Awoke
9th February 2011, 01:42 PM
http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/del442193.jpg
It is the type of shootout found in every major spy thriller, but a gunfight two weeks ago in a crowded Lahore market is now threatening to shatter U.S.-Pakistani relations.
Washington officials are said to have suspended all high-level dialogue with Pakistan, are threatening to slash the country’s foreign aid and are even contemplating cancelling Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s state visit to Washington in March if Pakistan does not immediately release a 36-year-old U.S. security advisor who has been charged with a double murder.
Raymond Allen Davis, a burly, blond security specialist with a background in the U.S. Special Forces, has been described as a spy by the Pakistani media and a diplomat by U.S. officials.
Pakistani police escorts arrested US national Raymond Davis to a court in Lahore on January 28, 2011
He was arrested Jan. 27 after he shot and killed two men in Mozang Chungi, Lahore’s most congested market.
Mr. Davis admits to the shooting, saying the two men approached him on a motorcycle and tried to rob him while he waited at a busy intersection in his car.
When the motorcycle driver and his passenger pulled alongside Mr. Davis’s car and brandished revolvers, the American pulled out his own Glock pistol and fired seven shots through his car windscreen, killing both assailants.
Four Americans, who were following behind in a second car, rushed to Mr. Davis’ aid as he tried to flee the scene, but they struck and killed another motorcyclist on Lahore’s Jail Road, before speeding off.
In the chaos that followed, some enraged pedestrians captured Mr. Davis and turned him over to police, who held him for questioning and then charged him with two counts of murder and illegally carrying a gun.
The case immediately received enormous news coverage in Pakistan and ignited a wave of anti-American protests. The U.S. embassy in Pakistan initially issued a series of conflicting statements saying Mr. Davis was a staff member with the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, a staff member with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and a member of the technical staff at the embassy.
The U.S. State Department insisted Mr. Davis acted in self-defence and said it had evidence the men who threatened him had robbed two other men of their cell phones and some cash just before they were shot.
It wasn’t until two days after the shooting, after Pakistani newspapers began suggesting Mr. Davis was a U.S. spy operating illegally in Pakistan, that the U.S. State Department claimed publicly that Mr. Davis had a diplomatic passport. The State Department said he was a member of the “technical and administrative staff” of the intelligence and security wing of the embassy who did security checks for visa applications and was entitled to full diplomatic immunity.
U.S. officials demanded Mr. Davis’s immediate release and said the White House and U.S. Congress “have repeatedly made clear at the highest levels that this matter must be resolved by the Pakistan government or it could impact other bilateral initiatives.”
But by then, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik was declaring, “No one will be allowed to breach the law in Pakistan. The law will take its due course.”
Pakistani newspapers began reporting that Mr. Davis’s passport only contained a business visa and showed he first entered the country in 2009. He has travelled between Pakistan and Afghanistan nine times during the past 18 months and he was said to make frequent trips to Karachi and Peshawar.
Unnamed police sources also questioned Mr. Davis’s claim to have fired in self-defence, noting the two men he killed were shot multiple times, including in the back.
More at the link:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/08/goodspeed-analysis-spy-thriller-style-gunfight-may-shatter-u-s-pakistani-relations/
It is the type of shootout found in every major spy thriller, but a gunfight two weeks ago in a crowded Lahore market is now threatening to shatter U.S.-Pakistani relations.
Washington officials are said to have suspended all high-level dialogue with Pakistan, are threatening to slash the country’s foreign aid and are even contemplating cancelling Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s state visit to Washington in March if Pakistan does not immediately release a 36-year-old U.S. security advisor who has been charged with a double murder.
Raymond Allen Davis, a burly, blond security specialist with a background in the U.S. Special Forces, has been described as a spy by the Pakistani media and a diplomat by U.S. officials.
Pakistani police escorts arrested US national Raymond Davis to a court in Lahore on January 28, 2011
He was arrested Jan. 27 after he shot and killed two men in Mozang Chungi, Lahore’s most congested market.
Mr. Davis admits to the shooting, saying the two men approached him on a motorcycle and tried to rob him while he waited at a busy intersection in his car.
When the motorcycle driver and his passenger pulled alongside Mr. Davis’s car and brandished revolvers, the American pulled out his own Glock pistol and fired seven shots through his car windscreen, killing both assailants.
Four Americans, who were following behind in a second car, rushed to Mr. Davis’ aid as he tried to flee the scene, but they struck and killed another motorcyclist on Lahore’s Jail Road, before speeding off.
In the chaos that followed, some enraged pedestrians captured Mr. Davis and turned him over to police, who held him for questioning and then charged him with two counts of murder and illegally carrying a gun.
The case immediately received enormous news coverage in Pakistan and ignited a wave of anti-American protests. The U.S. embassy in Pakistan initially issued a series of conflicting statements saying Mr. Davis was a staff member with the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, a staff member with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and a member of the technical staff at the embassy.
The U.S. State Department insisted Mr. Davis acted in self-defence and said it had evidence the men who threatened him had robbed two other men of their cell phones and some cash just before they were shot.
It wasn’t until two days after the shooting, after Pakistani newspapers began suggesting Mr. Davis was a U.S. spy operating illegally in Pakistan, that the U.S. State Department claimed publicly that Mr. Davis had a diplomatic passport. The State Department said he was a member of the “technical and administrative staff” of the intelligence and security wing of the embassy who did security checks for visa applications and was entitled to full diplomatic immunity.
U.S. officials demanded Mr. Davis’s immediate release and said the White House and U.S. Congress “have repeatedly made clear at the highest levels that this matter must be resolved by the Pakistan government or it could impact other bilateral initiatives.”
But by then, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik was declaring, “No one will be allowed to breach the law in Pakistan. The law will take its due course.”
Pakistani newspapers began reporting that Mr. Davis’s passport only contained a business visa and showed he first entered the country in 2009. He has travelled between Pakistan and Afghanistan nine times during the past 18 months and he was said to make frequent trips to Karachi and Peshawar.
Unnamed police sources also questioned Mr. Davis’s claim to have fired in self-defence, noting the two men he killed were shot multiple times, including in the back.
More at the link:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/08/goodspeed-analysis-spy-thriller-style-gunfight-may-shatter-u-s-pakistani-relations/