Democracy Today - in Pakistan, the USA and the UK

PAKISTAN

The latest news from Pakistan is that Pakistan’s National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies will be dissolved on 10 February and a caretaker government will be installed for a brief period while the Election Commission of Pakistan will vet candidates contesting the forthcoming  elections (probably to be held in May). On the face of it this sounds very good news until you scratch the surface to see what lies underneath.

Fakhruddin G Ibrahim

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), is an eighty four years old retired judge, who is respected for his honesty and integrity. Great. But will he have the energy to look into all the scandals and wheeling and dealing which, by all accounts, have been going on for years and will grow worse during the election campaign? It seems to me that an alert and energetic Chief Election Commissioner is an important  

requirement because the other four election commissioners do not enjoy quite as good a reputation as the CEC Mr Fakhruddin Ibrahim. Judging from his images on the internet, however, he does look in robust health.

Pakistan’s National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies are bursting with dishonest people who are experts at manufacturing fake academic degrees, paying no tax and submitting no tax returns, engaging in criminal activities ranging from raiding the national treasury and washing it clean through money laundering, siphoning off funds from state enterprises, dealing in illegal drugs and, believe it or not, ripping off people performing the Haj to Makkah. If anyone stands in their way they will stop at nothing, including murder. Many of these law breakers – the term “legislators” ceased to apply to them long ago – hold dual nationality, mostly American or British. They owe their rise to power to the governments of the USA and the UK, which were instrumental in getting the discredited dictator Musharraf to sign a presidential decree, the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which pardoned all the criminals and the murderers (Bhutto, Zardari, the Sharifs, and hundreds of others) and allowed them to keep their illegally acquired wealth. These people are nothing but traitors to Pakistan, their first allegiance is to the governments of the USA and the UK.

A popular and outspoken Pakistani journalist, Hassan Nisar, has been exposing the financial crimes of Pakistan’s rulers in his regular columns for the Urdu newspaper Dunya. He has quoted extensively from Raymond Baker’s book “Capitalism’s Achilles Heel : Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System” which gives, among other things, the details of the wealth amassed by Bhutto, Zardari and the Sharif family. The book can be read/downloaded here:

 http://www.e-reading-lib.org/bookreader.php/135381/Capitalism%2560s_Achilles_heel.pdf

Imran Khan

The all-important question today is: will Pakistanis be able to have a free and fair election or will it again be manipulated by the governments of the USA and the UK? The criminals that were put in power in Pakistan as a result of foreign manipulation show neither shame nor remorse for their crimes. Currently they are distributing millions of rupees to buy off voters and supporters. The one consolation for Pakistanis is that the most popular politician today is Imran Khan, an honest and upright politician, who holds just the Pakistani nationality and whose loyalty to his country is beyond suspicion. For obvious reasons, these qualities do not endear him to the king makers sitting in remote Washington and London.

The foreign powers may try to manipulate elections by offering covert support to discredited political figures of the past. Among them could be Musharraf and, possibly, Tahirul Qadri, a sort of religious priest-cum-politician who acquired Canadian citizenship some years ago. Last month he suddenly descended on Pakistan and held a "long march" from Lahore to Islamabad, which shook the coalition of crooks that rules Pakistan. He has now announced holding a series of rallies all over Pakistan, starting from 15 February. On the face of it the things he says are quite sensible - what is not clear is where he is getting the funding to cover his very high costs. Are there sinister motives behind his sudden emergence close to the elections?

USA

Business and politics have become interwoven in the United States.  To run a political campaign the presidential candidate needs to be stupendously rich or he/she requires rich backers. The campaign itself is little more that a mud slinging contest in which the truth is the chief casualty. So far as the electorate is concerned the primary issue is economic – the people want to be well off and they don’t care what their government does to make their material lives tolerable.

Over the years the US administrations have progressively adopted foreign policies where the legitimate interests and aspirations of non-Americans are ignored. An American government has no qualms giving support to the most heinous dictators, and suppressing people's struggle for freedom and true democracy (in Pakistan’s case, when the USA’s support for a dictator became untenable the US administration managed to give the country a false democracy). This can be more clearly seen if we look at recent history.

Without going as far back as Vietnam, let’s use a reference point of 9/11. The most powerful weapon in the hands of US administration today is that of propaganda and veiled threats. It was these that persuaded people to accept that a fugitive living in backward Afghanistan could launch a sophisticated operation such as the four-pronged attack on mainland USA. No open trial of murderers behind that atrocity ever took place. The remains of the destroyed aircraft were quickly removed and they simply vanished. Many lies were repeated ad infinitum until the world came to accept those lies as truth. The sheer volume of propaganda hid from the world the offer of the government of Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country for a fair trial.

The presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan is both immoral and illegal. The intense propaganda about 'Taliban' hides the fact that the Pashtun Afghanis are also fighting against foreign occupiers of their land. The USA has now as good as lost the war and is preparing for negotiation with the despised Taliban before it withdraws its troops next year.

Then there was Iraq and the Great Lie of WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Saddam Hussein, who was a dear friend while he was dropping napalm on his own people, had become a foe because he had grown too big for his boots and needed to be put in his place. Both in Afghanistan and Iraq the underlying reasons for the savage destruction of human lives was the greed and madness of power-crazed Americans in high places, and their collusion with corrupt politicians. The “democracy” we have today is incapable of producing honest and fearless leaders. The best it can do is serve up second and third rate politicians such as Obama and Bush in USA, and Cameron and Blair in the UK. These unprincipled politicians cling to power, living in constant fear of the electorate. 

The blood-thirsty western governments have not learnt from their experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Pakistan the illegal attacks by USA’s pilot-less drones have killed thousands of innocent people and the western governments appear hell-bent on teaching Pakistan and Iran lessons for not being entirely submissive. Apparently, the civilian Pakistani government accepts instructions from Washington but the military is less submissive – see   Wkileaks revelations 

UK

As in the USA the democracy here has given us a string of greasy politicians. The signs are that the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, is just as adept at fraudulent political manoeuvrings as Tony Blair was. This is very well covered in an excellent article that appeared in The Guardian last week. Glenn Greenwald lays bare the loathsome support that the western governments extend to various evil regimes in the world. Here is the link to the article - there is little need for me to add anything further:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/31/cameron-galloway-saudis-bahrain-dictators?INTCMP=SRCH 

The farce of Abbottabad, part 3 : the consequences

This blog post is a continuation of the issues discussed in the previous two - hence the words "part 3" in the title. 


What made the farce of USA's "daring" raid on Abbottabad - in which the hapless Osama died a second death - believable was not so much the brazen lies of the USA president as the humiliating response of Pakistan's President and the Prime Minister. It was as if both these puppets had been pre-programmed to utter nonsensical and demeaning words in response to a seemingly illegal act which violated Pakistan's sovereignty. The Chief Puppet Zardari described the operation as something which was "highly appreciated" while his sidekick Gilani called the degradation of Pakistan "a great victory". This was clear proof that the US held the Pakistan government by the throat, a dysfunctional government which had lost all notions of independence and sovereignty. No wonder the USA's Psychological Operation (PSYOP), targeting Pakistan's Army and its intelligence service, the ISI, had succeeded brilliantly. 


Over the last few years the CIA has succeeded in establishing a huge network of agents and local collaborators, including retired officers of Pakistan's armed forces with close links to serving officers. This was made possible by the Zardari-Gilani duo giving authority to Pakistan's ambassador in the US, Haqqani, to issue hundreds of visas to Americans without any checks whatsoever. This exercise was later repeated in Dubai when the Pakistan embassy was opened up in the evening for the sole purpose of freely issuing visas, bypassing the standard procedures of verification of personal data by the Foreign Ministry and by the ISI.


The rot began many years ago when the USA administration adopted a conscious policy of buying off influential people in Pakistan, starting with the top man Musharraf [see the blog post The case of missing persons ]. However, this policy of recruiting Pakistani traitors to assist with implementation of US policies in Pakistan has seen a huge expansion in recent years. Pakistanis who have sold out to the Americans can be found in all walks of life: the government, the civil service, the armed forces and the media. Pakistan's English language press, especially, is teeming with USA sympathisers who will never criticise US policies but they will virulently attack anyone and anything that offers resistance to the success of those policies. The Army, the ISI, Imran Khan and the Urdu language press (and patriotic Pakistanis writing in the English language press) are obvious targets.

Pakistan's tattered reputation
On Friday, 11 May, the Heads of Pakistan's Army and Air Force addressed a joint session of both the Upper and the Lower houses of Pakistan's Parliament. This session was a great disappointment. The assembled Generals could not summon the courage to clash head on with the Pakistani government and its USA masters, and sweep away the web of lies the two governments had erected. To do this the Generals would have had to admit that they, or a section of Pakistan's armed forces, had colluded with a foreign power to violate the country's airspace and murder a man in violation of Pakistan's laws. It is this sordid collaboration between the Pakistani leaders and the USA which is so hurtful. 


All the indications are that Pakistan's armed forces are infiltrated with traitors in powerful positions. There is immense pressure being exerted by the Americans and their Pakistani collaborators for Generals Kayani and Pasha (the Head of ISI) to toe the line. Pasha, especially, is being targeted and a way may be found to prise him out if he resists the expanding American influence in Pakistan. He appears to have been the driving spirit behind the unanimous Resolution that the two Houses of Parliament had agreed after a mammoth 10-hour session. This Resolution had 12 points, among them were:


* The USA's action in Abbottabad, constituting a violation of Pakistan's air space and sovereignty, was condemned.


* The USA's drone attacks on Pakistani territory were condemned. The USA was warned that if these attacks did not stop, the government would consider the closing down of routes used for the transport of supplies to the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. Generally, Pakistan would review its working  relationship with the USA.


* An independent commission will be established to investigate the Abbottabad debacle. So far, not a single name has been announced as a possible member of that commission!


Three minor revelations - which people suspected anyhow - were made by the assembled military men:


* Pakistan's Shamsi airbase was not under the control of Pakistan Air Force! Apparently, it was owned by the United Arab Emirates and was sub-contracted to the USA, giving that country a free hand to fly aircraft from Shamsi for its nefarious designs. No one seems to have asked if the base will now be taken back into Pakistan's control!.


* Pakistan Air Force has the technology to shoot down the US drones which have killed well over two thousand Pakistani citizens. It is up to the government to give an order for shooting down the drones if the US continues to violate Pakistan's sovereignty [as the readers of this blog know well, Pakistan is a willing party to this arrangement].


* Raymond Davis was freed on the order of the central government - but the ISI top man, Pasha, declined to provide further details relating to that mysterious case.

The USA's hammer blow
The show of defiance by Pakistan's National Assembly was too much for the American masters. Scarcely had the ink dried on the 12-point Resolution than the world's only Superpower delivered a hammer blow by launching drone attacks on Pakistan and daring it to implement its worthless Resolution. Separately, the USA's creation, the Pakistani Taliban, launched a suicide attack which destroyed almost a hundred Pakistani lives (most died on the spot, others in hospital later). Further terrorist bombings followed on a smaller scale, culminating in a sophisticated assault on the Mehran Naval base on 23 May, which destroyed reconnaissance aircraft on the ground and inflicted immense damage. This was not a random act of terrorism. The attackers had precise instructions about the layout of the naval base and the targets to destroy. This attack came a couple of days after the announcement by Pakistan's Defence Minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, to the effect that China would be asked to build a new naval base in Gwadar and the  operational control of Gwadar port would be transferred from a dubious Singapore company to reliable Chinese hands.


With the exception of those who have sold themselves for dollars, Pakistanis are coming to a realisation that the sophisticated weaponry supplied to the terrorists through Afghanistan and, more importantly, the timing of attacks which coincides  with American warnings to Pakistan, can only mean one thing: the mastermind behind this human slaughter is the world's foremost terrorist state (aided and abetted by other arch enemies of Pakistan). Having terrorised Iraq and destroyed the spirit of its people through indiscriminate killings, the USA is engaged in similar bloodletting in Afghanistan (which it already occupies) and Pakistan (which it occupies through its proxies). This immoral superpower will go to any lengths in pursuit of its selfish policies.

A glimmer of hope
The government and the opposition are both silent, having already forgotten the brave wording of the 12-point Resolution. No orders were given to shoot down the drones and the supply routes to Afghanistan remained open. It fell to Imran Khan to stage a sit-in in Karachi over the two days 21-22 May, which resulted in the temporary suspension of USA/Nato supplies. Imran is expected to announce a long march in protest against the USA's drone attacks on Pakistan's citizens and the US's interference in Pakistan's affairs.


In the midst of the destruction unleashed on Pakistan following Parliament's  Resolution, Imran Khan's dharna (the sit-in) has been the only show of defiance. The day after his dharna ended,  John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate's foreign relations committee, came to Pakistan, wagging his finger and telling the Pakistanis that he had not come to apologise for the raid on Pakistani territory. The sheer arrogance of his words and his body language, and the way the Pakistani leaders cowered before him, may have been the last straw for the long suffering Pakistani nation. More and more people, including the judiciary, are able to see that Pakistan's fake democracy - effectively, subjugation to the USA - needs to be replaced with the genuine article. The first priority is to clean up the electoral register which contains no less than 37 million bogus names (some 44% of the eligible voters). Millions more who are eligible to vote need to be added to the voting lists. Free and fair elections in the near future are needed desperately to get rid of the criminals and traitors who rule Pakistan.

The Tojan Horses in Pakistan
In the blog post The Fall of the American Empire I mentioned the American-financed newspaper, The Express Tribune, which defends the policies of the US government irrespective of the harm they inflict on Pakistan. The online version of that publication had censored my comments on its editorial relating to the notorious Raymond Davis case. More recently, I offered comments on ET's story relating to the discussions in Pakistan's National Assembly. People were being provoked to demand that "heads must fall" - a euphemism for the heads of Kayani and Pasha - but my comments, which opposed that view, were censored. My unpublished comments are given below, which also show how badly my judgement was affected at that time by the "tsunami of lies" unleashed by the Americans:


Are the Americans taking the Pakistani nation for a ride? Why do so many people echo the Americans' sentiments and accusations?

Go back to 9/11 when the sole super power was hit at the heart of its military and commercial centres. Were there any resignations? Not one!

Let us, therefore, keep things in perspective and avoid shooting ourselves in the foot. No one is perfect and mistakes will always be made. After each mistake, we need to re-assess the situation and correct any weaknesses that come to light. If we weaken our military and the ISI at this time the obvious winners will be the USA and India.

Osama was supposed to have died some years ago as a result of kidney failure. That, I think, was the view of the ISI as well. However, it was obvious that the Americans were driven insane by their own obsession with Osama, but they wouldn't say why they thought he was alive and they wouldn't share with the ISI the underlying reasons for holding that view. That being so, ISI was simply passing on any information it picked up about Al-Qaeda to the CIA - which eventually succeeded in pinpointing Osama. All the time the CIA kept the ISI in the dark about the follow-up investigations based on the intelligence that the latter had made available.

It is clear that the Americans, our so-called "friends" and "allies", have stabbed Pakistan in the back and, very cunningly, rubbed our collective nose in the dust while the whole world stood watching aghast.

دیکھا جو تیر کھا کے کمیں گاہ کی طرف

اپنے ہی دوستوں سے ملاقات ہو گئی

The Fall of the American Empire

The current turmoil in the Arab world that shows no signs of ending has an extra dimension which is usually glossed over in the stirring debates about the valiant Arabs' determination to free themselves from dictatorship. It is the simple fact that most Arab dictators are indebted to successive American governments for their hold on power. At the height of the Egyptian uprising, when Tahrir Square was filled to overflowing with fearless men and women, and the fall of Hosni Mubarak looked imminent, it was sickening to see the faces of the hypocrites Obama and Clinton suddenly pop up on TV screens, babbling on about an orderly transition of power. The distress they felt at the impending loss of their puppet oozed out of their hypocritical words and it was obvious that their primary concern was to get the spent Mubarak quickly replaced by another yes-man. No one brought out this ugly reality better than Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent. It was a marvellous period, watching the intrepid Egyptians taking on the brutal and cunning Mubarak, and reading Robert Fisk's lucid and perceptive reports. 

So, what is happening in the Middle East today is both a push for freedom by the long-suffering Arabs and a weakening of the USA's grip on its client states. Eventually, as true democracy begins to take shape in the Arab countries, a direct clash with the Americans looms on the horizon. That kind of clash has already taken place in Pakistan, which has exposed the USA's ugly face and will, inevitably, lead to a loss of American influence in Pakistan.


Robert Fisk




The Pretender fails to get himself crowned in Pakistan


For the last three weeks an American contract killer has been languishing in prison, having murdered two young men in a run down area of Lahore, Pakistan, on 27 January.  This is an astonishing development,  coming from the land where Queen Anne [ see Queen of Pakistan ] ruled with such aplomb just three months ago. This shows that the pretender to her throne, Cameron Munter, has failed abysmally to get himself crowned king. In the space of three short weeks he has moved rather quickly from heir apparent to a figure of fun: the fool, whose job it used to be to keep the monarch entertained. Only, the people being entertained are the poor, dispossessed people of Pakistan!


But the Pakistanis have paid a heavy price for witnessing the spectacle put on by the American clowns (yes, Munter is not the only fool around!). Apart from the two men shot dead by the hired killer - who, on being arrested, described himself as a 'consultant' to the American consulate in Lahore - another young man was crushed to death as a US consulate vehicle sped to the scene of crime in a vain attempt to snatch the murderer to safety. The upshot was that the hired killer, whose name has been given as Raymond Davis, is in police custody while the would-be rescuers who crushed an innocent Pakistani have been whisked out of Pakistan, beyond the reach of law. To rub salt into the wounds, the American Consulate General in Lahore refused to hand over the rescue vehicle to the police.


In the meantime, the young widow of one of the murdered men committed suicide when it appeared that Z, Gilani, and their henchmen were up to their usual tricks of completing an underhand deal with their American paymasters at the expense of hapless Pakistanis. Married six months earlier, the dying bride told the doctors fighting to save her life that she did not expect to receive justice from the pack currently ruling Pakistan. If only she could have foreseen the public's backlash that hit the Americans and their stooges shortly after her death!


The clowns of North America


The rising public anger rattled the Pakistani government, which was under immense pressure from the Americans to offer retrospective blanket amnesty to the hired killer, effective from a date well before the murders on 27 January. The Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, dared to speak the truth that diplomatic status had never been extended to Davis for the simple reason that he did not qualify as a diplomat [ever heard of a diplomat roaming around, armed with hi-tech weapons and pumping bullets into the backs of peoople?]. The response of the upstart Qureshi incensed Munter, who immediately contacted his boss, the formidable Clinton. She came down like a ton of bricks on the bewildered Qureshi who, to his credit, held firm. The angry woman cancelled her scheduled meeting with Qureshi and threatened him with serious consequences. True to her word, she and her boss Obama, got their puppets Z and Gilani to get rid of Qureshi. He was summarily kicked out as Foreign Minister and offered an inferior ministry, which he refused. Outside the government, he is proving a formidable hurdle to the machinations of the appalling Z, Gilani and their fellow conspirators.


So, the mighty Clinton had failed, too. What was left? The senators and members of the Congress in the USA, of course. A stream of warnings issued forth, telling Pakistanis to toe the line or face dire consequences. The tremulous gang of Z and Co found itself in a quandry. The case was being decided on by the courts over which the government had no control and, in any case, the people were out in force demonstrating against the suspected deal between Pakistan's puppet govenment and its puppeteers in Washington. Eventually, the super clown Obama appeared on American television and told the Pakistanis that they MUST release Davis because he was protected by "diplomatic immunity" under the Vienna conventions, murders or no murders.


Obama and the rest of his team seem quite ignorant of the new realities in Pakistan where the Judiciary is now free, and independent of the Executive. Eventually, the group of American clowns realised that if all the threats that they had issued were carried out, the harm to the USA's Afghan war would far outweigh anything they might inflict on Pakistan. That called for a change of strategy, of course! So, Senator John Kerry was despatched to Pakistan with a high-level delegation to "knock sense" into the Pakistanis. Kerry was fully aware of his government's ridiculous position - the poor man was reduced to clutching at straws by quoting from the statements of the scatter brained Fauzia Wahab who, until yesterday, was the ruling party's Secretary of Information. Kerry and his team left Pakistan with a better idea of the ground realities but still without their man.


In the comments section of my blog post "The End of Conspiracy Theories", I have given links to articles which explain the background to the lengthening spat between the USA government and Pakistani people. To learn about the latest developments, click the links below:


The Raymond Davis Fiasco
Raymond Davis - the facts
'The News International' editorial


A Trojan horse in Pakistan


Supplementing the shrieks and threats of the Clowns of North America, there have been the activities of men and women sitting in a Trojan horse stationed in Pakistan.  This group is a mix of Americans and their Pakistani stooges. For example an American-controlled publication, The Express Tribune, has started publishing biased editorials and articles which distort facts and poke fun at the Pakistani nation. Let us look at this editorial, which shamelessly distorts the facts and looks for support to the laughable Fauzia Wahab of the ruling party! 


The Tribune editorial   In the comment box I offered my observation to the effect that it was indeed a comical sight to see the editor dangling from the apron strings of Fauzia Wahab! My comment was censored.


An example of an article by a Pakistani lackey: Not for the court to decide


I left a comment wondering if some Pakistanis were determined to prove the Americans right when they humiliate Pakistanis by declaring that the latter would sell their mothers for American dollars. Again, this comment was censored.


Then there are the brainwashed and westernised Pakistanis, educated by foreigners and ignorant of their own history, culture and language. For these people, devoid of any sense of self-esteem as a Pakistani, the concept of honour - 'ghairat'  غیرت -  exists only for foreigners but not for Pakistanis. Here is one example where the writer supports the American position on Davis by poking fun at her own people:


http://tribune.com.pk/story/119878/ghairat-and-other-issues/


This article is a good example of the sort of trash that people churn out when they write for money or to please others. I did leave a comment on some of the author's manic pronouncements - my comment escaped the censorial scissors presumably because my target was no longer the USA.


Was Raymond Davis taking part in a sophisticated "false flag" operation?

                                                                                         

According to a seemingly anti-USA website, Davis's arrest has averted another "9/11" that the American CIA had conspired to launch: 
         
Stranger than fiction?





Tailpiece (added 3March 2011)


An article by Craig Murray, published in The Guardian on 28 February, exposes the reality of Raymond Davis with brutal clarity:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/28/cia-agent-diplomat-pakistan-raymond-davis?

I tread with some caution in discussing the case of Raymond Davis, the CIA agent facing charges of double murder in Pakistan and the threat of the death penalty. I add my plea to the voices urging the Pakistani government to ensure Davis does not hang.

But one thing I can state for certain: Davis (as we will call him for now) is not a diplomat and does not possess diplomatic immunity. There is some doubt as to who he really is, with the charges against him in Pakistan including one that he obtained documents using a false identity.

Watching Barack Obama's presidency has been a stream of bitter disappointments. His endorsement of Davis as "our diplomat" and invocation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations was, in its sheer dishonesty, as sad an Obama moment as any.

As a general rule, international treaties are written in very plain language and are very accessible. That is certainly true of the Vienna convention. Unfortunately I can see scant evidence that any journalists have bothered to read it.

Leaving aside staff of international organisations recognised by the host country as having diplomatic status (and there has been no claim yet that Davis was actually working for Unicef), in bilateral diplomatic relations the provision for diplomatic immunity is tightly limited to a very small number of people. That makes sense when you consider that if Davis did have diplomatic immunity, he would indeed be able to avoid detention and trial on a murder charge. The world community is not going to make that impunity readily available.

Full diplomatic immunity is enjoyed only by "diplomatic agents". Those are defined at article 1 (e) of the Vienna convention as "the head of the mission or a member of the diplomatic staff of the mission". Helpfully the diplomatic staff are further defined in the preceding article as "having diplomatic rank". Those ranks are an ascending series of concrete titles from third secretary through to ambassador or high commissioner. Davis did not have a diplomatic rank.

But there is a second category of "administrative and technical staff" of a mission. They enjoy a limited diplomatic immunity which, however, specifically excludes "acts performed outside the course of their duties". (Vienna convention article 37/2.) Frantic off-the-record briefing by the state department reflected widely in the media indicates that the US case is that Davis was a member of technical staff covered by this provision.

But in that case the US has to explain in the course of precisely which diplomatic duties Davis needed to carry a Glock handgun, a headband-mounted flashlight and a pocket telescope. The Vienna convention lists the legitimate duties of an embassy, and none of them need that kind of equipment.

It appears in any event unlikely that Davis ever was a member of the technical staff of the embassy or consulate. Under article 10 of the Vienna convention the host authorities must be formally informed – by diplomatic note – of the arrival and departures of such staff, and as embassies under article 11 are subject to agreed numerical limits, that in practice occurs when another member of staff is leaving. If this was not done Davis was not covered even in the course of his duties.

Pakistani senior ex-military sources tell me there is no note appointing Davis as embassy or consulate staff, and that appears to pass a commonsense test – if the note exists, why have the Americans not produced it?

Finally, possession of a diplomatic passport does not give you diplomatic status all over the world.

I hope this helps clarify a position that the US government, and the media it influences, have deliberately muddied. Sadly this whole episode reflects the US's continuing contempt for the basic fabric of international law. It sits with its refusal to sign up to the international criminal court so that US citizens may not be held accountable for war crimes, with its acknowledged overseas assassination programme, its one-sided extradition treaties and claims of extra-territorial jurisdiction over offences committed outside the US.

We hoped it might get better under Obama. It is not.

"We've got a very simple principle here that every country in the world that is party to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations has upheld in the past and should uphold in the future, and that is, if our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution," Obama said in a press conference. "We expect Pakistan, that's a signatory and recognises Davis as a diplomat, to abide by the same convention ... I'm not going to discuss the specific exchanges that we've had [with the Pakistani government], but we've been very firm about this being a priority."