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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Apocalypse Pretty Soon, Starring Rainn Wilson

Apocalypse Pretty Soon, Starring Rainn Wilson

by Anne Laurie|  February 12, 20115:06 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Decline and Fall

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Now that the Egyptian revolution has reached a less American-media-friendly phase, I’m hoping there will be some attention to spare for Raymond A. Davis and his trials in another regional “beneficiary” of our empire-building ambitions:

LAHORE, Pakistan — The case of Raymond A. Davis, a former United States Special Forces soldier who is being held in connection with the deaths of two Pakistanis, has stirred a diplomatic furor, sending the precarious relationship between the United States and Pakistan to a new low, both sides say.
__
Mr. Davis, 36, was driving in dense traffic in this city on Jan. 27 when, he later told the police, two Pakistani men on a motorcycle tried to rob him. He shot and killed both and was arrested immediately afterward by police officers who say he was carrying a Glock handgun, a flashlight that attached to a headband and a pocket telescope.
__
The mystery about what Mr. Davis was doing with this inventory of gadgets has touched directly on Pakistani resentments that members of the large American security presence here roam the country freely and are not answerable to the Pakistani authorities.
__
The Pakistani press, dwelling on the items in Mr. Davis’s possession and his various identity cards, has been filled with speculation about his specific duties, which American officials would not discuss. Mr. Davis’s jobs have been loosely defined by American officials as “security” or “technical,” though his duties were known only to his immediate superiors.
[…] __
Moments after Mr. Davis shot the two men, he called for help, and a vehicle belonging to the American Consulate in Lahore raced to the scene, driving the wrong way on a one-way street. It ran over a Pakistani cyclist, who later died in a hospital…

That was Tuesday. On Friday, the Washington Post took a less dispassionate tone, claiming the “US weighs tougher approach with Pakistan“:

WASHINGTON — A standoff between the United States and Pakistan over a jailed American embassy worker took an ominous turn Friday when police accused the man of “cold-blooded murder” and the U.S. responded with thinly veiled threats to cut valued aid and access for Pakistan unless he is released immediately.
__
The case of Raymond Allen Davis has opened one of the worst breaches in memory between the U.S. and a critical counter-terrorism partner. His detention has become a point of national honor for both nations, and a rallying point for anti-American suspicion in Pakistan. U.S. officials said they were likely to postpone an invitation to Pakistan’s foreign minister to visit Washington later this month.
__
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is before a court, said the Obama administration is also considering a slow-down in visa processing for Pakistanis seeking to come to the U.S. That would be hugely unpopular in Pakistan, where grievance already runs high over the perception that the U.S. discriminates in granting visas to Pakistanis.
[…] __
In Congress, some demanded an even tougher approach with Pakistan. Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said Friday he might offer an amendment to Congress’ must-pass spending bill next week that would cut off U.S. aid to the country….

Much more detail at the links. I know this is deadly serious geopolitics, but there’s a weirdly slapstick tone to the whole disaster as currently reported, as though Modern Times were being re-written for the 21st century. Of course in Charlie Chaplin’s day there were no nuclear weapons…

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Previous Post: « Late Friday Night Open Thread [Tahrir Square Update!]
Next Post: It was like Comic-Con »

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    February 12, 2011 at 5:17 am

    Remember the good old days when congress used to enforce the rule that amendments had to be germane?

    Neither do I.

  2. 2.

    Napoleon

    February 12, 2011 at 5:25 am

    We don’t enforce our own rules that apply to our government officials, I don’t know why anyone else would think we would let them.

    BTW, I had read he shot them in the back multiple times. Really didn’t sound like anyone’s definition of self defense, unless it was one of the inside the beltway media and political elite talking about one of their own (maybe Richard Cohen has seen him shopping at his local Piggly Wiggly).

  3. 3.

    Citizen Alan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:32 am

    Funny, I distinctly remember telling a former boss (Republican, natch) back in 2002 that while invading Afghanistan to go after AQ was probably necessary, it was also probably going to destabilize Pakistan and transform what was at least a nominal ally into a hotbed of anti-Americanism. There are times I really hate being right.

  4. 4.

    Anne Laurie

    February 12, 2011 at 5:45 am

    @Napoleon:

    BTW, I had read he shot them in the back multiple times. Really didn’t sound like anyone’s definition of self defense.

    There’s also been speculation that the two were members of one or another of Pakistan’s “secret” security forces — or, at least, that Davis took them for such.

    The whole episode, so far, reads like two parts Le Carre, one part Graham Greene, and one part Inspector Closeau. Even apart from the whole “Did the Archduke just get assassinated in Sarajevo?” vibe, I don’t understand why there hasn’t been more attention paid by our Very Serious Media.

  5. 5.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 12, 2011 at 5:48 am

    Looks like just you and me babe.

  6. 6.

    grung0r

    February 12, 2011 at 5:51 am

    The Washington Post link is missing a ‘:’ after the http

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 12, 2011 at 5:59 am

    .. and that weird dude.

  8. 8.

    cbear

    February 12, 2011 at 6:09 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Looks like just you and me babe.

    Dude, you gotta stop listening to those old Sonny & Cher records. You’re getting sappy again. (lol)

  9. 9.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 12, 2011 at 6:12 am

    cbear!

  10. 10.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 12, 2011 at 6:12 am

    That’s all I got. I’m like a dog, always happy to see ya.

  11. 11.

    Taylor

    February 12, 2011 at 6:18 am

    Given that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are essentially ISI operations, and Pakistan is a nuclear state with a rogue intelligence agency running these kinds of operations, you should not be surprised that there are undercover operations running around there.

    The claim is that this guy was a low-level operative who wandered off the reservation. Given this fiasco, I hope that’s true. Then again, the administration spent several months in Afghanistan negotiating a truce with a con man.

    BTW Let’s spare a minute of thought for the poor schmoe who got run over by idiots who thought they were in a James Bond movie.

  12. 12.

    cbear

    February 12, 2011 at 6:29 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    I feel ya, bro.
    I actually still lurk here virtually every day, but, Jeebus, the level of discourse in most of these threads is depressingly PC, and “late-nite at BJ” has become a parody of teenage IM chats.
    You can’t swing a dead cat around here anymore without hitting 3-4 dipshits who want to cut your balls off just for introducing a little old fashioned snark to the conversation.

  13. 13.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 12, 2011 at 6:30 am

    Omigod.

    Yer like a fucking prophet.

  14. 14.

    cbear

    February 12, 2011 at 6:39 am

    Why yes, I am–and for a nominal fee I’d be happy to welcome any of these poor souls suffering from keyboard tourettes to my cult.

  15. 15.

    salacious crumb

    February 12, 2011 at 6:51 am

    it bothers me a great deal that we as Americans can go into any other country and just start shooting up whenever we “feel” threatened. It wouldnt be that preposterous a claim that Mr. Davis was from intelligence (maybe still Special Forces) and was probably doing surveillance work. That ISI watches US embassy officials very closely and was probably behaving very aggressively towards hi,. Still he could have destroyed his equipment or done something else to stop these guys from getting to him (cmon its not like this is the first time CIA/”embassy” staff has been operating in such circumstances in Pakistan. and after all they are CIA. Dont they have standard operating procedures for such stuff?). But the way they went roughshod on the third dead person (and this is giving Mr. Davis the benefit of the doubt on the death of the first two) just suggests arrogance on the part of Americans. Im sure we would all be braying for capital punishment of an Arab diplomat if something like this was done in the States. shit, even liberal blogs would be indulging in their racist fantasies about Arabs and/or Muslims. We would say hey everyone who commits murder has to have their day in court? So why should Mr. Davis be treated differently.

    In any case I think he will be released but not before the US pays a huge ransom fee over this. The Pakistani military has the upper hand here. Whats the US gonna do? get angry with the Pakistanis and refuse to cooperate with them in Afghanistan? works mighty fine for the Pakistanis

  16. 16.

    Ash Can

    February 12, 2011 at 7:21 am

    This whole situation sucks, and is a black eye for the admin, and for the US in general. If any of the resident purity trolls and firebaggers wanted to trash the prez over something substantive, here’s their chance.

  17. 17.

    pablo

    February 12, 2011 at 7:21 am

    I’m confused, why is this even a story? I thought the drill was this:
    “As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”
    Whatever happened to good old Amurican values?

  18. 18.

    Stefan

    February 12, 2011 at 7:55 am

    Imagine an armed Pakistani spy wandering around DC who shoots and kills two FBI men tailing him, and a Pakistani embassy car that runs over and kills an American on its way to get him.

    Now imagine the reaction here if the Pakistanis demanded we release him, or else.

    I mean, what the fuck? The guy’s running around a foreign country. He’s subject to its laws. Why should he get a free pass from having to obey them?

  19. 19.

    Stefan

    February 12, 2011 at 7:58 am

    Obviously what Pakistan should do is declare him an illegal combatant and then just ship him off to a prison for the rest of his life without benefit of trial or appeal.

    What are we gonna do about that? Complain that it’s unfair?

  20. 20.

    jeff

    February 12, 2011 at 7:59 am

    @salacious crumb:

    1. He’s being tried for murder

    2. Do you think they should have just summarily murdered him?

  21. 21.

    gnomedad

    February 12, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Can we put Jussten Beeeber on the moderation list until the ad goes away?

  22. 22.

    aimai

    February 12, 2011 at 8:12 am

    @salacious crumb:

    It sounds like its crossed way over the line into major international incident. Does anyone think that the Pakistani authorities can release the guy without risking a backlash from their own people? More riots are just what they need, right now, I’m sure. Sovreignity, independence, no obvious bowing to US pressure–these are key components of the tightrope walk that the Pakistani Government is doing with its own people. Its one of the reasons that the US AID (Bribery/Ransom or whatever you want to call it) is not clearly marked “Gift of the USA” in the first place. Because the Pakistani people are not fond of the US and the Government doesn’t want to let people know how much they are borrowing or otherwise getting from us.

    aimai

  23. 23.

    Gozer

    February 12, 2011 at 8:15 am

    @Stefan: Only thing is that the FBI in that case are unlikely to turn him over to whatever our equivalent of AQ/Taliban would be. With Pakistani security services, you just don’t know if you’re gonna simply be arrested or kidnapped or worse.

    In the words of Chris Rock, I’m not saying he was right, but I understand.

  24. 24.

    Barry

    February 12, 2011 at 8:23 am

    “With Pakistani security services, you just don’t know if you’re gonna simply be arrested or kidnapped or worse.”

    As opposed to the USA?

  25. 25.

    liberal

    February 12, 2011 at 8:24 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    …it was also probably going to destabilize Pakistan…

    In arguments here where I advocate getting the hell out of Afgh, people counter “what about the destabilizing effect that will have on Pak?” I think the onus is to show that _staying_ in Afgh won’t destabilize Pak.

  26. 26.

    liberal

    February 12, 2011 at 8:26 am

    @Stefan:

    He’s subject to its laws.

    I thought one of the main issues is diplomatic immunity. IANAL, but the few times our American newspapers mention the Pak view of the issue, it seems like a reasonable argument can be made that he’s not covered, at least not for this incident.

  27. 27.

    liberal

    February 12, 2011 at 8:31 am

    @Taylor:

    Given that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are essentially ISI operations, and Pakistan is a nuclear state with a rogue intelligence agency running these kinds of operations…

    I’m not sure how much support AQ and T get from the ISI, but AFAICT it’s not trivial.

    Which makes me wonder why we’re in Afgh; whole thing seems incoherent.

  28. 28.

    Stefan

    February 12, 2011 at 8:32 am

    With Pakistani security services, you just don’t know if you’re gonna simply be arrested or kidnapped or worse.

    Whereas with the American security services…..wait, what?

  29. 29.

    Stefan

    February 12, 2011 at 8:33 am

    I thought one of the main issues is diplomatic immunity.

    They’re now claiming that he has immunity, but I don’t believe it. I don’t believe he was any kind of official embassy staff — he’s probably an off-the-books mercenary.

  30. 30.

    salacious crumb

    February 12, 2011 at 8:35 am

    @jeff: what do you think Jeff?

  31. 31.

    Stefan

    February 12, 2011 at 8:37 am

    Only thing is that the FBI in that case are unlikely to turn him over to whatever our equivalent of AQ/Taliban would be. With Pakistani security services, you just don’t know if you’re gonna simply be arrested or kidnapped or worse.

    Maher Arar (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. His story is one of the most famous cases of extraordinary rendition in recent times.

    Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunis. He was held without charges in solitary confinement in the United States for nearly two weeks, questioned, and denied meaningful access to a lawyer. The US government suspected him of being a member of Al Qaeda and deported him, not to Canada, his current home, but to his native Syria, even though its government is known to use torture. He was detained in Syria for almost a year, during which time he was tortured, according to the findings of a commission of inquiry ordered by the Canadian government, until his release to Canada.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar#US_interrogation

  32. 32.

    Superluminar

    February 12, 2011 at 8:46 am

    Ash Can @16

    This whole situation sucks, and is a black eye for the admin, and for the US in general. If any of the resident purity trolls and firebaggers wanted to trash the prez over something substantive, here’s their chance.

    Why? The administration are defending him on the grounds of diplomatic immunity as any government would do – the legit question is “was he actually a diplomat?” but the article mentions nothing to suggest he isn’t.
    I wonder what Glenn Greenwald thinks of all this?

  33. 33.

    Suck It Up!

    February 12, 2011 at 8:56 am

    There is a lot missing from this story. Why would he shoot both of them dead over a mugging? Were they armed?

  34. 34.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    February 12, 2011 at 9:10 am

    @Suck It Up!:

    Not really. He’s an Amurikin He-Man SF dude who wasted a couple of brown guys who were threatening him. That and another true-blue red-blooded Amurikin ran over another brown guy in their hurry to go rescue Rambo.

    Nothing to see here. SS, DD.

    They hate us for our freedom all right. Our freedom to go anywhere and torture or kill anyone we want, then get away with it. That and they hate our freedom to move in, buy off their government (or install one favorable to us) and then let our businesses rape the country and exploit the people of it.

    Can’t say that I blame them a bit.

    That’s capitalism baby!

  35. 35.

    Amir_Khalid

    February 12, 2011 at 9:26 am

    @Suck It Up!:

    Sez the New York Times:

    Dr. Fahhar-u-Zamana, who conducted the post-mortem examination, said one victim, Faizan Haider, had five bullets in his body, including two in his back. The other victim, Muhammad Fahim, had four bullets in his body, including one in his brain and one in his back.
    __
    The Lahore police said Mr. Haider and Mr. Fahim were armed and carrying stolen cellphones when they were shot.

    So Davis’ story, that it was self-defense against an attempted robbery, seems to hold up. But the bullets in the two men’s backs suggest that he kept on shooting even after disabling his attackers. And I wonder, did he have a legal right to carry that Glock in a foreign country? And if his embassy job required that he be armed, was he on duty at the time of the incident?

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 12, 2011 at 9:32 am

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Your version of the story could turn out to be accurate, but, based on the Times article, we do not know that it is. We don’t know what Davis was doing and why; we don’t know what the two Pakistanis were doing and why, we don’t know how the gunfight went down. Before I would sign on to your explanation, I would want to know these things at a minimum. Running over the cyclist sounds pretty out of line absent any detail. As it stands though, I don’t have enough information to make a reasoned judgment, so I am not going to fly off the handle.

  37. 37.

    Svensker

    February 12, 2011 at 9:50 am

    @Stefan:

    This makes total sense. Yes.

  38. 38.

    Svensker

    February 12, 2011 at 9:56 am

    @Stefan:

    If you look at the diplomatic immunity page on Wiki, there’s a chart at the bottom showing how the US treats foreign diplomatic/embassy staff. Based on our rules of how WE treat other diplomats, this guy would have NO immunity.

  39. 39.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    February 12, 2011 at 10:08 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m just ‘wingin’ it…lol

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 12, 2011 at 10:11 am

    @Svensker: I am not sure that is the case. If he entered the country as diplomatic “administrative and technical staff” as the article indicates and was attached to a consulate, he could have immunity. It would depend on how he was accredited.

    Edited for coherence.

  41. 41.

    par4

    February 12, 2011 at 10:17 am

    FB Ali has an analysis of this at sic semper tyrannis (turcopilier.typepad.com) that is well worth reading

  42. 42.

    daniel

    February 12, 2011 at 10:40 am

    @Amir_Khalid

    Just because there were bullets in the guys’ backs doesn’t mean they were shot while running away. Couldn’t it also be possible that they were shot in the back first, and, not enjoying that too much, then spun around to be all, “hey, what the fuck are you doing with those bullets in my back? And the guy with the gun was all, “yah, well, here are a few in your front as well. Suck my balls.”

  43. 43.

    Joel

    February 12, 2011 at 10:47 am

    Apropos?

  44. 44.

    Michael

    February 12, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Not really. He’s an Amurikin He-Man SF dude who wasted a couple of brown guys who were threatening him. That and another true-blue red-blooded Amurikin ran over another brown guy in their hurry to go rescue Rambo.

    Always note how wingnuts seem to confuse recklessly induced collateral casualties with actually accomplishing anything.

    They’re all Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road – after the group of slackjawed nitwits stupidly run down a black man sleeping in a parked cart (and killing him in the process), Jeeter delivers the sort of line that defines wingnuts on what their policies and violence result in:

    “Niggers will get killed. Looks like there ain’t no way to stop it.”

  45. 45.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 11:20 am

    This is social media in action. Social media started the egyptian demonstrations. Big White Christian Bwana and his pet tyrants cant shut the people up anymore.
    Pakistan is going to sue Musharraff FOR WAR CRIMES, bitches.
    THIS IS WHAT ASSANGE PREDICTED!
    FFS, America can lead, follow, or get out of the way.

    and….
    release the Kracken!

    what do you dumbfuck cudlips not unnerstand about democracy?
    if it was done in our name we fucking did it!

  46. 46.

    sharl

    February 12, 2011 at 11:31 am

    @par4:
    Here is the direct link to the post by FB_Ali over at Patrick Lang’s place, referenced by par4 @41 (and it’s turcopolier, with an ‘o’).

    Pat Lang retired from the defense intelligence business years ago, but knows his stuff, and maintains contact with good information sources. A measure of his quality as an expert is the assiduousness with which Bush-era Administration and Congressional people – and many of the media who enabled them – avoided him and his inconvenient views on the unnecessary Iraq adventure.

  47. 47.

    EconWatcher

    February 12, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Seems pretty obvious he was an operative doing a hit. But the sloppiness is unbelievable.

  48. 48.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    do you know what i have allus wondered about Anne Laurie?
    what the blackwater mercs did to get burnt and hung from the bridge in our Iraq adventure.
    i guess in the fog of war we will never know.
    Given the lack of an islamic prostitute class to service their “needs”, one must wonder if it was something like the Iraqi Rape Squad?

  49. 49.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    Bears repeating.

    Pakistan is going to sue Musharraff FOR WAR CRIMES, bitches.

    can we sue Bush?
    nah.
    because we are American Trash.

  50. 50.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    February 12, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    Seems pretty obvious he was an operative doing a hit. But the sloppiness is unbelievable.

    Why? You have pictures of SF or intelligence guys from movies but they’re movies, and anything you read in the papers is probably vetted as pro-army propaganda.

    Consider how many screwups there are in your workplace, and the occasional bone-headed moves from normally competant people. Do you really think the intelligence service is any different?

  51. 51.

    daryljfontaine

    February 12, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    @cbear: Look here, brother, who you jivin’ with that cosmik debris?

    D

  52. 52.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    February 12, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    do you know what i have allus wondered about Anne Laurie?
    what the blackwater mercs did to get burnt and hung from the bridge in our Iraq adventure.

    The mercs were ambushed in Fallujah in March 2004, and the people of Fallujah took part in demonstrating their anger against the US by helping display their bodies.

    What the US press mainly failed to mention was that roughly a year ago, this happened

    The participants in the demonstration and Iraqi witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch were emphatic that they had been attacked without provocation. All of the individuals said that U.S. troops fired excessively and indiscriminately as they arrived at the school.

    Falah Nawwar Dhahir, a twenty-four-year-old worker whose brother was killed in the incident, said the demonstrators had no weapons. People far from the school were shooting in the air, he said, but not at U.S. soldiers. “They suddenly started shooting at us,” he said. “There was continuous shooting until people fled. They shot at people when they came out to get the wounded. Then there was individual shooting, like from snipers.”[20]

    One of the demonstrators, Mu`taz Fahd al-Dulaimi, saw his cousin, Samir `Ali al-Dulaimi, get shot. He told Human Rights Watch: “There was no shooting and they suddenly started shooting at us. There were four [U.S. soldiers] on the roof-I saw them with my own eyes. There was a heavy machine gun. It was full automatic shooting for ten minutes. Some of the people fell to the ground. When they stood up, they shot again.”[21]

  53. 53.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    @Phoenician in a time of Romans: perhaps. but why not ambush soldiers then? there were plenty of those around…..but this is absolutely what happened as a result of the Iraqi Rape Squad’s actions.
    it was definitely a revenge video, the genital mutilation is tribal punishment for rapists.
    ill have to research what burning and hanging meant to the bedouin…time for a little cognitive anthropology research.

  54. 54.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    the thing is…americans want to label islamic culture as pre-modern to fit the WEC narrative. well, okfine.
    but even pre-modern cultures operate rationally.
    there is always a reason for the behavior.

  55. 55.

    THE

    February 12, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    islamic culture as pre-modern to fit the WEC narrative

    Islamic culture is judged to be premodern because there are no leading technological powers among the Muslim nations. While some of them look supermodern, this is merely a free gift from the oil gods.

    Edit another great image

  56. 56.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    @THE: that has nothing to do with what i just said. I SAID pre-modern cultures still are rational actors, in their cultural context.

  57. 57.

    THE

    February 12, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    @matoko_chan:
    But are they rational enough, Matoko?

    That is what we are about to find out. Personally I have long had serious doubts about democracy for deeply prerational cultures.

    The reason is that if you have a largely illiterate and superstitious uneducated population, you really could better off being run by an educated secular elite.
    i.e. Technocratic government.

    It all depends on the moral character of the elite. Are they really serving the nation, or are they just looking after their own narrow class interests?

  58. 58.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    blah blah blah
    it doesnt matter what YOU think Spock.
    al-Islam has succeeded before as a recipe for successful human behavior, which is all any religion is from an EGT viewpoint.
    now the muslims get a chance to selfgovern again.
    GTFO Big White Christian Bwana.

  59. 59.

    THE

    February 12, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    al-Islam has succeeded before as a recipe for successful human behavior….now the muslims get a chance to selfgovern again.

    I will watch with great interest. But I will keep my money in East Asia. LOL.

  60. 60.

    Draylon Hogg

    February 12, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    The reason is that if you have a largely illiterate and superstitious uneducated population, you really could better off being run by an educated secular elite. i.e. Technocratic government.

    Camera zooms into technocratic pragmatist President Barack Obama’s pupil like that Koala on the Simpsons

    Duh

    Duh Duh

    Duh Duh Duh Duh

  61. 61.

    AAA Bonds

    February 12, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    Smells like a spook to me. Of course, he’ll never get a fair trial in Pakistan, and that’s a travesty, but we’ll also never know what actually happened, or what he was actually doing there, if either government gets its way.

  62. 62.

    Suck It Up!

    February 12, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    @Amir_Khalid:

    Thanks. That’s horrible.

  63. 63.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    @Draylon Hogg:

    Camera zooms into technocratic pragmatist President Barack Obama’s pupil like that Koala on the Simpsons
    Duh
    Duh Duh
    Duh Duh Duh Duh

    just look at this shit. why cant we get a better class of trolls?
    where is the DougJ of the Right?

    i blame Salam-Douthat Stratification.

  64. 64.

    Calouste

    February 12, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    @AAA Bonds:

    He won’t get a fair trial in the US either. As if American operatives/military get convicted in the US for killing foreigners.

  65. 65.

    Draylon Hogg

    February 12, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Makoto Chan you are one of the biggest trolls who comments here. And a prize wazzock to boot. I’m a committed socialist from the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire.

  66. 66.

    Draylon Hogg

    February 12, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    Just look at your own shit Makoto Chan. A witless one trick pony.

  67. 67.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    @Draylon Hogg: i have many tricks.
    wanna see one?
    Function fisk [el Cid]
    @El Cid: one point where you are WRONG is that Gaza will stay “locked up”. I betcha the border is going porous right NAOW. the MB doesnt recognize Israel, and considers the Blockade illegal….and the powerless hyperpower is not going to be able to threaten to cut off aid unless Egypt takes a knee, like that fucking WEC retard George Bush did over Hamas.
    I think you’re wrong about the rest of it too.
    Most egyptians just fucking hate Israel and who could blame them? Every Egyptian family has lost loved ones to wars with Israel.

    For three decades, Mubarak has maintained a steadfast alliance with the United States (lubricated by about $1.5 billion in annual aid) and presided over a cold-but-durable peace with Israel. Yet, Egyptian public opinion is overwhelmingly hostile toward both countries. In Pew’s 2010 global survey, just 17 percent of Egyptians expressed a favorable view of the United States; that tied with Pakistan and Turkey for the lowest rating the U.S. received in any of the 21 countries tested. Nearly three-fourths of Egyptians said they opposed U.S. antiterrorism efforts, and four-fifths wanted the U.S. to withdraw from Afghanistan.
    Egyptian attitudes toward Israel are even chillier, despite the landmark 1979 peace treaty. In a 2007 Pew survey, a stunning 80 percent of Egyptians said that the needs of the Palestinian people could never be met as long as Israel exists; just 18 percent said that the two societies could coexist fairly. That was far more pessimistic than the results in Turkey and Lebanon—and essentially no different than the attitude among the Palestinians themselves. “Of all the countries in the Middle East,” Walker says, “the population of Egypt is the most hostile to Israel.”

    why are you softpedalling this shit, el Campeador? are you a fifth columnist for the pre-tribs?

  68. 68.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm

    @Draylon Hogg: and im sure Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability operates in South Yorkshitr too.
    ;)
    and of course ima troll! im just a supertroll from the uppertail of the IQ gradient.
    ima disciple of the Immortal DougJ.
    ABT

  69. 69.

    Draylon Hogg

    February 12, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    Yes please. Do that one where you poke my eye with sabre then release a mountain cat into the crowd but it is, you know, fake.

  70. 70.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    @Draylon Hogg: marginally better attempt. try to apply that “wit” to current events naow.
    FYI i fenced epee. more finesse.
    ;)

  71. 71.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    @Draylon Hogg:

    Yes please. Do that one where you poke my eye with sabre then release a mountain cat into the crowd but it is, you know, fake.

    and its not a mountain cat. its a swamp panther. and its never fake.

    The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here – it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide from under it with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it PERSONAL. Do as much damage as you can. GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS. That way, you stand a better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous makes the difference, the ONLY difference in their eyes, between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life and that IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.
    Things I Should Have Learnt by Now, Volume II

  72. 72.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    DougJ should open an elitist School for Trolls, kinda along the lines of Pythagoras’ Temple at Croton.
    id be one of the aukosmatikoi fer sure.
    oh wait…..that is what Balloon-Juice actually is, amirite?

  73. 73.

    matoko_chan

    February 12, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    rotating tag line.

    Balloon Juice
    a school for trolls

  74. 74.

    Glen Tomkins

    February 12, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    “I know this is deadly serious geopolitics, but there’s a weirdly slapstick tone to the whole disaster as currently reported”

    Nothing at all weird about doings of the CIA and our other secret police agencies having a slapstick tone to go with their slapstick substance.

    Have you heard the one about that Al Qaeda #3 man that we’ve killed, I don’t know, about 30 times? After typing that sentence, I’m convinced that these cholos settled on the formulaic (these things have have formulas, like “Liberian freighter” or “bus plunge in India”) “#3 man” entirely because you can type that with the same key, just by also hitting the “shift” key in combo with the first keystroke. It could have been #2 man, or #4 man, but #3 man is just easier, dammit.

    It goes without saying that, of course, AQ does not have a #3 man. It doesn’t have organization charts. It’s not really an organization, it’s an idea. I’m not in the CIA, I’m just paying attention, and I know that.

    Look, competence is hard, as our last preznit so aptly observed. It can’t be maintained unless it is constantly subjected to critical feedback. You could take the finest restaurant in the world, and if you didn’t allow anyone to eat the food, if you just paid the restaurant its usual revenue stream, but no one was lalowed to actually eat there, including the restaurant staff — it would quickly end up producing the worst food in the world. You see the less extreme version of this thought experiment all the time. Restaurants are kept great, or even just barely competent, directly in proportion to how much their customers are paying attention to what they eat. The standard issue American doesn’t pay much attention to what he or she eats, in comparison to the standard issue Korean, so Americans mostly get crap restaurants, while you can find amazing food dirt cheap within a block or two anywhere in Seoul.

    What we have in the CIA is that restaurant where no one is allowed to eat the food. They get funded at incredible levels to come up with a product that is not subject to public scrutiny. Of course the product is crap. Of course their operatives are like a Charlie Chaplin character only without the pathos. It could not be otherwise.

    If you want to understand a foreign country, there is no recourse but to take the same approach you have to take with everything you want ot understand. The product has to be subject to public scrutiny. The State Dept’s intelligence people consistently do better than all the much better funded covert efforts simply by reading the papers and talking to people in these foreign countries. Duh.

    “But”, you object, “what about the stuff they are keeping secret in these foreign countries?!”. You mean, all that AQ #3 man stuff, that WMD stuff? Well, we are in about as much danger from these imaginary threats as we are from the machinations of the evil Dr. No. What this objection boils down to is the idea that we need our incompetent secret police, incompetent because they are secret and protected from scrutiny, to protect us from their secret incompetent police.

    That’s nothing but a whole lot of job security for a whole lot of chuckleheads.

  75. 75.

    Chris Dowd

    February 12, 2011 at 7:59 pm

    I particularly love the tone of the American MSM on this story. Yes- the Pakistani press is “dwelling” on the spy items found on the man and in his car- numerous cell phones- commonly used as detonation devices for bombs- numerous id’s, spy glasses- a head band with a light- and a glock. Not to mention that a cursory examination of this man’s claims reveals a front business in Florida that doesn’t exist and is an empty store front. Further- the photos on his cell phone show numerous shots of mosques and madrassas in the area.

    We get glimpses of this dark world of spooks once in while- they rear up- and then we blithely ignore them and dimiss them as “Anti American” ravings by paranoid Muslims or whomever. Reminds me of the SAS guys who were caught by ordinary Iraqi police in Basra several years ago- caught with a bagful of detonators- pounds of C-4, and dressed in Arab garb. Then American forces attacked the police station- killing Iraqi police- to free these guys. It got about a day’s play in Western media- buried of course- and back to business as usual- pumping stupid bromides about “democracy”.

    You know- there are dark dark dark forces in the US government and our allies and we ignore it- because we are cowards- and God forbid we get labeled “conspiracy theorists”.

  76. 76.

    El Cid

    February 12, 2011 at 8:06 pm

    @Glen Tomkins: I was going to emphasize this point as well.

    There’s not a story about a US covert operation (“covert” mostly meaning not disclosed to the American people and not reported on by the kiss-ass media, not covert to locals who see it all) which isn’t filled with absurd “slapstick” moments, no matter how death squaddy.

  77. 77.

    Chris Dowd

    February 12, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Unlike all the guilty Muslims convicted of vast idiotic terrorism “plots” that were the idea and brain childs of paid FBI informants from the get go? YOu got Muslim students in this country doing 30 years for giving money to Hamas- and not to mention the “masterminds” of 9/11- no trial still going on ten years- held in isolation- and tortured- driven mad- but yeah- those will be fair trials?

    Yeah- those backward awful Pakistanis don’t give fair trials like we do huh?

    Good God.

  78. 78.

    mclaren

    February 12, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    This guy is obviously a black ops JSOC assassin. He’s probably a SEAL or an Army Ranger or Special Forces. He was almost certainly carrying out a hit for some mid-level colonel in the Pentagon E-Ring and, unfortunately, he botched it and did it publicly and got caught.

    These U.S. black ops assassins now roam the world killing innocent women and children for no discernible reason on the orders of anonymous bureaucrats in the Pentagon E-Ring based on “intelligence” that’s usually horseshit like the screams of some innocent cab driver picked up by mistake and thrown into Gitmo who’s been tortured until he’ll say anything to make the agony stop.

    America has become the focus of evil in the modern world.

  79. 79.

    heckblazer

    February 13, 2011 at 1:44 am

    The flashlight on a headband sounds to me less like a spy gadget and more like something handy to own in a developing country with unreliable electricity. I say that from personal experience as I have one I bought for a trip last year to Tanzania – when the power went out its was nice to have a hands-free light source. You can buy one at any sports equipment store in the US as they’re really popular with joggers.

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