My felicitations to CIA for this much needed exposé in the form of The Contractor. Even if Raymond Davis did not pen it, he surely consented to lend his name. Notwithstanding the real author, or authors aside, history will, however, judge and discredit Raymond for this book, if this book ever made to history.
One problem with the book is its title. The majority of us in Pakistan who have interacted with the contractor of any kind ever won’t pay a penny to hear his story. All they have are stories. But a pertinent distinction: in Pakistan, we engage contractors for construction, whereas CIA hired this contractor for destruction.
It’s good that its available for free, else no one would have bought it except those who are named in it.
I am going to reveal a few secrets that didn’t make to the first edition of the book. CIA and the publisher thought they would compromise national security; but whose national security, was not clear.
Before Mr Raymond Davis made the headlines in Jan 2011, the other Davis known to some in Pakistan was the Davis Cup for Men’s Tennis where Pakistani players would make a guest appearance, and mostly lose in their first match because of tournament’s knockout system.
The Contractor also tells the story of certain knockouts, where several political players got knocked out sooner than they thought. Some by deception, and some by conception. Mr SMQ is one of them who is still figuring out if he fell for deception or conception. And that, if Gen Pasha – who fell to a conception – had advised or forbade SMQ to do what he did, i.e., resigning as FM and joining the PTI.
I had watched a few matches of the Davis Cup in the 1990s as the entry was free, but the matches looked as thrilling as if I had paid. The free entry did not make them any less thrilling. Since the organizers wanted to promote tennis in Pakistan, the free entry made sense and helped. Free download of Ramon’s cock-n-bull story must be enjoyed and appreciated similarly. Now that every Pakistani already knew most of the secrets in the book and there is nothing new is another thing. Then the book left out certain key secrets.
The first secret is about its free distribution. It’s actually not free, someone paid to promote the game from the savings of $2.4 million diyyat funds that accrued due to USD-PKR exchange rate difference. If you recall the payment in Pak Rupees was made before receiving the funds in US dollars. The exchange rate increased meanwhile, led to the savings and in the last 6 years the savings accrued lots of interest too.
On Davis Cup, what many Pakistanis don’t know is that Sir Dwight Davis who cofounded the Davis Cup later became the US Secretary of War (1925 – 1929). Now they call it Secretary of Defence. In those days Americans were very American; they called a war a war and didn’t pretend the euphemism of defence.
The second secret; this Davis’s grandma had an intimate secret liaison with that Davis, they made a secret trip to Lahore where she secretly left a precious neckless at Anarkali’s tomb which this Davis had come to fetch. Everything has a history my dears. On the day of the incident, Raymon was going to collect the neckless when he killed two Pakistanis who he believed were in front of his car and going to pick that neckless ahead of him. Hence, he shot them from his car’s windscreen and from their behind! Secret services agents’ stories are not that simple you see.
There are many other secrets which did not make to the 36 chapters of The Contractor for Raymon was not paid to tell those secrets.
If you are really interested in knowing the true story, then there is no need to read it now, even if it’s free. Wait for the second edition. After all, Raymon is a spy, and all spies have several stories to tell.
We wish Raymon luck and pray he lives to tell the next version. By then he would also have learnt how to write and tell it himself.
