The “Davis Affair”:
U.S.’s Dirty War in Pakistan

Mar 21, 2011

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was accused of shooting and killing two people on a busy street in Lahore, Pakistan, has been acquitted.

The Pakistani court’s verdict was not based on Davis’ claim of self-defense–but on payment of blood money. A U.S. official admitted that the U.S. government had paid off the families–a total of 2.3 million dollars to get the victims’ family to agree to “forgive” Davis.

The 36-year-old Davis is a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, who has also worked for Blackwater, a company that supplied contract soldiers–that is, mercenaries–to the U.S. military. After Davis was arrested by Pakistani police last January, U.S. officials admitted that he had been working for the CIA.

The CIA, acting as a branch of the U.S. military, has widened its secret war in Pakistan in recent years, as the Obama administration officially extended the war on Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan. According to the Washington Post, “The CIA has a major presence in Pakistan ... The agency has carried out more than 100 drone strikes over the past year in the tribal areas of Pakistan,” as well as “captures and other operations,” including assassinations.

Davis’s identity as a CIA contractor has now been revealed. But certainly, there are still thousands of other secret U.S. “operatives” like Davis. They are the soldiers of the secret, dirty wars, reinforcing the open, dirty wars the U.S. government wages all over the world–not just in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These wars are fought in the interests of U.S. multinational corporations whose tentacles reach around the globe. Their price is paid for by the working class, both in money and lives.

End all of these wars–overt and covert–right now!