dagblog - Comments for "Who is Raymond Davis?"

Worth putting up in the 'in

artappraiser — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:48:00 +0000

In reply to Fascinating link, ArtA. Worth

Worth putting up in the 'in the news' section, imo

I dunno, I'm kind of happy with the discussion results right here on this "hidden" thread. All goes to show ya, sometimes bigger audiences aren't better audiences.

And to Donal, thanks for putting the further updates you found below....

Oh don't talk to me about

Obey — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:37:56 +0000

In reply to Am I utterly naive in

Oh don't talk to me about Spitzer. I want to punch the guy in the face every time I think about him. The one man the country needed so desperately in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and he has to ruin it all... argh.

That, and for some bizarre reason, my girlfriend thinks he's hot (seriously, wtf?!?!)

Don't think the theory you're outlining counts as 'naive'. In any case I was just explaining the incompetence illustrated in the Davis case on the CIA outsourcing to lunkheads like Xe. Beyond that, sure, different people in the administration have different overarching aims in the region, some more dangerous than others. Is there any official or unofficial policy along those lines? I don't see any policy in the region, just random reactive moves based on nothing much at all.

Am I utterly naive in

we are stardust — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:14:47 +0000

In reply to From that FP article, it

Am I utterly naive in thinking that there must be some over-arching political/strategic agenda alongside the profit, though? Some mix: civil war North/South Pakistan, kasmir, India, nukes...oh yeah; bases, embassies, all that...being constructed by the US in Pakistan.

Jim White at myFDL had been asking why in the world Darrell Issa's Codel was in Pakistan (allegedly on a 'trade mission') asking for Davis's release. (good video, too)

http://my.firedoglake.com/jimwhite/2011/02/01/why-is-darrell-issa-in-pakistan-asking-president-pm-for-release-of-raymond-davis/

And remember when the Guardian broke the news that oh, yeah; the US just admitted he was a CIA spy? Ha!

Oh, and Obey; a dagblog friend just sent me Client 9 about Eliot Ness Spitzer; looks great (the asshat hadda go and...ya know...) cut himself off at the feet.

From that FP article, it

Obey — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:30:50 +0000

In reply to Jeremy Scahill has been

From that FP article, it looks like Davis has single-handedly turned a cold cooperation with the ISI into an outright war between spy services and raising Pakistani public rage against the US up another notch.

Why is it always Blackwater that is involved in the worst fuckups in the region? It's almost as if it would be good for business if the war escalates out of control..

Oh right, it really would.

mmm, private-sector profit motive is always so efficiency-enhancing in spyfare, isn't it?

LAHORE: [March 7] With the

Donal — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:13:00 +0000

In reply to Who is Raymond Davis?

LAHORE: [March 7] With the CIA rapidly expanding its covert operations in Pakistan and the ISI in no mood to surrender its dominant presence in the Af-Pak region, the arrest of an undercover CIA agent Raymond Davis has pushed the two spy agencies into an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, compelling both to review parameters of their cooperation.

One does not have to be a Sherlock Holmes fan to understand that the world of espionage and counter-espionage has rules of its own, with the most fundamental ones being: you don’t get caught, and you don’t get caught committing murders. These rules are even more critical if you happen to be an American spy working in Pakistan, a country already seething with anti-US sentiments. Raymond, who faces a double murder charge in Pakistan for killing two youngsters in Lahore on January 27, broke both these rules and eventually landed in jail to face a court trial, with the Americans scrambling to get him out.

The US, however, has a tough job in saving him, for his arrest has acquired dimensions that the ex-Army Special Forces soldier may not have dreamt of when he whipped out his Glock pistol and fired at two suspect-looking young men on a motorbike. For what Raymond’s arrest has achieved is to blow the lid off the scale and intensity of covert CIA operations on Pakistani soil — much of it without the knowledge or consent of the Pakistani intelligence establishment, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). This is also at the heart of the turf war between the CIA and ISI. Indeed, Raymond’s current predicament exemplifies this conflict.

LAHORE: [March 15] U.S

Donal — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:10:00 +0000

In reply to Who is Raymond Davis?

LAHORE: [March 15] U.S citizen Raymond Davis double murder case will come up for hearing tomorrow in the Kot Lakhpat jail, when the accused would be finally arraigned.

Additional Session Judge Yusuf Ojla is hearing the Raymond Davis case.

Following the indictment, formal trial of the case would begin from the next hearing, legal experts said.

Earlier, the Additional Session Judge had rejected the petition claiming Raymond Davis diplomatic immunity.

On the other hand, the attorney of the family of the victims Faizan and Faheem, Asad Manzoor Butt told Geo News that the case against Raymond Davis was strong, as the U.S embassy has failed to submit any evidence of his employment.

Jeremy Scahill has been

we are stardust — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:09:59 +0000

In reply to Fascinating link, ArtA. Worth

Jeremy Scahill has been saying the same thing forever, and like him, I wonder to whom that Dark Army answers (CIA/JOSC/Blackwater-y Cretins). Cheney and friends?

Former ISI General: ""They have disproportionately large muscles and small brains, and draw weapons and shoot people for little or no reason."

Sounds about right. Congress doesn't really want to know what's up with it all; the hearings they've held make that pretty clear. After one invesitgation it was announced that Prince's boys could load the bombs on drones, but not guide them. Whew; we felt better ...

Scary Biscuits. It's a mad world.

Fascinating link, ArtA. Worth

Obey — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:45:41 +0000

In reply to The mystery explained to my

Fascinating link, ArtA. Worth putting up in the 'in the news' section, imo. I knew the CIA had started using contractors for drone related intelligence, but it's interesting to see that Blackwater operatives (okay - ex-Xe 'independent' contractors) are actually running the show, as acting station chief in Peshawar, probably the most important station the CIA has anywhere in the world. The CIA has basically outsourced the whole Afpak drone war, their most sensitive operation anywhere.

Sounds nuts to me.

The mystery explained to my

artappraiser — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:51:56 +0000

In reply to Who is Raymond Davis?

The mystery explained to my satisfaction: basically he's a big cheese who knows a lot of stuff and the U.S. leaving him there with a public trial means the ISI, which can't even be trusted by the Pakistani government, could get access to what he knows. Already a lot of his Pakistani and Afghani contacts have suffered a lot of collateral damage from this, as have a lot of U.S. ops which had to be suspended. There's been direct involved by Obama himself, he's that important.. See:

Spy Games, What's really at stake in the Raymond Davis case.

by Scott Horton, March 11 @

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/11/spy_games

Mystery Over Detained

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:53:59 +0000

In reply to Who is Raymond Davis?

Mystery Over Detained American Angers Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ;
Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan, Waqar Gillani from Lahore, and Eric Schmitt from Washington, New York Times, February 8, 2011

Two things from the above....

The U.S. really really is not willing to let this go, for whatever reason:

....The Obama administration insists that Mr. Davis is protected by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Conventions and that he must be released from custody. He was unlawfully seized on the street by the police after the shootings, the administration says, and should have been allowed to return to the American Consulate in Lahore in conformity with diplomatic protection.

The United States has warned Pakistan that if Mr. Davis is not released, a much sought-after state visit by President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, planned for the end of March, could be jeopardized and badly needed financial assistance could be cut.

Last weekend on the sidelines at a conference in Munich, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, that Mr. Davis was being held illegally and must be freed, a senior American official said.

American officials said they were concerned for the safety of Mr. Davis, who is being held by the law enforcement authorities of Punjab Province, an area that is becoming increasingly radicalized by Islamic militants....

They dug up some answers to the question "who is Raymond Davis?":

Mr. Davis spent 10 years in the American military, starting with basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1993. He moved to special warfare training with the Third Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1998, and left the Army in 2003. His only overseas posting, according to his Army service record, was a six-month stint as a member of a United Nations Peacekeeping force in Macedonia in 1994.
After leaving the military, Mr. Davis apparently decided to take advantage of the boom in the military contracting business. He and his wife, Rebecca Davis, set up Hyperion Protective Services in 2006 in Nevada, a company that appears to have sought government contracts for security services, according to company filings in Nevada.
The company does not appear to have won big contracts, and may have been in the business of offering just Mr. Davis’s services, according to a former Special Forces officer who reviewed the company filings.
Mr. Davis arrived in Pakistan in late 2009, according to his visa application from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That document described his rank as “administrative and technical staff.”
His first assignment was apparently in Peshawar, a city on the edge of the tribal areas. A Pakistani who worked in the house where Mr. Davis stayed remembered him as a generous tipper who left several hundred dollars for each of the staff members when he left last year.

The article also goes over the various versions of "what happened at Mozang?" including things like the post mortem of bullets in the backs of both victims.