Raymond Davistan

It’s important to not fall for the line that Davis’s capture proves terrorism is being ‘masterminded’ by Americans.

So now we’re told that Raymond Davis is the man behind all the terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Now we have to believe that because 33 phone numbers in the call register of his cell phone are from Waziristan, it must mean that he is not only in touch with militant TTP elements there, but has been raising his own private corps of Taliban to “do his bidding,” especially if a report published in this paper on February 22 is to be believed.

The report quotes a “senior official in the Punjab police” as saying: “The Lahore killings were a blessing in disguise for our security agencies who suspected that Davis was ‘masterminding’ terrorist activities in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.”

And why would Raymond Davis, a CIA agent whose cover has been blown, want to raise his own private Taliban corps and carry out terrorist attacks around Pakistan? Hold on to your seats! Because, the report goes on to tell us: “Davis was also said to be working on a plan to give credence to the American notion that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe.”

Excuse me? “Was said?” By whom? Welcome to Shireen Mazaristan, or Hameed Gulistan if you prefer. This line, that all terrorism in Pakistan is being ‘masterminded’ by America to destabilise the country and pave the way for the violent seizure of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, keeps coming up in all sorts of contexts, but the dangerous thing about it now is that those who propagate the line can claim they have found their smoking gun, their ‘blessing in disguise’, and its name is Raymond Davis.

The first indication, that the Davis story was about to be hijacked by the far right, came on the first weekend of February. A number of channels ran a story on the night of February 5, saying that 33 numbers in the call register of Davis’s cell phone belonged to people in Waziristan. The next day, in newspapers from the Daily Express to the Daily Ummat, stories appeared in nearly identical language giving the same three pieces of information, all sourced to sensitive intelligence agencies.

The three data points were these: Raymond Davis was in contact with people in Waziristan. He had entered the country along with 75 other ‘team members’, whom he was leading. He was making contact with madrassas and militant groups in southern Punjab, the stories went, introducing himself as a British convert to Islam.

The question naturally arose: What business did this guy have calling people in Waziristan, or making contact with madrassas and militant groups in southern Punjab? From here the road forked. One path to take was the shortest distance between the three data points: Raymond Davis, it could be assumed, must be orchestrating the terror attacks around the country. The shortcut to Shireen Mazaristan.

But there was another route which also explained all these data points. Dawn carried a story on Friday, February 18, saying that a GPS chip recovered from Davis’s possession was used for targeting drones. It’s also common knowledge by now that the US government is using its own people, under diplomatic cover, to keep tabs on militant groups in southern Punjab and their links to Waziristan-based militants. It’s also common knowledge that the US government has been cultivating its own network of contacts and informants in Waziristan for purposes such as tracking the movement of militant leaders and illuminating targets for drones.

So if there are calls being made from Davis’s cell phone to numbers in Waziristan, and he has made contact with militant groups in southern Punjab, why necessarily conclude that it is because he is ‘masterminding’ the attacks inside Pakistan? The story carried by this paper does not say. In fact, does the report add any further information beyond the phone numbers found in Davis’s cell phone, something that was reported weeks ago? The answer is no. The only thing the report adds is an interpretation, proffered by an anonymous police official, and other “sources”.

It’s important to not fall for the line that Davis’s capture in any way proves that terrorism in Pakistan is being ‘masterminded’ by the Americans.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2011.