American Held in Pakistan Shootings Worked With the C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/world/asia/22pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all ^ | FEbruary 21, 2011 | Mark Mazzetti, Ashley Parker, Jane Perlez and Eric Schmitt.

[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.

[Ax]

I would hate to think that one of our own would be sacrificed for political expediency. Having trod those streets lo these many years, I was always felt somewhat reassured that our guys would come for me should the worst happen. Then Buckley was lifted, and I must say I was glad to be out of that theater.

[stuartcr]

I doubt that will happen.

[Travis McGee]

You sure don't want to be captured in that part of the world. Being handed over to Arab women used to be considered the worst possible fate, due to their ingrained hatred of men after their lifelong treatment by men in islam. That prison can't be much better. But I don't see Obama calling in enough markers to spring him. The Pakis see him as the human embodiment of all of the CIA Predator strikes. They won't let him go, I don't think. He'll probably be killed in prison, “case closed.”

[Ax]

It’s going to be interesting over the next few days to see what the administration does about Davis’ fate. I’d hate to see this fade off the front page, while he languishes in a Paki jail. This can’t be very pleasant for him.

[Ax]

It’s going to be interesting over the next few days to see what the administration does about Davis’ fate. I’d hate to see this fade off the front page, while he languishes in a Paki jail. This can’t be very pleasant for him.

[hiredhand]

It will NOT happen with current leadership here in America.

[Travis McGee]

Especially with the news today the four yachties were killed today by Somali pirates.

Uncle Sam is looking like a pushover. “Kick me.”

[Ax]

The pirates need only to hover around the entrance to the Red Sea. All shipping has to pass the Bab al Mandab. Most Americans mourn the murder of the yachties at the hands of the barbarians, but WTF were they doing in those waters, unarmed? The U S Forces fighting the War on Terror in the Horn of Africa are based in Djibouti. I'd have thought that there would be a flight of gunships standing by for just such an eventuality.

Speaking of "yachties," are you still living aboard "The Busted Flush?"