Pakistani judge wants to search US embassy for Blackwater

[ensho]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C12%5C05%5Cstory_5-12-2009_pg7_7


Interior secretary issued notice in Blackwater plea


LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Khawaja Muhammad Sharif served notice on the Interior secretary for not replying to a petition against the alleged activities of Blackwater in the federal capital.

The CJ warned that if the secretary did not submit the reply by December 14 he would be prosecuted under the contempt of court law.

On November 20, the LHC sought replies from the Interior Ministry and the Islamabad inspector general.

The LHC chief justice expressed displeasure when told that the Islamabad IG had submitted his reply without signatures. He said: “Is this the way to address the court? It seems that all ineligible persons have been given jobs in (the) Police Department.”

Plea: Separately, the CJ also called a detailed report from the Foreign Ministry on a plea to order the search of US Embassy to recover illegal weapons.

Hashim Shaukat Khan, president of Watan Party Pakistan, had filed the petition.

Barrister Zafarullah, the petitioner’s counsel, cited several news reports according to which American and Dutch nationals were found patrolling the federal capital’s streets with sophisticated weapons. He said the diplomats and marines of both the countries had also beat up the people. He said the “culprits of these incidents” were set free and no action was taken against them for violating the law of the land.

He said an American magazine, The Nation, had disclosed the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan and its hideouts in Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad.

The counsel also said that the Sihala Police Training Centre commandant had also complained that explosives were being heaped in the centre and he was not allowed to visit the sites.

Illegal weapons: Seeking search of US embassy, he said the day Blackwater had stepped into Pakistan, terror acts and suicide attacks had been scaled up. The counsel also alleged that in the US embassy illegal arms and ammunition were being stored, which were being used for “sabotage acts” in the country.
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I dispise Blackwater

more power to the judge

[StarfarerBill]

1. Ditto. +1

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. yeah...searching a US embassy...

that is likely to happen!

sP

[BeFree]

3. Eh?

Remember the reports that coalition forces were behind many of the street bombings in Iraq?

[Statistical]

4. I hate BW too but an embassy is sovereign territory.

The judge has about as much authority demanding a search of US embassy = US land then he does demanding a search of FBI building in Virginia.

I would have thought a judge would be better educated?

[kelly1mm]

5. Absolutely fracking NOT! No search of embassies by host countries

courts/police/government at all should be allowed under ANY circumstances. But the State Department should make sure Blackwater is not operating out of the embassy. If so, throw them out of the front door and let the Pakistanis deal with them.

[moodforaday]

6. If Blackwater is operating

out of a US embassy, it would be because State Department put them there in the first place, no?

[kelly1mm]

7. Probably, but not, absolutely, necessarily. nt

[NNN0LHI]

8. This is the reason Musharriff decided to resign his dictatorship over there

He knew the US was getting ready to send in the Marines to dig him out of a spider hole for the cameras soon like we did to Saddam.

He was on the list.

I bet no one wants to be the "official" leader of Pakistan. Who's in charge here? That guy over there.

Don