Thursday, February 10, 2011
Raymond Davis taken into custody in Pakistan
Pakistan’s populace is enraged over the killing of two citizens by an American whose real purpose for being in the country has come into question.
On January 27, Raymond Davis, 36, was arrested by Pakistani police after he shot two men who allegedly tried to rob him while he was driving through Lahore. Local authorities say Davis was found to be carrying a Glock handgun, a flashlight attached to a headband, a pocket telescope, three cell phones, facial disguises and multiple ID cards.
One identification card reportedly showed that he worked for an American defense contractor. Another card indicated he was attached to the consulate in Peshawar, which contradicted an American Embassy statement saying Davis worked at the Lahore consulate.
Davis and U.S. diplomats have claimed he’s an employee of a U.S. security company called Hyperion Protective Services that he and his wife created, which supposedly is located in either Arizona or Nevada,.
More recently, State Department officials said that Davis was a member of the “technical and administrative staff” at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
Adding to the controversy is the post-mortem examination that stated the two dead men were each shot in the back as well as the front, which raises doubts about Davis’ story that he was defending himself. Other media reports from Pakistan say that Davis shot the men through his windshield, got out of his car, shot them again and then photographed their bodies with a digital camera.
The two dead Pakistanis, Faizan Haider and Muhammad Fahim, were also carrying guns and multiple stolen cell phones, leading to speculation that the incident was actually a shootout between spies. In fact, other reports in Pakistan have implied that Haider and Fahim were agents of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani intelligence agency.
The Obama administration’s position is that Davis is protected by diplomatic immunity and should be released from police custody so that he can return to the American Consulate in Lahore.
The story is further complicated by the killing of a third Pakistani, an innocent bystander who was riding his motor bike when he was run over by a car from the U.S. consulate that was allegedly racing to the scene to help Davis.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
U.S., Pakistani Officials at Diplomatic Odds in Fatal Shooting (by Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post)
Mystery Over Detained American Angers Pakistan (by Jane Perlez, New York Times)
The Deepening Mystery of Raymond Davis and Two Slain Pakistani Motorcyclists (by Dave Lindorff, CounterPunch)
Raymond Davis Case: Men killed in Lahore were Intelligence Operatives, Says Official (by Kamran Yousaf, Pakistan Express-Tribune)
Blackwater Mercenaries Rumored to Outnumber Local Police in Pakistani Capital (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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