The case of arrested American citizen Matthew Barrett is very strange. According to media reports, he is supposedly sent to spy on our nuclear installations. However, some things don’t quite make sense about the whole story.
First, if it is true that he is a spy who was caught red-handed and blacklisted by agencies, how did he get a visa? Supposedly the Interior Ministry is holding an investigation into this question, but already it has put the heat on FIA officials, immigration officials, Consulate officials, and others. Without an Ambassador we can scapegoat, we are left facing the idea that there is a widespread conspiracy within our own government to bring American agents into the country to spy on our sensitive installations.
Then there is the question of how incompetent the American agencies must be to send the same spy who had been caught red-handed just a few years ago. Certainly they must have realised he would be caught again. Or was this the idea all along?
The timing of the arrest must be noted as it comes only a few days after the US announced that it is withholding $300 Million funding to Pakistan Army. Was Matthew Barrett given a visa so that he would come to Pakistan where he could be arrested and used as a bargaining chip for Army to get its hands on those millions? Or is he just being used to whip up anti-Americanism in retaliation?
Unlike Kulbhushan Yadav, there are no claims that Matthew Barrett is an American military officer. Actually, there are reports that he has a Pakistani wife and children who he has been kept from visiting. The last time he was deported was in 2011 – the lowest year of Pakistan-US relations when we suffered the Raymond Davis incident, Salala attack, and Abbottabad raid. Is Matthew Barrett really a spy? Or are he and his poor family just unfortunate pawns in a game much bigger than they realise?
