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Pakistani and Indian Newspapers Say US CIA Contractor Raymond Davis
is a Terrorist<br>
Thursday 24 February 2011<br>
by: Dave Lindorff <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
As the Express Tribune, an English-language daily that is linked to
the International Herald Tribune, reported on Feb. 22:<br>
<i><br>
“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.<br>
<br>
“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.</i><br>
<br>
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:<br>
<i><br>
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.</i><br>
<br>
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.)<br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.
<br>
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