Pakistani and Indian Papers Say US CIA
Contractor Raymond Davis is a Terrorist
by Dave Lindorff
Pakistani and Indian
newspapers are reporting that Raymond Davis, the
CIA contractor in jail in Lahore facing murder charges for the
execution-slayings of two young men believed to by Pakistani
intelligence operatives, was actually involved in organizing terrorist
activities in Pakistan.
CIA man Raymond Davis keeps some pretty nasty company in Pakistan.
As the Express Tribune, an English-language daily that is linked to the International Herald Tribune, reported on Feb. 22:
"The Lahore killings were a blessing in disguise for our
security agencies who suspected that Davis was masterminding terrorist
activities in Lahore and other parts of Punjab,” a senior official in
the Punjab Police claimed. “His close ties with the TTP [the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan] were
revealed during the investigations,” he added. “Davis was instrumental
in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the
bloody insurgency.” Call records of the cellphones recovered from Davis
have established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants
from the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian outfit, sources said."
The article goes on to explain a motive for why the US, which on
the one hand has been openly pressing Pakistan to move militarily
against Taliban forces in the border regions abutting Afghanistan, would
have a contract agent actively encouraging terrorist acts within
Pakistan, saying:
"Davis was also said to be working on a plan to give credence to
the American notion that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe. For
this purpose, he was setting up a group of the Taliban which would do
his bidding."
According to a
report in the Economic Times of India,
a review by police investigators of calls placed by Davis on some of
the cell phones found on his person and in his rented Honda Civic after
the shooting showed calls to 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from
the banned Pakistani Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an group identified
as terrorist organization by both the US and Pakistan, which has been
blamed for the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and for
the brutal slaying of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. (You'd think this would be a big story for the
Wall Street Journal, especially on the editorial page, but so far, there has been no mention of it in Murdoch's rag.)
Meanwhile, while the US continues to claim that Davis was “defending
himself” against two armed robbers, the Associated Press is reporting
that its sources in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Service
Intelligence (ISI), are telling them that Davis “knew both men he
killed.”
The AP report, which was run in Thursday’s Washington Post,
claims the ISI says it “had no idea who Davis was or what he was doing
when he was arrested,” that he had contacts in Pakistan’s tribal
regions, and that his visa applications contained “bogus references and
phone numbers.”
The article quotes a “senior Pakistani intelligence official” as
saying the ISI “fears there are hundreds of CIA contractors presently
operating in Pakistan without the knowledge of the Pakistan government
or the intelligence agency.”
In an indication that Pakistan is hardening its stance against caving to US pressure to spring Davis from jail, the Express Tribune
quotes sources in the Pakistani Foreign Office as saying that the US
has been pressing them to forge backdated documents that would allow the
US to claim that Davis worked for the US Embassy.
President Obama,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top US officials have been
trying to claim Davis was an Embassy employee, and not, as they
originally stated, and as he himself told arresting police officers,
just a contractor working out of the Lahore Consulate. The difference is
critical, since most Embassy employees get blanket immunity for their
activities, while consular employees, under the Vienna Conventions, only
are given immunity for things done during and in the course of their
official duties.
The US had submitted a list of its Embassy workers to the Foreign
Office on Jan. 20, a week before the shooting. That list had 48 names on
it, and Davis was not one of them. A day after the shooting,
the Embassy submitted a “revised” list, claiming rather improbably that
it had “overlooked” Davis.
At the time of his arrest, Davis was
carrying a regular passport, not a diplomatic one, though the Consulate
in Lahore rushed over the following day and tried to get police to let
them swap his well-worn regular passport for a shiny new diplomatic one
(they were rebuffed). Davis was also carrying a Department of Defense
contractor ID when he was arrested, further complicating the picture of
who his real employer might be.
