MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Arrest of CIA Agent Sheds Light on American Covert War in Pakistan, Straining U.S.-Pakistani Relations
By Donal on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 12:04pm |U.S. officials have admitted an American detained in Pakistan for the murder of two men was a CIA agent and a former employee of the private security firm Blackwater, now called Xe Services. Up until Monday, the Obama administration had insisted Raymond Davis was a diplomat who had acted in self-defense. The arrest of Davis has soured relations between the United States and Pakistan and revealed a web of covert U.S. operations inside the country, part of a secret war run by the C.I.A. The Guardian of London first reported Davis’s CIA link on Sunday and noted that many U.S. news outlets knew about his connection to the CIA but did not report on it at the request of U.S. officials. We speak with Declan Walsh, the Pakistan correspondent for The Guardian, who first broke the story.
URL:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/23/arrest_of_cia_agent_sheds_light
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Comments
Americans should ask themselves if they are getting anything of real value from the CIA's unaccounted-for multi-billion-dollar budget. Bad enough to bungle a double murder on a crowded city street. But if your backup plan is to claim diplomatic immunity for the killer, have the foresight to register him as a diplomat. Or at least give him the right cover story: Davis told police he worked for the Lahore consulate, not the Islamabad embassy. Oops, no blanket immunity for you.
The White House and State Dept. have bungled things almost as badly, apparently still trying to bully Pakistani officials into accepting the bogus immunity claim. President Zardari was willing to go along, but his foreign minister and the local police and courts were not. Davis remains in jail. All the attempted coverup did was inflame the entire Pakistani population against the U.S. Well done, special-ops morons!
by acanuck on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 4:17pm
The mystery is still not solved for me, Donal. It used to be that if you were covert CIA and alone (no U.S. civilians with you,) you were expendable, that was part of that whole deal, what you can get is one of the anonymous stars on the wall at Langley. Why is this guy so damn important to them? Yes it could be that they want to defend the diplomatic passport part of the situation, but then it seems to me that must be a more complicated story as well, in that they are afraid of some other diplomats being put on trial there for some reason.
by artappraiser on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 9:58pm
additionally, as best I understand it, the Vienna Convention as elaborated, specifically excludes immunity for "serious crimes" , such as, certainly, homicide. So it seems to me that the state dept is pissing into the wind whether the right passport/posting was alleged or not.
by jollyroger on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 11:25pm
No, if you're an accredited diplomat, you can potentially get away with murder, roger. In Ottawa a few years back, we had a drunk Russian diplomat (deputy ambassador, I think) fatally run over a pedestrian. Canada asked Russia to waive immunity, but they declined on principle. He was then recalled to Moscow, put on trial, and jailed. But Russia wasn't obliged to do anything.
The "serious crimes" thing kicks in for consular officials, which is why Davis screwed up by saying he worked for the Lahore consulate. It turns out he wasn't officially listed as working for either the embassy or the consulate. Yeah, State should have just cut the guy loose: "Davis? Never heard of him." But too many people in Pakistan knew exactly what he'd been doing.
by acanuck on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 2:48am