U.S. Officials: Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor, Ex-Blackwater

[malaise]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/raymond-davis-held-lahore-shooting-cia-contractor-blackwater/story?id=12964133
<snip>
Raymond A. Davis, the U.S. official at the heart of a tense stand-off with the Pakistan government, was working for the CIA as an independent contractor when he shot and killed two Pakistani men, according to two senior U.S. intelligence officials.

In the fullest account yet of how an American official came to be held for the deadly shooting in Pakistan, three current officials have told ABC News who Davis was working for and what he was doing on January 27th when the incident occurred.

According to a current senior U.S. official and a senior intelligence consultant who worked with Davis, the 36-year-old American is a former Blackwater contractor who was posted to Lahore as part of the CIA's Global Response Staff, or GRS, a unit of security and bodyguards assigned to war zones and troubled countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Members of the GRS most often accompany CIA case officers, who meet with clandestine sources.

Davis and a group of fellow security officers lived in a safehouse in Lahore. The CIA keeps safehouses for security personnel in an effort to limit the ability for militants to track their movements, the intelligence contractor said.
--------------------
Both Pakistan and the UK Guardian were correct

delete section

[rfranklin]

1. Let them hang him...

This is a disgrace.

[malaise]

2. After the Guardian exposed this yesterday

Officials had no choice but to come clean. Bet they think the disgrace is 'getting caught'.

What a fugging mess.

[EFerrari]

8. It's been reported in Pakistan for weeks.

But NYTs couldn't report it here because it might put him in danger? Right.

No wonder these mofos hate Wikileaks.

[rfranklin]

20. The motivation has to be to contain domestic reaction...

and gin up outrage over the Pakistani mistreatment of a "diplomat."

[EFerrari]

22. According to Greg Mitchell, AP and WaHo also agreed to hold the story

so no American reader could put this CIA in Pakistani custody in danger.

[midnight]

3. I hope they get to the bottom of this.....

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I knew it from day one ..... the Pakistanis say

he was dealing with the Taliban...... some news from there
even said he was dealing in nuclear stuff....

I don't believe that right now but knew he was a rogue wild card
after looking at his background.

[malaise]

7. One more thug

Time for this shite to end

[leveymg]

14. Source for this is RussiaTimes by way of SyFi News

I wouldn't give that source a lot of credibility on its face about the nukes stuff. RT has proven to carry a lot disinformation.

The TF-373 connection of private Blackwater operative with JSOC may be interesting, though.

[gratuitous]

5. If any of your IM force are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow . . .

Oh, weren't those the days! Wet-job mercenary motherfuckers did their onerous little jobs and shut the fuck up about it. Now they get cross-wise with someone who has more or bigger bang-bangs, and we're supposed to get all concerned for an "American official." Who does this "official" report to? What's the chain of command here? When his paycheck hits direct deposit, is it from the U.S. government or some other payor?

Fuck this fucking cloak-and-dagger shit that just gets more people killed while some overrich asshole laughs and pockets a few thousand or a few million that he'll never be able to spend in five lifetimes. Hard to see how anyone who isn't a laughing, overrich asshole thinks this is a good deal.

[malaise]

6. Indeed

mercenaries always fuck up - this is scandalous - I don't get Obama and Hillary keeping these murderous Blackwater thugs employed. This is what they get for it.

[AndyTiedye]

9. It May be the Sort of Contract That Cannot be Terminated

[Puregonzo1188]

10. Well that was a surprise.

What a clusterfuck.

[EFerrari]

11. Jeremy Scahill checks in:

emptywheel emptywheel
RT @jeremyscahill: So, Ray Davis worked for CIA/JSOC task force in #Pakistan which @thejointstaff swore to me didn't exist
2 minutes ago

Not only did Geoff Morrel swear they didn't exist, the Pentagon stalked Scahill via his cell phone and tried to intimidate him away from reporting the story.

[malaise]

12. Oops

shit hits fan :hi:

[leveymg]

16. TF-373 appears interesting, as is Blackwater connection.

[Ichingcarpenter]

18. ABOUT TF-373

I just took out certain paragraphs but you can read the rest at link


Sunday 25 July 2010

The Nato coalition in Afghanistan has been using an undisclosed "black" unit of special forces, Task Force 373, to hunt down targets for death or detention without trial. Details of more than 2,000 senior figures from the Taliban and al-Qaida are held on a "kill or capture" list, known as Jpel, the joint prioritised effects list.

In many cases, the unit has set out to seize a target for internment, but in others it has simply killed them without attempting to capture. The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.

Now, for the first time, the leaked war logs reveal details of deadly missions by TF 373 and other units hunting down Jpel targets that were previously hidden behind a screen of misinformation. They raise fundamental questions about the legality of the killings and of the long-term imprisonment without trial, and also pragmatically about the impact of a tactic which is inherently likely to kill, injure and alienate the innocent bystanders whose support the coalition craves.


The plan was to launch five rockets at targets in the village of Nangar Khel where TF 373 believed Libi was hiding and then to send in ground troops. The result was that they failed to find Libi but killed six Taliban fighters and then, when they approached the rubble of a madrasa, they found "initial assessment of 7 x NC KIA" which translates as seven non-combatants killed in action. All of them were children. One of them was still alive in the rubble: "The Med TM immediately cleared debris from the mouth and performed CPR." After 20 minutes, the child died.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/task-force-373-secret-afghanistan-taliban

[chill_wind]

19. Blackwater honeycombed there with CIA, JSOC, Pentagon and State, tis said.

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/08/30/how-active-is-blackwater-in-pakistan

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Its time for another Presidential Freedom award and promotions

all around in the CIA

[Dappleganger]

15. Finally on mainstream news...

it's about damn time.

[chill_wind]

17. Their job will now be to take narrow dictation from Pentagon and State

and skillfully spin it, which they've long been well versed in.

[tblue37]

21. I hate Blackwater, and I have real problems with the CIA, but if his version of

what happened is true--i.e., that they were trying to rob him and he was defending himself (and the evidence mentioned in the articles Ihave read does seem to indicate that the 2 men were thieves with a lot of stolen stuff in their car), then he shouldn't be hung. Self-defense is not murder.

I have no doubt that the US believes he cannot be fairly tried in Pakistan even if it was self-defense. There is no winning scenario. The Pakistani people want him executed. een if it was self-defense, he would be sentenced to die simply because the officials are afraid of riots if they don't condemn him.

If his story is true, he cannot be left to go to trial in Pakistan.