US and Pakistan square off; US-Pak-Afghan trilateral meeting aborted

[seafan]

US and Pakistan square off

By M K Bhadrakumar
February 15, 2011

.....

Meanwhile, there have been threatening noises from Washington that US aid to Pakistan might be in jeopardy and, if ABC News is to be believed, a top White House official warned the Pakistani ambassador that diplomatic ties might be curtailed.

All this is happening on account of the continued detention of a single American national commonly known as "Raymond Davis" in the Pakistani city of Lahore, despite the urgings by senior US officials at the political and diplomatic level that he should be forthwith released.

.....

The Pakistani authorities have been leaking to the media that they knew Davis was in touch with the "Pakistani Taliban".

.....

Clearly, the US has every reason to believe that the Pakistani side knows much more than it is prepared to admit, and if Davis breaks down after sustained interrogation in police custody, he might spill explosive stuff. This explains the highly contradictory versions that the US has given about Davis' identity and the nature of his assignment in Pakistan.

.....

The heart of the matter is that Pakistan has been wondering for a long time who it is who could be instigating the so-called "Pakistani Taliban" to inflict such bloody wounds on the Pakistani military and weaken and incrementally destabilize the Pakistani state.

.....

Davis can most certainly provide the proverbial "missing link" to Pakistan to connect several dots on an intriguing chessboard. Conceivably, he will be sent back home at some point, but by then he may be a "burnt-out case" and Pakistan would have gained a far better understanding of the US's regional policies.

.....

These allegations against Mr. Davis, if true, may blow the lid off US actions in Pakistan.


More and more, it appears that the single largest threat to the security of US citizens is the actions of our own government, in the aggressive and deadly games it carries out around the world.

[malaise]

1. You can't murder the citizens of a country

and expect immunity. It doesn't work that way.