LawReader : Blogs/ News Archive : LawReader Stringer Reports from Pakistan:

S. Wayne Billingsley is the owner of Billingsley Magnetics, a corporation that designs and manufactures various types of magnetometers which measure gravitational forces of objects.

This technology is used widely by NASA, and many instruments designed by Billingsley (a former employee of NASA) are orbiting the earth. These devices are able to measure the magnetic signature of objects such as planes, ships, submarines, is used to orient spacecraft, and have many other application, many related to national security. He is recognized as one of the leading experts on magnetometers in the world. Wayne Billingsley is the brother of LawReader Senior Editor Stan Billingsley.

Wayne kindly provides to use his observations during his recent trip to Karachi, Pakistan. During the trip he was accompanied by body guards carrying machine guns. He was provided security not unlike that of a U.S. President while in country. He was highly restricted in places he could go, but was able to have a few moments for “tourist” activities.

He said he got to go to one restaurant and caused quite a stir when he walked in with his machine gun carrying bodyguards. One of the more humorous sites he saw was a man riding by his armored car on a motorcycle, the man had a t-shirt own that had writing on the back which said, “terrorist”. I guess that is how you spot them.

Billingsley was in Karachi to install some devices he had manufactured and to train personnel in their maintenance and use.

LawReader stringer: S. Wayne Billingsley – April 2008 – Karachi, Pakistan:

From here I can hear the chanting call to prayer from the nearby Minaret.
I have seen exotic sights from a fairy tale. Got some pictures and will
try for more when I can.

For the most part they will not allow me to remove the visual screen
from my passenger side window so shots ( both kinds !) are limited.

We are well outside of Karachi and the sights are from a different
century. Colorful busses with many people crowded on top, Camels and Donkeys hauling carts. Veiled women, cloaked head to top in black with faces covered
and bearded men. You ain't in Kansas anymore Toto !

Traffic: Passing in both directions on each side of us cars and trucks
inches apart, the ultimate game of chicken !

Had my first hot shower since leaving. The people here are treating me
very very well. At the work site they have assigned a young man clad in immaculate
whites who they said is solely assigned to get me food, water and whatever that I need.

On departure yesterday the whole staff of ~ 15-20 people lined up to shake hands .
On arriving and departing the secure compounds on each end the soldier on
duty gives a sharp military salute.

Tomorrow I may ask for a flag on each car fender ( not !)
On each commute back an forth to work I have an armed soldier riding
shotgun, a great driver (tell more about that later)

This is like Black Diamond skiing but on wheels.
I have been assigned a young man from the Institute who helps with everything.

I leave in an hour or so for work and may finish hardware today and then
training tomorrow.

They gave me native clothing to wear, pair of pants with a long overshirt that came to my knees.

It looked like it was made of burlap. It is called a "sharwal kameez" the national garb and yes it
looks like a bag ! They wanted to make me not the focus of the group to
any outsiders for my own safety....not sure, however that it had the intended effect !

The machine gun carried by my bodyguards is a H & K MP5 ....nice piece ! The other guards carried the more potent AK47.

Asked about his comparison to his last visit to Pakistan in l961 he writes:

They are still as poor as ever.....some small areas with money such as
Benazir Bhutto came from.

The individual people that I met were extremely kind or perhaps even
deferential .. However the danger level was very low then and now
is high. Even the few people poo-pooing the danger (despite the fact
that my guest house and their work areas had high stone walls with
barbed wire staggered barricades at the entrances and soldiers armed with HK MP5
automatic weapons were ever present) did state that it would not be
safe to come to Pakistan alone ! However I would go back again....it is
a bit exciting, having that atmosphere....a little like skiing a Black
Diamond ski run that you feel challenged by ! :-) :-P :-D

Now the Islamic fundamentalism, which came around 1978 from General Zia -
he was assassinated later for whatever reason) government is in charge
and the concurrent drift to radicalism by the true believers.

I could hear the exotic chants of mullah's calling the people to prayer
5 times a day....but at the work site I did not see a single person respond,
somewhat comforting to see that the secular side still is alive...if not
dominant.

Related story:

Set to Return, Chief Justice Creates a Test for Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ
The restoration of the Supreme Court chief justice, dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf last year, has become the first real test of the new government’s democratic principles.

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