Re-Posting of Raymond Davis item...

Due to continual spam focused on items such as that below, I am featuring this particular one again.

For some reason items having to do with Raymond Davis have been attacked with spam -- thus, this appears to be an effort to try to block this info or get me to delete them...

So, I figure these items must be important and deserve more attention at this time. If the spam continues, I will probably feature more such items which have been the focus of the spammer's concerns....

You will find others on Raymond Davis in the archive around the same time.  Also, you may want to research his name since his return to the US under the extreme pressure of the US military.

From...FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011

Pakistan News: Davis refuses to sign charge-sheet; hearing adjourned

DAWN.com

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, charged with double murder after shooting dead two men in Lahore refused to sign a charge sheet in court Friday and insisted he had diplomatic immunity, lawyers said.

The hearing in the murder case against Davis took place amid high security in Kot Lakphat jail in Lahore where he is being held, and was adjourned until March 3.

“Davis refused to sign the copy insisting that he be released and claiming that he enjoys immunity,” public prosecutor Abdul Samad told AFP.

Samad said that Davis, who claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot the men in a busy Lahore street last month, was handcuffed during the hearing which was guarded by more than 300 armed police officers in and around the prison.

A separate legal process to determine the diplomatic immunity issues returns to the Lahore High Court on March 14.

Revelations that Davis was a CIA contractor have heaped pressure on Pakistan’s government and further ramped up burning public mistrust of Washington.

A third Pakistani was struck down and killed by a US diplomatic vehicle that came to Davis’s assistance. US officials denied Pakistan access to the vehicle and the occupants are widely believed to have left the country.

Police have said they recovered a Glock pistol, four loaded magazines, a GPS navigation system and a small telescope from Davis’ car after the January 27 shooting.

US Consul General Carmela Conroy and other American officials were present at Friday’s hearing.

Asad Manzoor Butt, lawyer for the families of the men who were shot dead, rejected the American’s immunity claim.

“We have also received copies of the charge sheet. We will pursue this case as we want Davis to be punished for his act. We believe he does not enjoy immunity,” he said.

Samad has said that the immunity case before the Lahore High Court would not affect the murder charge hearings, unless the higher court barred them from proceeding.

Washington is pushing hard for Pakistan to free Davis, arguing that he has immunity and backing his claim that he acted in self-defence.

The United States postponed a round of high-level talks with Afghanistan and Pakistan following failed attempts to get Davis out, and US lawmakers threatened to cut payments to Pakistan unless he is freed.

Find this article in Pakistani - Dawn.com - posting here At this same URL find the following links - as well:

US national arrested in Peshawar for illegal stay

‘851 US officials enjoy diplomatic immunity in Pakistan’

US ‘ready to mend Pakistan ties’
==================================
Also see the reports trickling in on DemocracyNoW.org

A Story of Peace from The Parents Circle

The Parents Circle Families Forum - Personal Stories

In the Name of Allah

10/10/2006
Mohammad Elpaw

Firas and Mohammad

Firas

Mohammad and Firas

Mohammad and Firas in Jordan ,not long before Firas was killed.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate God made human beings unique by bestowing on them intelligence and the power of thought and giving them life with all its beauty so they can live positively and with hope. But we, human beings went against God's will and created wars, which made life ugly. I do not now how to start my words and how I, a simple human being like everyone else, can describe my tribulations. I began to sense life but without understanding what was going on. As a child I dreamt of a happy and joyful childhood but sadly in my childhood I only saw children my age being killed and mothers shouting, crying and saying, 'stop this killing and deprivation.' I never understood why my nation is suffering. As a boy I met many soldiers who fired at children every day. Why? I don't know! I always asked: 'Who are they? Why are they treating us like this? Are they human beings like us?' And many more questions. My story begins when I was 12 years old. One morning I was on my way to school with my brother Firas who was a year younger than me. Firas and I were never apart. On the way we heard the noise of gunshots and I said to Firas: come lets get closer and we'll see what's going on. We drew closer and saw children throwing stones and soldiers shooting in all directions and suddenly I heard a shot very close to me and I immediately fainted... When I opened my eyes I saw that I was in hospital and around me stood my father, my mother and Firas. I asked Firas what happened and what was I doing in hospital. He told me that I had been injured in the stomach by two rubber bullets but that now I was fine. I kept asking: Why me? How was I guilty? What had I done? But from that moment I understood the significance of living in the shadow of the occupation and insecurity. After this event I tried to carry on with my life normally. I finished high school and was accepted to Academic studies. Firas was accepted to the University in Hebron where he studied Business Administration. We had many dreams we hoped to realize. We strove for a better life like all young people, and like everyone we aimed for a life better than the reality we were living, a safer and freer life. Firas and I never ever parted and everywhere we went, we went together. He was my brother, my friend, and my whole life. When I completed my studies I started work in my profession; printing and graphics. I found work in Jerusalem with an Israeli employer. Till then I could not speak Hebrew but a year later I spoke freely and met many Israeli friends with whom I had very interesting discussions on many subjects, except politics, because that did not interest us. All we wanted was just to live and nothing beyond that. I remember this as a quiet and good period for Firas and me. Then the day I will never ever forget, 23.02.2002, dawned. On this date my life changed. We were celebrating Eid-al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, and a holy day for Moslems. The whole family was at home when Firas told me he was going to visit his friends. I warned him that the security situation was not particularly good, but he calmed me and said that it is a holiday and nothing will happen, everything is quiet. Firas went to his friends and since I was tired I went to sleep at 8 o'clock in the evening. Next morning, a morning I wish had never come, my younger brother woke me crying and shouting that people are saying that Firas has been killed. I thought I was dreaming and went back to sleep, but he woke me again and when I opened my eyes I saw that Firas' bed was empty and he was not beside me. I got up quickly and when I saw my father I queried him, but he could not utter a word except for my brother's name...Firas. I looked around and saw many people, I ran outside like a madman...actually why 'like'? I was mad at that moment. Friends of mine held me. I knew Firas was in the hospital so we hurried there and I reached the room he was in. I don't know how to describe it. In front of me I saw Firas after the bullets changed his good looks and could not believe my eyes; Firas the angel, Firas the live, the friend Firas and the brother Firas now with more than 27 bullets, in every part of his body. Instead of eyes there were two holes in which lay bullets. This picture will be etched in my memory for my entire life. I fainted and when I woke I wished that everything was a bad dream, but I knew that it was my reality now, a bitter reality without Firas. I knew that all my happiness, ambitions and dreams and even my life had ended. My entire life ended with his death and for me nothing was left except suffering. Half of my body was left with Firas and will never return. What did Firas do? What was he guilty of? We knew from military sources that he was killed 13 meters from a Zahal (Israeli Army) checkpoint, that he had no weapon, his only fault was that he was a Palestinian. Firas died and with him all his dreams. He was in his last year of Academic studies, he had hoped for self-fulfillment but he died and will not return. As for me, I sat quietly pondering. I left my job, left my friends, and having left everything I sat alone, thinking things over on my own as to what to do. How could I calm the storm raging in me? I wanted to kill all the Israelis around me to avenge my brotherÅfs death. I planned many things but after some time I reached an intersection of two paths; the path of revenge - a very easy way, but on whom would I take revenge? The Israeli nation? The Israeli nation did not kill my brother! And if I kill them, will that bring my brother back? Will it return my smile that I lost forever? Of course not. The Israeli soldier killed my brother. The entire Israeli nation did not. In short, the occupation is the reason for the suffering of both nations and the correct path is to do something for Firas and for my nation, an act that will lead my nation along a more secure path. I thought a lot about what to do. I knew that my nation needs to live without being occupied and I know that the way to peace is very difficult, but I must go along that path. Should I go on my own? What influence will I have? After a period of time I heard about the Forum of Israeli-Palestinian bereaved families. The name aroused my curiosity but at the same time I did not believe in the Israeli nation as a partner for peace. Over time I understood that there are many Israelis who are working for Peace and I joined the Forum. I work today directing myself to the path of Peace, security and an independent Palestinian State. I am working to make my voice heard by all nations and especially the Jewish nation saying that all we want is to live. We are two nations whom God intended to live on this land. We are obliged to live together. I pray to God to give me the energy to continue. If I wished to speak about the distress of my people I could fill millions of pages but truthfully in order to know the Palestinian nation it is enough to know that all of us, all the people in the entire world are human beings. Mohammad Elpaw

We Must Protect All Children No Matter Where...(Down with the Drones)

President Obama's words on the killing of children are so poignant.  See how urgently we need
to apply the same words to children everywhere.  This includes the brutal killing of children
and many other innocents by drones...

 Very short

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hd7h2whfaBw

Published mid-December 2012

The Power of Quiet

The power of quiet is great. It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters. It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm of oneness. It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time. It is us, the force within that makes us stable, trusting, and loving. It is contemplation contemplating. Peace is letting go - returning to the silence that cannot enter the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained in words. This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.
—Malidoma Some, Of Water and The Spirit. 

the photo was found here
 blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/14895/i-sometimes-forget-how-beautiful-pakistan-is/

Plz come back as I have a poem about Quiet which is on it's way...

A Way to Stop the Violence By David Swanson

http://warisacrime.org/content/way-stop-violence

The troubled souls (generally known in the media as "monsters" and
"lunatics") who keep shooting up schools and shopping centers, believe they
are solving deeper problems.  We all know, of course, that in reality they
are making things dramatically worse.

This is not an easy problem for us to solve.  We could make it harder to
obtain guns, and especially guns designed specifically for mass killings.
We could take on the problem with our entertainment: we have movies,
television shows, video games, books, and toys promoting killing as the way
to fix what ails us.  We could take on the problem of our news media: we
have newspapers and broadcast chatterers promoting killing as a necessary
tool of public policy.  We could reverse the past 40 years of rising
inequality, poverty, and plutocracy -- a trend that correlates with
violence in whatever country its found.

What we can't do is stop arming, training, funding, and supporting the mass
murderers in our towns and cities, because of course we haven't been
supporting them.  They aren't acting in our name as our representatives.
When our children run in horror from classrooms strewn with their
classmates' bloody corpses, they are running from killers never authorized
by us or elected by us.

This situation changes when we look abroad.

Picture a family in a house in Pakistan.  There's a little dot very high up
in the sky above.  It's making a buzzing noise.  The dot is an unmanned
airplane, a drone.  It's being flown from a desk in Nevada.  The family
knows what it is.  The children know what it is.  They know their lives may
be ended at any moment.  And they are traumatized.  They are in a constant
state of terror.  And then, one bright clear morning, they are torn limb
from limb, bleeding, screaming, groaning out their last breaths as their
home collapses into smoking rubble.

Picture a family in a house in Afghanistan.  They're asleep in their beds.
A door is kicked in. Incomprehensible words are shouted.  Bullets fly.
Loved ones are grabbed and dragged away, kicking and screaming with horror
-- never to be seen again.

The troubled souls (generally known in the media as "tax-payers") who keep
this far greater volume of violence going, believe they are solving deeper
problems.  But when we look closely, we see that in reality we are making
things dramatically worse.

That is the good news.  There is violence that we can much more easily
stop, because it is our violence.  The U.S. Army last week said that
targeting children in Afghanistan was perfectly acceptable.  The U.S.
President maintains a list of men, women, and children to be killed, and he
kills them -- but the vast majority of the people killed through that
program are people not on the list, people in the wrong place at the wrong
time (just like the people in our shopping malls and schools).

In fact, the vast majority of the people killed in our foreign wars are
simply bystanders.  And they are killed in their homes, their stores, their
schools, their weddings.  The violence that we can easily end looks very
much like the violence we find so difficult to address at home.  It doesn't
take place between a pair of armies on a battlefield.  It happens where its
victims live.

Were we to stop pouring $1.2 trillion each year into war preparations, we
would also be stopping the public funding of the manufacturers of the
weapons that rip open our loved ones and neighbors in our schools and
parking lots.  We would be altering dramatically the context in which we
generate public policy, public entertainment, and public myths about how
problems can be solved.  We would be saving lives every bit as precious as
any other lives, while learning how to go on to saving more.

One place to start, I believe, would be in withdrawing U.S. troops from
over 1,000 bases in other people's countries -- an imperial presence that
costs us $170 billion each year while building hostility and tensions, not
peace.  There's a reason why, at this time of year, we don't sing about
"Peace in My Backyard."  If we want peace on Earth, we must stop and
consider how to get it.
END

THANK YOU so much, David Swanson, for being, --along with John Dear (see the post at nomorecrusades.blogspot.com for December 2012 ) -- a rare, generous & peacefully-spoken
voices for peace in our time.  And how can anyone even logically argue with what you say?

READERS:  If you have not yet read David Swanson's wonderful children's book:
Tube World...do so & send them as gifts to children of wonder & peace of ALL ages.
I am reading it through again with my husband who can't wait to read it together each
night.  What fun, what wonder, what hope & what facts are presented therein...
Should be a best seller soon.  Get out the word!

Hafiz whispered in my ear tonight...

When someone asked just last night  -- the hostess to a full  round table of women  -- if we could choose how we might like to be if we started our lives over again -- would it be as a musician, sportsman, painter or what else?  I could feel my dancer-self inside -- wanting to express such purity of movement...

Then a few hours later, I did "homework" for a class which was exploring how we find ourselves relating to the Divine, I felt again inwardly -- as a dancer seeking to follow Him in a conversant way -- sometimes yet not always mirroring...sometimes loving to follow -- sometimes playfully being me -- yet from and to and out from again -- that is the right metophor for my relating....

Finally, I wanted to find some way to guide me to sleep -- having been up too long wrestling with these considerations...and immediately here's what I found...and finding such a description from one of God's most playful and insightful messengers,
Hafiz, I am now ready to go dancing in my sleep... this poet once again showed up at just the right time...

Perhaps, he or He will whisper such comfort to your ear as well?

My Sweet, Crushed Angel 

You have not danced so badly, my dear, 
Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One. 

You have waltzed with great style, 
My sweet, crushed angel, 
To have ever neared God's heart at all. 

Our Partner is notoriously difficult to follow, 
And even His best musicians are not always easy 
To hear. 

So what if the music has stopped for a while. 

So what 
If the price of admission to the Divine 
Is out of reach tonight. 

So what, my dear, 
If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love. 

The mind and the body are famous 
For holding the heart ransom, 

But Hafiz knows the Beloved's eternal habits. 

Have patience, 

For He will not be able to resist your longing 
For Long. 

You have not danced so badly, my dear, 
Trying to kiss the Beautiful One. 

You have actually waltzed with tremendous style, 
O my sweet, 
O my sweet crushed angel. 

-- Hafiz

dancer above found http://www.pbase.com/rcalmes/dancing_silhouettes