Pakistani regime violated own laws to hand over Kansi to the Americans

Zia Sarhadi

Safar 25, 1418 1997-07-01

World

by Zia Sarhadi (World, Crescent International Vol. 26, No. 9, Safar, 1418)

Mir Aimal Khan Kansi is not our favourite terrorist. This scribe and the paper he works for, make no secret of their hatred for these seedy types especially when they are known to have worked for the most despicable agency (CIA) of the most despicable regime (the US) in the world.

What is disturbing about Kansi’s saga, as indeed about Ramzi Ahmed Yousuf before him (February 1995), is that successive governments in Pakistan willingly flout the law of the land to appease Uncle Sam. Such utter disregard for the country’s laws in order to curry favour with a foreign government whose enmity to the very existence of Pakistan is not in doubt, is nothing short of scandalous.

Contrary to the cock-and-bull story put out by the CIA and the American white house (‘black house’ as the late Imam Khomeini called it), and carried by major American newspapers, Kansi was not handed over by Afghan tribal elders. The day (June 18) the Kansi story broke out, Pakistani newspapers reported that he had been apprehended from Dera Ghazi Khan and flown to the US in a military plane.

The operation was carried out by Pakistani commandos and the ISI with a helicopter hovering overhead. Kansi was then flown out from a military base in Pakistan. Two days later (June 20) the New York Times confirmed that Kansi had been arrested from the Shalimar hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan. It is interesting to note that the Times did not apologise to its readers for the false information it had dished out two days earlier.

The Lahore-based daily, The Nation, in a dispatch from its correspondent in Washington had reported on June 20 that more than a dozen FBI agents had applied for visas to Pakistan about two weeks earlier. They did not explain the reason except to say that they were on a special assignment. The embassy, according to the Nation report, demurred and ultimately issued only three or four visas, but without getting any information about the FBI’s mission.

Kansi has had his court appearance in Fairfax County for all it is worth. He will even be given a court-appointed lawyer. The Americans are good at going through the motions. They have already put out the story that he is cooperating with the authorities and that he ‘signed a confession’ on the flight to Washington Dulles airport. This, again, is part of the US disinformation campaign. American officials are compulsive liars.

The allegation against Kansi is that he shot and killed two CIA agents in the agency’s parking lot in Langley, VA (just outside Washington DC) on January 25, 1993 and then fled the country. There are no witnesses to testify that he actually committed the crime. The Americans have also said that his was a common crime; it was not what is routinely dubbed a ‘terrorist’ act. America is full of criminals: rapists, murderers and thieves. Washington has the dubious distinction of being called the crime capital of the world.

When it comes to motives, the Americans are coy. Kansi had certainly worked for the CIA as had his father and uncle during the Afghan war. He came to the US via Germany and sought political asylum.

He got a job with a courier service owned by the son of Victor Marchetti, a former CIA agent who currently puts out a newsletter from Washington DC exposing some of the agency’s crimes as well as zionist manipulation of the American political system. The junior Marchetti had CIA clearance to make deliveries at Langley. Kansi, too, was given CIA clearance.

How could an agency that is so secretive about everything else give such easy clearance to Kansi? The simple answer is that he was working for them. So what is the CIA’s real beef against him? The killing of the two CIA agents appears to be a subterfuge. Much more likely, Kansi had some sensitive information or documents about CIA operations which the agency wishes to suppressed.

The other point relates to Kansi’s fundamental rights as a citizen of Pakistan. When the rulers themselves contemptuously ignore them, how can one expect others to respect them? There is no extradition treaty between the US and Pakistan. Kansi was not permitted to exercise his fundamental right of due process. Would the US extradite commander Will Rogers of the Vincennes that blew the Iran Air airbus out of the sky over the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988 killing all 290 people on board? There was no mistake that it was a deliberate act of murder against innocent civilians.

Kansi’s episode is pertinent on the fiftieth anniversary of Pakistan’s creation which is being celebrated with much fanfare. It is a pathetic reflection of the state of affairs that even its rulers, who have sworn to uphold the constitution, have so little regard for Pakistani laws even when dealing with foreign countries. It was as true of Benazir Bhutto (in the case of Ramzi Yousuf) as it is of Nawaz Sharif (in case of Aimal Kansi).

To talk about independence is a cruel joke on the people of Pakistan. Its rulers have reduced the country to the lowest form of slavery.

Muslimedia - July 1-15, 1997