164385.html

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has accused former President Pervez Musharraf of assassinating the country's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

According to the FIA Tuesday report, Musharraf had appointed two senior policemen, who were suspected of not giving adequate protection to opposition leader Bhutto at the time of her murder.

Musharraf is accused of giving the pair their orders.

In December 2010, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court issued warrants for the arrest of the two officers for their failure to protect Bhutto, as they also, later, refused to conduct a post-mortem on her body.

The two were Rawalpindi's police chief at the time, Saud Aziz, and another senior police officer, Khurram Shahzad.

Arrest warrants were issued and the two policemen were detained.

According to FIA, the officers had failed to provide adequate security to Bhutto, denied her a post-mortem and were also responsible for hosing down the scene of the killing immediately after the crime.

Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in a suicide attack as she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi. A gunman had reportedly shot her in the neck and set off a bomb. At least 20 other people died in the attack and several more were injured.

Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, who won the presidency after Bhutto's death, has pointed the finger of blame at the then government of Musharraf and threatened to take action against the former military ruler.

'US steps up spying on Turkey, Brazil'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159041.html


The US spy agencies have cranked up their intelligence operations against Turkey and Brazil after the two countries adopted independent policies towards Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.

According to a report by the US-based prominent investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, which dates back to May 2010, the US intelligence agencies have set in motion new intelligence operations against Turkey and Brazil after the two countries frowned upon Washington's policies concerning the Islamic Republic's peaceful nuclear program, a PressTV correspondent reported.

Madsen pointed to widespread assumptions by Washington that Brazil and Turkey had clandestinely held talks with China and Russia in an effort to form an alliance to veto the latest UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran.

Although the US-engineered anti-Iran sanctions resolution passed the UN Security Council (UNSC), Brazil and Turkey took the rare move to vote against it, with Lebanon abstaining from the vote.

Washington has never shied away from making it known that it would expect no less than a unanimous vote on UNSC resolution that it sponsors. That is why it was widely considered unprecedented, and rather brave, for Turkey and Brazil to vote independently on the measure.

According to remarks by senior Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there were other members of the UNSC that privately expressed reservations about voting for the Western-backed anti-Iran measure and that the pressure of adverse action against their country was too costly for them to ignore.

The fourth round of sanctions was adopted against Tehran over its uranium enrichment program -- which has been misleadingly portrayed as a threat in the West despite repeated confirmations by the International Atomic Energy Agency about the non-diversion of nuclear material in the country.

The reminder on the report comes as Iran has recently invited representatives and ambassadors from different countries to inspect its nuclear facilities in yet another effort to demonstrate its goodwill and transparency of its nuclear program.

Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint nuclear swap declaration on May 17, based on which Tehran agrees to exchange 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium with higher-enriched fuel on Turkish soil for its Tehran research reactor.

Under the declaration, Turkey, as the custodian of Iran's uranium, makes the commitment to return Iran's uranium in case potential suppliers refuse to provide Iran with the fuel it requires within a reasonable time period.

Ex-CIA agent detained over 'Iran leak'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159056.html


A former CIA intelligence officer has been arrested by US authorities for leaking classified information exposing Washington's schemes to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Jeffrey Alexander Sterling in the city of St. Louis on Thursday for disclosing national defense information to a New York Times reporter.

Details in Sterling's indictment suggest that the case is connected to a 2006 book written by the daily's reporter James Risen. The book, Sate of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, contains details about the spy agency's plans to sabotage Iran's nuclear research program.

According to Risen, in an operation codenamed “Merlin” the United States attempted to provide Iran with flawed blueprints for key nuclear components through a Russian nuclear scientist.

However, the scientist allegedly double-crossed, cooperating with the Iranian side in revealing the flaws in the designs. The Iranians were able to “extract valuable information from the blueprints while ignoring the flaws,” the book adds.

Iranian observers, however, scoff at the report, emphasizing that the Iranian scientist do not need others to point out design flaws and that they are competent enough to detect potential flaws on their own.

Sterling, who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1993 until he was fired in 2002, had served as the chief operations officer handling a “human asset” in a program related to the nuclear capabilities of a foreign country, said the indictment charges.

The United States, as the only country to have used a nuclear weapon on another state, adamantly opposes Iran's nuclear program, claiming without any evidence that it harbors a secret military aspect.

Tehran has refuted the accusations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the right to benefit from the peaceful applications of the nuclear technology.

As a member of the NPT, Iran has long pushed efforts to establish a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East, insisting on a global elimination of nuclear weapons.