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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Raymond Davis military contractor for Blackwater (Xe)


The American being held in a prison in Lahore after shooting two Pakistani gunmen last month, was working for the CIA, two U.S. officials told on Monday as they raised concern that the life of Raymond A. Davis is in danger in the Lahore prison where he is being held. Davis was providing personal security detail to U.S. officials working at the consulate in Lahore and the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad when he shot down two men he claimed were trying to rob him. Davis is also a former Special Operations officer who had worked in the past for military contractor Blackwater, now known as Xe. According to The New York Times, which was first to break the story, Davis was part of a covert, team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country. He carried out scouting and other reconnaissance missions for a CIA task force of case officers and technical surveillance experts. But a senior U.S. official told Fox News that Davis "was not an al Qaeda chaser. "On Jan. 27 at the time of his shooting he was not working for Blackwater. He was simply providing protective security for U.S. embassy officials. ... This was a robbery gone awry." In a leaked interrogation video aired on Pakistani television, the American identified himself as a "consultant" at the Lahore consulate. But the Guardian revealed on Sunday that he is a CIA agent, citing interviews in the US and Pakistan. A number of US media outlets are also aware of his status but have kept quiet following representations from the American government. Davis is on Pakistan's "exit control list", meaning he cannot leave the country without permission. However, two men who came to his rescue in a jeep that knocked over and killed a motorcyclist have already fled the country. Davis claimed to be acting in self-defence, firing on a pair of suspected robbers. But eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he shot the men 10 times, including once as he fled the scene, and was carrying a telescope, a GPS set, bolt cutters, a survival kit, and a long-range radio at the time of his arrest. Pakistani prosecutors said Davis used excessive force and charged him with two counts of murder and one of illegal possession of a Glock 9mm pistol. There have been claims that the dead men were working for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, with orders to follow the American. The ISI co-operates closely with the CIA in the American agency's tribal belt drone programme, but resents US intelligence collection elsewhere in the country. US efforts to have Davis released have focused on the issue of immunity, which has become tangled in a political and legal web. Noting the "legal complexities of the case", Gilani stressed that Pakistan's government would follow its international obligations but did not say whether it would offer immunity. Meanwhile, authorities stressed the stringent measures they have put in place to protect Davis in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail, following angry rallies in which his effigy was burned and threats from extremist clerics.  Surveillance cameras are trained on his cell in an isolation wing, his guards have been disarmed and a ring of paramilitary Punjab rangers are posted outside. About 25 jihadi prisoners have been transferred to other facilities. The furore over Davis has not stopped the controversial drone strike programme. On Sunday news emerged of a fresh attack on a militant target in south Waziristan, the first in nearly a month. Pakistani intelligence officials told the Associated Press that foreigners were among the dead, including three people from Turkmenistan and two Arabs.

Protests agains Gaddafi (Update Libya)

As many as 233 people have been killed in violent protests in Libya to demand the overthrow of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi. Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli s streets against Gaddafi and asked him to step down. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resignation has joined Libyans to press for another Arab leader s removal.  According to a Libyan resident, the Libyan people are like many of the Arabs who live in the region; now, we are able to understand and realise our demands very well. But unfortunately, some of the Arab leaders don t realise that because they are dictators with despotic policies. Gaddafi should leave and his regime should be toppled entirely. By Monday afternoon, a witness saw armed militiamen firing on protesters who were clashing with riot police. As a group of protesters and the police faced off in a neighborhood near Green Square, in the center of the capital, ten or so Toyota pickup trucks carrying more than 20 men — many of them apparently from other African countries in mismatched fatigues — arrived at the scene. Holding small automatic weapons, they started firing in the air, and then started firing at protesters, who scattered, the witness said. “It was an obscene amount of gunfire,” said the witness. “They were strafing these people. People were running in every direction.” The police stood by and watched, the witness said, as the militiamen, still shooting, chased after the protesters. The escalation of the conflict came after Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces had earlier in the day retreated to a few buildings in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, fires burned unchecked, and senior government officials and diplomats announced defections. The country’s second-largest city remained under the control of rebels. Witnesses in Tripoli interviewed by telephone on Monday said protesters had converged on the capital’s central Green Square and clashed with heavily armed riot police for several hours after Mr. Qaddafi’s speech, apparently enraged by it. Young men armed themselves with chains around their knuckles, steel pipes and machetes, as well as police batons, helmets and rifles commandeered from riot squads. Security forces moved in, shooting randomly. By the morning, businesses and schools remained closed in the capital, the witnesses said. There were several government buildings on fire — including the Hall of the People, where the legislature meets — and reports of looting.