Apparently, “Blood Money” Now Includes “Green Cards”

Last we heard about the families of Raymond Davis’ victims, they were held in custody until they agreed to accept the blood money Pakistan offered on our behalf.

Things are looking up for the family members, though. Eighteen of them have been flown to UAE to be resettled.

A chartered plane carrying 18 family members of Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, the two men killed by Davis, left the Chaklala air base on Friday at 4:30 pm for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sources said.

The plane landed at the Dubai airport from where the 18 people proceeded to Abu Dhabi where two houses have been rented for them.

In addition, four family members will be granted green cards for the US, with the possibility that the rest of the family will later be sponsored in.

Four American Green Cards and two residences in the US have also been arranged for the two families.

[snip]

According to the deal, four persons from the two families would first go to the US after completing visa formalities. Later, other family members would be considered for permanent residence in the US, the sources said.

Click through for the names of the (?) consular employees who negotiated the blood money.

It appears the court in question may be a bit suspicious about the inclusion of resettlement and green cards in sharia, because it is now demanding an explanation.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed CCPO Lahore Aslam Tareen to appear in court on March 22 and present a report on the disappearance of the families of Faizan Haider and Faheem, the two young men who were shot dead by CIA contractor Raymond Davis on January 27, DawnNews reported.

Now, I’m all in favor of the families getting some kind of due compensation for the killing of their family member; and they may indeed be at some physical risk themselves at this point.

But I am a little bit worried about what all the American haters are going to say when they learn blood money payments under sharia law now also come with US green cards.

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  1. BoxTurtle says:

    Gee, a paranoid person might think those people were relocated to get them out of the reach of Pakistans court system. So they can’t forced to answer politically embarassing questions like “Are you doing this of your own free will?” or “Were you able to consult with your lawyers prior to accepting the deal?’

    Boxturtle (Wonder if any Americans have been relocated out of the USA for similar reasons)

    • Jim White says:

      That’s a possibility, although even before they signed and accepted the blood money, at least some of the relatives stated that they felt their lives were in danger from religious conservatives if they took it.

      • BoxTurtle says:

        They’re probably correct, and not just from the religious conservatives. There are a few people left in Pakistan who still care about justice and this will outrage them as well. As it should.

        So we’re going to give green cards to moslems who have a solid reason to hate America and connections to the ISI, after extorting them to accept our Offer You Can’t Refuse. Oh yeah, they’ll be model citizens.

        Boxturtle (If I were those families, I’d be worried about disappearing)

  2. JTMinIA says:

    As much as I agree that the families deserve compensation, one should keep in mind that being paid off probably doesn’t cancel the resentment from having members of your family killed. (I doubt that it would work for me, at least.) So what the gov’t is doing amounts to bringing people who have a very good reason to hate America into, of all places, America. Brilliant. I feel safer already.

    Even more, because I have thought of this issue, do I now get to wonder if anyone I see dressed in a way that makes Juan Williams nervous is about to act out their resentment? Yippee.

  3. PeasantParty says:

    Being extremely wealthy now and able to reside in the elitist camp of UAE, why would they want to come to the US? As a matter of fact, if I were them the US is the last place on earth I would want to be for fear of the crazy Beckites.

    • victoria2dc says:

      Yes!!! Why in the hell would they want to come here? This is the country that hires mercenaries to kill Muslims and then pays off their families to keep the “killer” out of jail. I’m sorry but I say, “Give the killer a trial and send him to the wolves.” As far as I know, this was a cold blooded killing, no?

      Only the US government would protect a murderer in a foreign country like Pakistan. I wonder what happened to the country I grew up in.

      • mattcarmody says:

        People who were ignorant of their class status voted against their interests throughout the 80s, 90s, and then two elections were stolen within the first 5 years of this century.

        Actually anyone who voted for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, or Obama is complicit in what we are going to experience when the real fascists get into power after this Obama interregnum.

        • NorskeFlamethrower says:

          Citizen mattcarmody:

          No, there ya go blamin’ the victims and your brothers and sisters who played the game with the information and by the rules they were given. We are all responsible for the terror and death that our oil capitalism and neo-colonialism has wrought but to blame those who are already sharin’ in the cost of these terrible wars for the conscious decisions of those who committed us to these horrors with full knowledge of the outcome …well, that is ridiculous.

        • one_outer says:

          Agreed. We’re so far into the wilderness that the next Republican POTUS is going to be a real piece of work. A textbook, academic definition Fascist piece of work.

          We’ll probably get a chance to see exactly to what degree the judiciary is complicit in torture and indefinite detention if that happens, too.

  4. jerryy says:

    Is being ‘held in custody’ until they agree to an ‘offer’ like extracting a false confession?

  5. harpie says:

    o/t

    “Rumsfeld Knew”

    Here’s the press release about the Seton Hall Center for Policy and Research report about a newly found memo written by Rumsfeld in April 2003, which indicates that he knew a lot of Guantanamo detainees were not, in fact, “the worst of the worst”.

    There’s a link to the actual Report, [large pdf doc], there.

    The Memo is reproduced in Appendix A.

    Partial transcript:

    Apr. 21, 2003

    For: Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

    Commander, U.S. Central Command

    From: Donald Rumsfeld

    Subject: Low-Level Enemy Combatants

    ** We need to stop populating Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) with low-level enemy combatants. GTMO needs to serve as an [redacted-six words?] not a prison for Afghanistan.

    **Therefore, effective June 16, the January 7, 2002 Screening Criteria are amended to authorize you to transfer to Guantanamo only those detainees who meet the stated criteria and are of [redacted-9words?] value.

    […]

  6. ubetchaiam says:

    “But I am a little bit worried” ; just a little bit? This is as bad as Plaxico Burress (a NYGiants football player) shooting himself in the leg with his own gun.

  7. one_outer says:

    Wait a tick – you’re telling me that visas and green cards are handled by two different agencies?

    Is it just me or shouldn’t the same entity do those things?

  8. Synoia says:

    No blood money was paid

    Oh really. And the family members have “disappeared,” which requires uprooting them from their home, when they’ve just become wealthy.

    Are the family members still alive?

    One reason no blood money was paid would be that after they agreed to drop the case, they were killed, and we know killers, who kill without compunction are involved.

    • mattcarmody says:

      It kind of makes sense if you look at it from a bizarro point of view.
      More Muslims pissed off at the US come to the US, spread information about what happened to their family members throughout their new community here, possibly radicalizing and recruiting new members, thereby providing job security for new graduates from the FBI National Academy.

      And FOX always needs new material with which to frighten its amoeba-like audience.

  9. NorskeFlamethrower says:

    AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

    Citizen emptywheel:

    What a ridiculous mess…how long before the banksters figure out that the military and the oil cowboys have screwed the pooch?

    Seems to me that we are gettin awefully close to the situation we had from 1972-74…and we know how that one turned out. And we got the same players in the same places except we don’t have any real Democrats who owe anything to their constituents left in Congress.

    KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE GOTTA DO THIS ONE OURSELVES!

  10. jameshester12 says:

    According to Pakistan Tribune, the attorneys of the victims families were held in confinement for four hours and were not allowed to see their clients during the papers signing.