Thread: Raymond Davis, finally free!

Wow! Just turned on the TV and the news is all about Mr.Raymond. The guy went away before anyone realized it, awww, man another week of protests. Its said that the American Embassy gave the families green cards and money for for it.

Now on to the bad part, I am already getting SMS's telling me to join a protest tomorrow. Crap, so now there is a protest going on on TV and its almost 7:30 in the evening here.

Davis is clearly guilty of murder and would have hanged had he gone to trial in Pakistan. Paying off the families was a fast way to stop that, but the consequences may be a lot worse.

There are protests here during the night, now imagine what will happen during the day when the opposition will call for the protests and that all of those protests will be supported by the media. In my town, there is a call for protest to which I am being called to join. The consequences will be disastrous, if people had any ideas that America was actually doing them good they will be gone after this.

Came on this by chance, they kept it very quiet here, either I missed the news that day or it was not reported at all. Amazing what the very powerful can get away with, oh for the rule of law.

Yea we too learnt about it after he had gone away, at least an hour afterwards and that too because of the media or we would have been told days later.

I read in an article (link below) that...

"Blood-money, or "diyya," is routinely used to settle murder cases in Pakistan, in compliance with Sharia law."

I suppose Custard would know something about that, and also...

"The Raymond Davis issue was decided under Pakistani laws in a Pakistani court," said President Asif Al Zardairi's spokesperson Farhnaz Ispahani



CIA contractor Raymond Davis freed from Pakistan jail on 'blood money' - CSMonitor.com

Yea, sure it was made by the pakistani court and not by the ISI and CIA behind the scenes. One more thing the blood money was paid and the article neglected to mention one thing, one of the two cases filed was filed by the widow and childeren of one of the dead. People dont realize that the diyat was paid only to their siblings their childern and widows refused the diyat but widows in pakistan dont have enough money to feed their childern..........

Sorry, I had assumed it was some sort of back room deal, the concept of blood money is alien to our legal system.

Olly - Check with your Welsh friends. You'll find the concept is not so alien after all.

Since we had no idea that the deal was done until after it was investigated, Olly you are right about it being a back room deal. Another intersting fact all of the family members are no where to be found their houses have been abandoned.

Custard, would these families that accepted blood money be in any kind of danger, since this is such a high profile case involving a U.S. diplomat?

I am not too sure about that..... It is possible that they were forced by the agencies to accept the diyat (they could have been made to 'vanish' after they had made the statements accepting the diyat). It could also be that they were a danger to themselves since the people that raymond killed were theives or taliban contacts. Other than that I dont think that there is any danger to them.

The case did not involve a U.S. diplomat. He was a contract worker from the organisation formerly known as Blackwater. There was an attempt made to give him legal cover but that did not impress any but the few who choose to believe everything that comes in a U.S. State Department handout. The foreign ministry of any government, which the State Department is for the U.S., will claim diplomatic immunity in an effort to protect resources in place, often to gain time for extraction, or, in a worst case scenario, provide an opportunity for termination of the contract with prejudice. From all that has been reported, Davis' situation had possibly reached the 'worst case' stage, but the two people who drew the assignment were late.

Sidebar

Full article. CIA branch recruits on campus | The UWM Post

Operatives for the National Clandestine Service (NCS) faced accusations of murdering U.S. citizens Wednesday afternoon as they spoke candidly with prospective applicants from UW-Milwaukee about the responsibilities and risks faced by the “eyes and ears and, at times, hidden hand of the nation.”

Technically speaking, this is what I would expect from a secret agent but that does not mean that it is correct. Killing people in the open without any cover is over the top and not just that they kill any one that gets in their way.