Posted on 02/21/2011 12:00:37 PM PST by lbryce
Raymond A. Davis, center, is escorted to court by Pakistani security official in Lahore, Pakistan on Jan. 28, 2011.
The American arrested in Pakistan after shooting two men at a crowded traffic stop was part of a covert, C.I.A.-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country, according to American government officials.
Working from a safe house in the eastern city of Lahore, the detained American contractor, Raymond A. Davis, a retired Special Forces soldier, carried out scouting and other reconnaissance missions as a security officer for a Central Intelligence Agency task force of case officers and technical surveillance experts, the officials said.
Mr. Davis’s arrest and detention, which came after what American officials have described as a botched robbery attempt, has inadvertently pulled back the curtain on a web of covert American operations inside Pakistan, part of a secret war run by the C.I.A. It has exacerbated already frayed relations between the American intelligence agency and its Pakistani counterpart, created a political dilemma for the weak, pro-American Pakistani government, and further threatened the stability of the country, which has the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenal.
Without describing Mr. Davis’s mission or intelligence affiliation, President Obama last week made a public plea for his release. Meanwhile, there have been a flurry of private phone calls to Pakistan from Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all intended to persuade the Pakistanis to release the secret operative. Mr. Davis has worked for years as a C.I.A. contractor, including time at Blackwater Worldwide, the controversial private security firm (now called Xe) that Pakistanis have long viewed as symbolizing a culture of American gun slinging overseas.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
At the request of the Obama Administration..
Kudos to the New York Slimes for their new found sense of conscience seeking to protect a US operative, CIA contractor including time with Blackwater.
I find their statement of withholding information about Davis at the request of the Administration particularly galling, cynical, self-serving. I wonder what is really going on.
This story certainly merits some sort of Pulitzer prize, for protecting US citizens abroad, for simply not undermining the US as they have at every opportunity.
Somebody help me out. I have a vague recollection of an instance where the Bush Administration made a similar request, but was denied. Maybe I am wrong.
And the NYT publically implying there is more to the story that they're (temporarily) withholding probably will not earn them Mr. Davis' gratitude.
I hope he makes it back. Guys with his stones are sorely needed around here.
Precisely.
I thought lurch went over there to correct this situation. I guess the second string sos is about as useless as the varsity.
Blue Badge BTTT...
oh yes - they had to throw in there that he worked for Blackwater...
The story sounds like they are supporting him - but once Blackwater is mentioned - it’s about gun slinging stero-types of a bunch of unregulated guys with an attitude...
The press will never understand what it takes to even be part of Blackwater!
I hope he is freed NOW - it’s more like a Paki attempt to “dime out” what they suspected as a operative - so they staged this robbery attempt even though the 2 robbers lost their lives...
This is why we should not have relations with Islamic Republics - no one is safe living or operating there!
This information was released to the NYTimes by some traitor inside the US government — a traitor who should hang.
But Obama will be getting what he wants — an ineffective CIA filled with Muzzie moles.
Thanks lbryce.
Once again the NY Times is leaking deadly information, and may cost Davis his life or his freedom.
Nothing more should have been said than that he worked for the consulate and had diplomatic immunity.
The left wingers inside the CIA have leaked damaging secret information before, but this may be a first, betraying one of their own agents.
Unless maybe the leak came from Obama and the White House this time. Maybe Obama’s incompetent National Security Adviser was responsible.
I’m running on some huge assumptions here, but if this guy is an ex-green beenie who left the service in order to run a black op via xe in Pakistan (re: political cya) to snatch and kill some of the worst this planet has to offer... Then if i were a US President, you’d be hard-pressed stopping me from going there personally and freeing him with my own d&@$ hands.
If he’s the kind of guy i suspect he may be then he deserves no less.
That operation is totally compromised now. Such a shame.
You mean like not giving them money and weapons?
I’m sure there will be an investigation to see who illegally leaked this info.
In fairness to the Times they sat on the story until the Guardian printed it yesterday. That is giving cover to US outlets to start to talk about it.
Yep. Something like that.
The White House must be running up a big long distance bill.
Sucks to be him. There but the grace of God.
Long past time we stopped playing footsie with the Pakistanis to the tune of hundreds of millions per year and got more friendly with India as a regional counterbalance.
Obama’s courtship of Moslems worldwide has been an utter failure, and constitutes a national embarrasment.
We either have diplomatic immunity or we don’t. If we had a CinC with a set, this contretemps would just be a footnote. Some people DO abuse their immunity. I flaunted my immunity in Havana regularly, but only to get around some of their traffic regulations. It really irked the Cuban cops to have to let the imperialist warmonger running dog of Wall Street skate out of a ticket.
I think this shows the limits of the central govt’s power compared to the provincial govt. It’s been whipped into a national sovereignty issue. CIA etc. Remember what happened to the prov. leader who was just mentioning curtailing the blasphemy laws—killed by his bodyguard. Going against the rabid street can get you killed. Right now the rabid street (nationalistic and islamicist combined) will not permit him to be released. We could PNG the entire Paki entourage, it won’t get him out. It’s past that. He will probably be lynched and ripped to shreds. The blood is up for him.
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