CIA employed American Raymond Davis held in Pakistan
In this Jan. 28, 2011 file photo, Pakistani security officials escort Raymond Allen Davis, a U.S. consulate employee, center, to a local court in Lahore, Pakistan.
/ AP Photo/Hamza AhmedRaymond Davis, the U.S. embassy worker at the center of an international incident with Pakistan, was employed by the CIA, CBS News has confirmed. It is unclear whether Davis was a contractor for the agency or a full-time employee. He was allegedly part of a secret CIA team based in Lahore, Pakistan, conducting surveillance on militant groups in the area.
On Jan. 27, Davis shot and killed two armed Pakistani men in Lahore. He stated that they were trying to rob him and that his life was in danger. The United States has maintained that as an embassy worker (he has been described by U.S. authorities as a member of the administrative and technical staff of the U.S. embassy) Davis should have diplomatic immunity and be released from Pakistani custody.
A U.S. official said Monday that Davis has been moved to a separate part of Kot Lakhpat jail, which holds about 4,000 mostly militant inmates, and that his guards have been stripped of their weapons to lessen the chance that he could be killed while incarcerated.
"The Pakistanis have a solemn obligation to protect Ray Davis," said a U.S official. " If they're not going to release him--which they certainly should based on his diplomatic immunity--surely they can find a safer place for him.
"Davis is a protective officer, someone who provides security to U.S. officials in Pakistan. Rumors to the contrary are simply wrong."
Davis's duties included providing security to agency stations and bases as part of the CIA's Global Response Staff.
News of Davis's CIA affiliation was first published on in the Guardian on Sunday. News organizations in the West, including CBS News, were asked to hold off on publishing the information by the Obama administration as U.S. officials were concerned about Davis's safety if outed as a CIA employee.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) met with Pakistan officials last week in an attempt to get Davis released from jail in Lahore, but a Pakistani court decreed that the government could have until March 14 to rule on whether Davis should be prosecuted under Pakistani law or released per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
"If indeed this is a case where a CIA operative was involved in the killings that have caused the worst setback to U.S.-Pakistan relations, the stakes could be very high," said a Western defense official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. "For long, most Pakistanis have not trusted the U.S. in general and the CIA in particular. Confirmation of Raymond Davis' links to the CIA will only further increase popular opposition to close U.S.-Pakistan relations," the official said.
A Pakistani official who also spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said confirmation of Davis's links to the CIA may only increase the confusion surrounding his case and make it even more difficult for the U.S. and Pakistan to quietly resolve it. "The CIA's legacy of using drones in Pakistan does not endear this agency to Pakistanis," the Pakistani official said.
Both Pakistani and U.S. officials are concerned about violent reactions from the Taliban and overall anti-American protests if Davis is released and not tried on murder charges. At the same time, the Pakistani government is concerned about the billions in aid that the U.S. provides to the country, but the U.S. also needs Pakistan's cooperation to conduct its war on terrorism.
Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad contributed to this story
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"The Obama administration is exerting fierce pressure on Pakistan to release Davis. But President Asif Ali Zardari's government, faced with a wave of public outrage, has prevaricated on the issue, and says it cannot decide on immunity issue until 14 March. For many Pakistanis the case has come to represent their difficult relationship with the US, in which multibillion dollar aid packages are mingled with covert activities targeting Islamist extremists.
Davis is currently on Pakistan's "exit control list", meaning he cannot leave the country without permission. But the two men who came to his rescue in a jeep that knocked over and killed a motorcyclist are believed to have already fled the country. Davis claimed to be acting in self-defence, firing on a pair of suspected robbers. But eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he shot the men 10 times, one as he fled the scene."
Ref: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/21/raymond-davis-pakistan-cia-blackwater
For those of you who couldn't have predicted this PIECE OF a HORSE$HIT wasn't a diplomat or form of human existence that should be permitted to walk free -- Xe is the former name of the infamous gun-happy contractor Blackwater that shot Iraqi civilians and not only walked away scott-free, but continued under unlawful circumstances to be re-contracted by the U.S. government AGAIN.
So, what we have here is the Obama administration BEGGING to be removed from the White House, if not impeached long before then -- if there was such a thing as rule of law and a U.S. Constitution that anybody respected.
And this contractor NEEDS DESPERATELY TO BE PROSECUTED, TRIED AND EXECUTED if Pakistani law cares about the human beings this Xe/Blackwater contractor gunned downed.... AGAIN.
And again... you have my personal permission and pleasure to do whatever the F**K you want with him in the process of getting there. Just DON'T let this murderer out of Pakistan.
BTW: not a diplomat; and no matter how much Obama pays you my tax payer dollars, if you're a corrupt Pakistani official working with people representing the rule of law ignoring Obama administration, you can't grant diplomatic immunity AFTER THE FACT to an American citizen murdering two of your citizens, even if the murderer is a Blackwater contractor.
GOD BLESS AMERICA -- it doesn't get any better than this. Normally countries are suppose to have the HUMAN DECENCY to waive diplomatic immunity for serious crimes like killing people. The Obama administration apparently considers human decency at much lower levels -- pissing in God's face levels -- and is willing to send people like John Kerry to Pakistan to ask that Blackwater contract killers for hire who commit multiple homicides, be granted special immunity given only to the most respected of diplomats.
I'm guessing A SPECIAL PLACE in God's kingdom for people who bribe Pakistani officials to grant diplomatic immunity to Blackwater contractors who commit multiple homocides. A VERY SPECIAL PLACE. Thanks for dragging the United States down with you.
As a U.S. Citizen who is indentured to pay taxes to a corrupt U.S. administration who will use this money to bribe Pakistani officials to break the law and let this murderer who is a CIA contractor -- and has no diplomatic immunity -- free, you have my personal permission to prosecute this bastard and fry him in an electric chair -- TWICE, for both people he killed. If that is the appropriate punishment for someone who murders two people with the ARROGANCE of a CIA CONTRACTOR.
Personally, if you want to cut his balls off first, that would please me to no end. As a U.S. citizen who is sick and tired of my government treating rule of law, due process and justice like a cherry-picked option.
Human life is more important than his gonads -- that's for sure.
That's right. He is NOT a CIA employee. HE's a CONTRACTOR.
But more importantly -- this FIRMLY ESTABLISHES the U.S. "free press" as thoroughly and totally beholden to the U.S. government. If anything the "free press" is an agent or employee of the U.S. government. IN COMPLETE AND UTTER DEFIANCE OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION.
ABSOLUTELY SICKENING. Totally shameless admission by CBSNews that they were contacted by the Obama administration -- who treats rule of law and due process like creamy rotting dung to be rubbed in the face of every U.S. citizen -- to protect the true identity of a U.S. contractor who MURDERED Pakistani citizens and was FALSELY given the identity of someone in the U.S. embassy who had diplomatic immunity.
This FREAKING Israeli U.S. taxpayer serving, and LAW-BREAKING U.S. administration NEEDS TO GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR WHITE HOUSE -- BIG TIME AND NOW! This is WORSE than 4 more years of George W. Bush.
You actually HAVE to read foreign new sources to know what your own government is doing.
Ron Paul is not talking rep or dem or tea party.
He is talking sane !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwf5rZgJM4s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R4PtC73rlQ