The Raymond Davis affair and US insistence on his safe exit, may lead to damaging outcomes: first, confirm Davis's role in covert activities that must not be revealed to America's 'strategic ally' Pakistan because that would reinforce the view that the Israel-India-US axis is using fellows like Davis to escalate chaos in Pakistan to render it visibly 'ungovernable' in order to justify taking out its nuclear weapons.
Second, Davis's arrest and his sentencing could crack the awe-inspiring image of the US, and encourage similar actions by other countries. To its own peril, the US doesn't realise that its blatant denial of criminal acts of its agents nourishes the view that the US places its interests above every civilised value - an image reminiscent of the ruthless Roman Empire that belies the traditional American values of fair play.
At first, the US embassy in Islamabad described Davis as a hired employee of a US security firm - Hyperion Protective Consultants, LLC - but it doesn't exist. Next he was described as an ex-member of US Special Forces now working as a security advisor. However, Davis says he is a consultant in the Lahore consulate, while Pakistani sources allege that he is a CIA operative who has been active in the Punjab and KP provinces.
This mess, with serious consequences for US diplomacy, is the end result of the activities and conflicting statements of the State Department and the US embassy in Islamabad that demanded Davis's unconditional extradition under the garb of diplomatic 'immunity' that added yet another chapter to the US history of egotistical diplomatic gaffes.
America's right to defend its citizens is undeniable; that is the foremost duty of every state. But, in today's world, at least for appearance's sake, governments avoid projecting an imperialist image; they try to give the impression that rule of law still has a place in diplomacy because, otherwise, the Geneva Convention would seem a code for defending foreign spies and terrorists.
At the time of his arrest, Davis had with him mobile phones, arms and ammunition, cameras, a telescope and other detective devices. But, based on police investigations, the weapons of Davis's two alleged killers were not used and all their bullets were in their magazines. Yet, Davis fired 10 bullets at the two men from the front as well as from behind, and took photographs of their bodies.
More worrying is the fact that his mobile phones and camera memories contained photos of Pakistan's sensitive installations. If Davis was working as an internal 'security advisor' in the US Consulate in Lahore, why was he tracking the world miles away from the Consulate? What exactly was his assignment? Besides, the Lahore Consulate is yet to handover to the police the occupants of its vehicle that killed a third Pakistani.
Given this backdrop, the US reaction confounds everyone. According to ABC News, US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon threatened Pakistan's Ambassador in the US with expulsion, closure of US consulates in Pakistan, and cancellation of the forthcoming US visit of Pakistan's president if Davis was not released by February 11, ie before he appeared in a court in Lahore for the first time.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Pakistan termed the ABC News report "completely untrue" and "totally inaccurate" but the State Department did not comment on that report although ABC News affirmed the authenticity of its report by insisting that information therein was provided by a US official who wants to remain anonymous.
If the US Embassy's stand is factual (ie no threats were conveyed via Pakistan's envoy in the US), the State Department must pursue the matter with the ABC News. In fact, sue this agency to dispel the impression of a cover-up by the US administration; not doing so will strengthen the view that the alleged threats were indeed hurled, and leaked as the standard tactic for coercing other states into submission.
Such tactics always misled the US. At the end of WW-II (in spite of its role in fanning this war by supplying arms to both the Allied and Axis powers until 1942), the US lost the chance to build a less divided and more balanced world, wherein nations focused on building their comparative advantages, and sharing their benefits with the rest of the world so that millions on this planet collectively improved their state of existence.
Tragically, however, the US steadily became an imperial power with designs on the whole world, and starting with the Korean War, began ruining the enormous strength it had acquired by 1945 - owning 60 percent of the world's gold reserves at that time. The US drifted onto this route because Zionists steadily acquired control of it to realise their dream of world government.
As early as 1961, President Eisenhower had warned about this possibility and told the Americans that "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." The "complex" he referred to was the Zionist plan to use the US might to eventually rule the world.
Sadly, Eisenhower's warning was not heeded. During the past fifty years, US focus has been on 'managing' the world to serve and defend Israel. The main US target in the Middle East is Iran, but political awakening in the region has compounded US worries, although this region holds out no threat to the US; if at all, the target could be Israel and that too in retaliation for the US-backed Israeli atrocities.
The rise and fall of the US is another chapter in this planet's history and, like earlier empires, the US isn't ready to accept the loss of its clout. The rulers it installed in the Middle East to protect and serve its new masters - the Zionists - are fading one after the other; by alienating Pakistan on the Raymond Davis issue, the US may lose another of its 'strategic allies".
The US public isn't craving for Davis and the US need not be rash on the issue. Pakistan's US-backed regime, which is doing what the US wants - escalate chaos to the breaking point - is on the verge of collapse; forcing it to fudge a way out for Davis could spell its doom. Right now the US needs Pakistan to get out of the Afghan quagmire, to rebuild America's shattered clout, even if, sadly, that's all that the US wants.