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'Blood Money' Paid for Raymond Davis, Nothing Done for Shane Bauer
What does the United States' record on justice and human rights look like after it has paid to get its alleged CIA killer out of jail?
You are accused of shooting two Pakistani citizens. Pay $2.3m. Get out of jail free.
Raymond Davis (left), a former Blackwater contractor, who was employed by the CIA in Pakistan, was arrested for the killing of two Pakistani citizens in Lahore on 27 January 2011. On Wednesday, US officials paid the two victims families a reported $2.3m; and Davis was released less than seven weeks after he went to jail. Shane Bauer, a freelance journalist, was arrested on 31 July 2009 by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Almost 20 months later, he is still a prisoner in Iran, where the US government has barely lifted a finger to help him.
If it sounds like a line from a chance card in a game of Monopoly, where the richest player wins, welcome to the world of life and death in Pakistan where the Obama administration has paid "blood money" to spring a CIA agent suspected of two killings from jail on Wednesday.
Raymond Davis, a former Blackwater contractor, who was employed by the CIA in Pakistan, was arrested for the killing of two Pakistani citizens in Lahore on 27 January 2011. One of the men was shot in the back as he was running away. The US government first claimed that Davis was protected by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Conventions. On Friday, US officials paid the two victims families a reported $2.3m; and Davis was released less than seven weeks after he went to jail. (Compensation to families of civilian victims of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan amounts to a few thousand dollars per person, if anything is paid at all.)
Consider the case of Shane Bauer, a freelance journalist, and a good friend of mine. We worked together to expose US funding of death squads in Iraq. On 31 July 2009, he was arrested by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan, an area I too have hiked in. Almost 20 months later, he is still a prisoner in Iran, where the US government has barely lifted a finger to help him.
The charges against Bauer – who is accused of working for the CIA – are spurious. Indeed, his reporting has uncovered US government complicity in war crimes. But that may be exactly why he is getting so little help from Washington. The stakes are not that high in Bauer's case: if the US government would be willing to sit down and talk, rather than pursue its game of nuclear brinkmanship, Bauer would go free.
The German government has done this for their journalists. Last month, Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, travelled to Tehran to secure the release of Jens Koch and Marcus Hellwig, who had spent 20 months in jail.
The Obama administration did the same for Laura Ling and Euna Lee in August 2009. Bill Clinton, the former US president, went on a mission to Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong Il, after which the two journalists were set free. Since Ling and Lee were investigating the North Korean government, it was an easy bargain.
The message that the Obama administration sent in Islamabad on Wednesday is loud and clear. If you work for the CIA, the US government will pay your way out of jail even if you are being held on murder charges. But if you are, like Shane Bauers, a US citizen wrongfully accused of being a spy but whose work has exposed the US government's shame, your case will be no kind of priority.
So, for a murder suspect a ransom is paid, while an innocent citizen is left to rot. Does this contrast suggest an administration committed to human rights, the rule of law and freedom of the press?
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17 Comments so far
Show AllThe answer is painfully obvious. We WANT Bauer to disappear forever. He was investigating US-funded death squads, after all, not murdering brown people and negotiating false flag operations to keep the War on Moozlim Turrr going.
I think your observation is, of course, correct, but it could perhaps be a bit more nuanced. It seems to me that Barry & Co have been so keen to spring "Raymond Davis" because he might, under pressure, have exposed US covert shenanigans of an even more grievous nature than those researched by Bauers. And in this sick society, the word of a murderer on the public payroll carries more weight than that of an independent journalist, however intrepid.
When I first saw the headline on Chatterjee's piece a monopoly board with pink money/scrip immediately came to mind - the 'get out of jail free' in the lead a wry connection.
The hillar-billy travesty of the Clinton place-holders for a dysfunctional system on the monopoly board are reaching full civil mandate in a call to task. From Haiti to the state department the mortal failings of a tide lowering all boats exposes the top heavy pinnacles occupied.
Don't forget that former VP Cheney was charge with bribery by Nigeria and an Interpol arrest warrant was issued.
Haliburton paid $250 million, on 24 Dec 2010, to make the problem go away.
Using money in place of enforcing justice is the height of moral and legal corruption.
Clinton sounded good to the Arkansas voters, then he delivered big time to the monied interests. We forgot to check his background, and when he sounded good as a Presidential candidate, he got elected. Of course, he once again delivered big time to the plutocrats.
Obama sounded good as a Presidential candidate, but he had done nothing to show his true allegiance in the Senate. He got us to vote for him on the basis of pure hope. It was the Green Party slogan (Vote your hopes, not your fears).
In Obama's case it was pure wishful thinking on our part.
As W said, "Fool me once (pause) it fooled me but you can't be fooled again"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux3DKxxFoM
The AmeriKKKan government pays "blood money" for the release of "our diplomat," as Barry called this psychopathic killer, but does nothing to help a journalist, who was arrested on scant evidence in Iran.
Just one more example of why the AmeriKKKan government is non-functional and needs to be abolished.
God damn AmeriKKKa!
Malfunctional. it has bad intentions toward the American people which the USG considers to be its enemy.
Difference betwen the two:
Davis knows embassing stuff about the US and has to be protected to ensure others like him continue in their murderous ways
Bauer is more useful to the US government as an Iranian prisoner than for what he might reveal.
Egbert, you are right, but what Davis knows and was doing is more than embarrassing; it could potentially put our top officials in prison for life, or even on death row. Indian and Pakistani media have reported that Davis's mobile phones revealed contacts with 27 top Taliban leaders, and investigation showed that he was plotting bombings against civilian targets in Pakistan with them. The purported pretext was to create a rationale for US seizure of Pakistan's nukes.
This would explain Obama's, Clinton's, Panetta's, Kerry's and Munter's desperate efforts to free our rent-a-Rambo diplomat. We've imprisoned, tortured and killed people, some of them innocent, and gone to war on less evidence than already exists. An independent counsel investigation must be authorized, and the Republican House might just do so, albeit for political rather than principled reasons.
Obama isn't terribly bright, and he's playing a very dangerous game in Pakistan. Our drone strikes and covert activities could very well lead to an Islamist government there, and India looks set to return the Hindu rightwing BJP to power. The risk of a massive war, possibly nuclear, would be high.
I can't help but wonder about the seemingly complete lack of common sense to be a foreigner hiking in a country that's at war, on a border with another country known not to be particularly friendly with this group of foreigners. I bet now even they think that was pretty stupid.
Pratap,
Planning on hiking there again soon?
Did you read the article? This part, maybe:
Consider the case of Shane Bauer, a freelance journalist, and a good friend of mine. We worked together to expose US funding of death squads in Iraq. On 31 July 2009, he was arrested by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan, an area I too have hiked in.
Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't hiking there for fun? Would you prefer that Bauer and Chatterjee not have exposed the funding of death squads? Is that it?
Every time I hear those like PEAd make the comment "what were they doing up there", I know that I am dealing with a USAn who haasn't done much travelling, nor knowlegable of geography, nor ever suffers from the need to "get away to the mountains". They were living and working in the region (Damascus, I think), and alost certainly didn't don't have the money to travel to Europe. Where else would they go to get away to mountains and greenery? The region they went hiking is a beautiful wild part of Iraqi Kurdistan and is as removed from the conflict as, say, the Slovenian Alps are.
But I do find it odd and enraging that I am just now finding out, 18 months later, that he was working on such investigative journalism with the well-known Prathap Chatterjee. Now we know why the US plans to let him stay in that Iranian prison forever! There may be a secret US/Iran deal here. The US funded death squads, after all, would almost certainly be Shia and posibly have ties to Iran.
Time to dig though the Wikileaks cables some...
Hate to say it but Shane Bauer is being left to rot, not because he's exposing our government, but because our government wants something to happen to him while in Iranian custody.
Trust me if he should so much as sneeze while in Iranian custody, the US will use that to rattle the sabres and push for ever increasing sanctions or other action against Tehran.
If he should die then, of course, the government will say "All along we were trying to secure his release." Ho-hum, he's dead.......NEXT!
No doubt the blood money came from the MIC. A coupla mil is nothing to these creeps. This thug's activities took (3) lives that day. He should have been released to the hoards outside his jail. On the other hand, perhaps the monies paid will be put to 'good use'.
As far as Bauer is concerned, aren't there enough rich entertainers and operatives on the 'left' that might pony-up enough spare change for his release?
...
I suspect the Mossad's fine handiwork in both cases,,,,,,,Davis in Pakistan and the captured hikers in Iran,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
//
Like Bush, like 'Bummer. From payoffs to NY Times collusion (Judith Miller) to torture, to financial bailouts to Wall Street, this is Bush just repeated. There is nothing original, fresh, or non-corrupt about this White House. As for the Times, they have lost all credibility as a news organization as far as I'm concerned. The Judith Miller-Valerie Plame scandal was not an isolated incident. This is how they operate. But fortunately Obama does not have much left of his term.
Pratap,
What about the other two.... one is also in prison w/ "Shane", the third was released on "bail", and returned to the USA.
If she does not return for trial(breach her bail bond) , then it's not
good for her "co-accused".
I'd ask you Pratap: Just what is your angle with this "piece"?