Drone Strikes Stop in Pakistan After U.S. Embassy Employee Arrest

[tekisui]

Source: The Atlantic Wire

Last month, Raymond Davis, an employee at the American consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, shot and killed two men on the street. Davis says the men were attempting to rob him. Shortly after this happened, a Toyota Land Cruiser from the consulate arrived on the scene, apparently with the intention of rescuing Davis; the Land Cruiser struck and killed a third man. Davis is now being held by Pakistani police, who are trying to decide whether to press murder charges. The U.S. has claimed that Davis has diplomatic immunity and must be released, but it's not clear whether this is actually the case.

All of this is complicated enough without bringing robotic warplanes into it, but apparently the Davis case has had a ripple effect on American drone strikes in Pakistan. Specifically, it's caused them to stop. Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai at The Daily Beast report that there haven't been any drone strikes in Pakistan for nearly a month, and that "a senior Pakistani official has confirmed that Davis' case is directly connected to the freezing of the attacks, and says that Washington is afraid of further inflaming anti-American sentiment in Pakistan in the wake of the shootings."

According to Reuters, the last drone strike occurred on January 23, making it 26 days since an attack took place. This is one of the longest periods of inactivity since President Obama called for a marked increase in the use of drone planes over Pakistan in 2009. Moreau and Yousafzai report that until the Davis case is resolved, "both American and Pakistani officials fear that... any further drone attacks could set off destabilizing street protests."

more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Drone-Strikes-Stop-in-Pakistan-After-US-Embassy-Employee-Arrest-7034

[tekisui]

1. Was Davis running drone programme in Pakistan?

(snip)

Speculation is now rife that Davis was somehow connected to the Predator program since he was reportedly carrying a GPS, telescope, camera and assorted equipment not usually associated with thoroughbred diplomats. Pakistani authorities have also accused him of unauthorized travels to the Frontier region and being in touch with extremist elements in Waziristan, which suggests he might have been coordinating the attacks with U.S moles in the region.

While Davis claimed that he shot the two Pakistanis in self-defense when they were trying to rob him, some reports have said they were ISI tails assigned to follow him because the Pakistani intelligence felt he had crossed certain unspecified "red lines." Those red lines may have involved discovering the Pakistani establishment's links with terrorists group, a pursuit which led to the death of Wall Street Journalist Danny Pearl.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Was-Davis-running-drone-programme-in-Pakistan/articleshow/7519475.cms

[Enrique]

2. "embassy employee" lol

here he is going to a diplomatic meeting with a colleague...