Pakistan frees CIA contractor accused of murder

Source: AFP

Pakistan frees CIA contractor accused of murder
March 16, 2011
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan court on Wednesday freed CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was accused of murdering two men in Lahore, after blood money was paid in accordance with sharia law, officials said.

"The family members of the slain men appeared in the court and independently verified they had pardoned him (Davis)," provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah told private Geo television.

"He has been released from jail. Now it is up to him. He can go wherever he wants," he added.





Read more: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/bc20af6a-20c9-4f27-a26d-4809820d1d79.aspx

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CIA contractor charged with Pakistan murders

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor accused of killing two Pakistani men, was formally charged with two counts of murder Wednesday, a police official said.

According to Davis, the January 27 shooting occurred after two men attacked him as he drove through a busy Lahore neighborhood, the U.S. Embassy says.

The embassy is still waiting to hear the court's official statement and assessing the situation, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The case has heightened tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/pakistan.cia.charges/index.html?hpt=T2

Pakistan releases CIA contractor after 'blood money' paid

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Chaudhry Mushtaq, superintendent at Kot Lakhpat jail, says Davis had left the jail in the company of U.S. consulate officials.

Pakistani law allows murder suspects to be set free if they compensate the heirs of their victims.

Washington insisted Davis was acting in self-defense against robbers after he shot two men while he was driving through the eastern city of Lahore. A third Pakistani was killed when struck by a U.S. car rushing to aid the American.

more:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42106646/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Al Jazeera reported that the family members were paid compensation but also that there is talk that they were forced to sign the settlement.

By any other name.

any other name

Pakistan's English language daily "Dawn" is also reporting the same thing. However, Dawn is not the most reliable media outlet. At the time of Davis' arrests, they reported that the two street thugs he shot were "commuters." Since the alleged CIA contractor was holding an American diplomatic passport at the time of his arrest Pakistan is only doing what it should have done once that fact had been established, that is, released him under the terms of the Vienna Accords which grant diplomatic immunity to those working at consulates and embassies.

I assume he works for the private sector. Apparently the victims family received payments, probably from US taxpayers, that convinced them along with arm twisting from Pakistani government to drop charges. This is what our foreign aid, that goes towards bribing government leaders, gets for the US government, except for one country where it is our leaders who are coerced to give them money. All foreign aid should end except for disasters and emergencies.

It doesn't matter what their USG affiliation is. I spent several years overseas as a diplomat.

At the time of his killing spree he did not have diplomatic immunity.

He already had it. And why do you refer to this as a "killing spree"?

U.S. Diplomats in dangerous posts carry guns for their protection, whether you like that or not. They have to be qualified in firearms to be posted to those places, and they get that training before they go overseas.

Quite the coincidence that he was accidentally omitted just two days before the killings?

His official "cover" was as an employee of the Lahore Consulate, consular staff rarely if ever have diplomatic immunity.

Somebody prone to flipping the fuck out and going "Bourne" on a busy city street shouldn't have been there in the first place as diplomat or spy, it is pretty hard to claim self-defense having shot somebody in the back and most Muslim countries have a pretty high tolerance for claiming self-defense to begin with.

Somebody might have fucked up by not placing this spy in a position with diplomatic immunity, but at the time of his arrest he was not a diplomat in any capacity.

I know that for a fact. Usually it's only the higher ranking people that are listed. I, for example, was never listed on the official diplomatic list in either of my posts because I did not have any "rank". I was still a "diplomat" nonetheless, by virtue of my dip passport. If you have a dip passport, you are officially representing the United States of America, regardless of your "rank."

Regarding for "official" cover, all CIA employees, except for those under "non-official" (and those types don't have any association with the embassies to begin with) have "official" or "nominal" cover of some sort when they are assigned to U.S. Embassies abroad. They are also required perform official duties for their cover offices, whether it's in the Consulates (if they have Consular cover), in the Political or Economic sections, etc. They are assigned Embassy duty, which rotates among the diplomats each week. This means they are "on call" for anything that comes up. They also help out on official visits from the USG.

I'm not sure why you're so hostile to Mr. Davis. You weren't there and you should be careful what you believe from the media.

Simple as that, as Consular staff he did not have diplomatic immunity.

You really don't know what you're talking about. Consular officers are just as much diplomats with immunity as the Ambassador, Chargés d’affaires, First Secretaries, Second Secretaries, etc. The first link below is the actual document you cited (but didn't read). There is nothing in the document stating consular officers do not have diplomatic immunity.

If the State Department says someone has diplomatic immunity (which it did in this case) (http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/08/us-optimistic-about-immunity.html), that individual most certainly does. Diplomatic rank and diplomatic immunity are two different things. One does NOT have to have "rank" to have immunity. Now if a diplomat commits a crime in the host country, he/she can be prosecuted by the "sending state" (i.e., the diplomat's own country). Diplomats are not immune from their own countries' laws and can be prosecuted when they return home.

In the case of Mr. Davis, who has been acquitted of the charge of murder, it was the Pakistani Government that was screwing around on the issue of his immunity, just for show, IMO. They could have released him and PNG'd him from the country and that would have been acceptable.

http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations

Consular officers are those members of consular posts who are recognized by both the sending and the host country as fully authorized to perform the broad array of formal consular functions. They have only official acts or functional immunity in respect of both criminal and civil matters and their personal inviolability is quite limited. Consular officers may be arrested or detained pending trial only if the offense is a felony and that the arrest is made pursuant to a decision by a competent judicial authority.

...

Consular employees perform the administrative and technical support services for the consular post. They have no personal inviolability, only official acts immunity, and enjoy immunity from the obligation to provide evidence as witnesses only in respect of official acts. Their family members enjoy no personal inviolability or jurisdictional immunities of any kind.

Consular service staff do not enjoy personal inviolability or jurisdictional immunity of any kind, but they do have immunity from the obligation to provide evidence as witnesses in respect of official acts . Their family members enjoy no personal inviolability or jurisdictional immunity of any kind.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/150546.pdf

Mr. Davis is believed to be in the second group. A number of years ago I was offered work with the State Department in Botswana and while I didn't accept it I was presented with no less than three different forms which I was to sign declaring that I understood my position carried with it no diplomatic privileges.

If so, did you have a diplomatic passport? You state that you were "offered work with the State Department in Botswana". In what capacity? What were you doing in Botswana? If you are not a U.S. citizen you would not get any sort of immunity (and you would not be considered a diplomat).

Consular "employees" and consular "service staff" can mean local hires, i.e., citizens of the host country. As you surely know, U.S. embassies around the world hire locals for many jobs, including in the consulates (an unfortunate practice, I might add). In that case they would not have diplomatic immunity and obviously would not carry a U.S. passport, diplomatic or otherwise. If you were an American local hire, you would not have diplomatic immunity, either. If you were a Foreign Service Officer, you would have a dip passport and immunity.

"Mr. Davis is believed to be in the second group." Believed by whom? Sources please.

Raymond Davis is an American citizen who carries a diplomatic passport. Our own State Department declared that Davis had diplomatic immunity.

I would have been issued a diplomatic passport for the purposes of the visa. I would have been working as an auditor examining several State Department administered aid programs. Mostly I didn't go for it because two years was too much of an investment given no guarantee of future work and I didn't want to get mired in internal politics of which I had no understanding as an outsider when it was guaranteed I would come into conflict with career foreign service and political appointees who didn't want their pet projects and favored locals placed under too much scrutiny.

Mr. Davis is was not listed among the diplomatic entourage two days before his arrested, he is not a consular officer, such is a recognized position for which there wouldn't be any dispute, and I don't think Jason Bourne here was administering immigration questionnaires. So given a process of elimination and given he worked out of the Consulate in Lahore lets just go with that.

The state department claimed he had diplomatic immunity only after he was arrested for a double homicide carrying an automatic death sentence. A CIA operative abandoned and facing the hangman might have all sorts of interesting things to say. If this guy was indeed involved in sensitive intelligence matters somebody fucked up royally by not placing him in a cover with diplomatic immunity. But I suspect when it is all said and done it will probably just turn out he was a low-level crank with a gun who panicked but that is a moot point now.

"Mr. Davis is was not listed among the diplomatic entourage two days before his arrested"

So what? I already explained that one to you. You still do not cite your sources regarding Davis' immunity. First you cited the Vienna Convention, and when it was apparent you had not read it you cited another source which did not support your statements.

"A CIA operative abandoned and facing the hangman might have all sorts of interesting things to say." Meaning what? And so what? That has nothing to do with the issue.

"f this guy was indeed involved in sensitive intelligence matters somebody fucked up royally by not placing him in a cover with diplomatic immunity. But I suspect when it is all said and done it will probably just turn out he was a low-level crank with a gun who panicked but that is a moot point now."

You can "suspect" all you want. No one screwed up regarding his cover. You have a cockeyed view of intelligence work. It isn't about being "Jason Bourne." Davis' duties there are classified, and the media and the rest of us don't have a need to know.

1. Mr. Davis did not serve in a capacity afforded diplomatic immunity. The limited privillages afforded to consular officers are as follows in Article 41 of Consular Relations:

1. Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.

2. Except in the case specified in paragraph 1 of this article, consular officers shall not be committed to prison or be liable to any other form of restriction on their personal freedom save in execution of a judicial decision of final effect.

3. If criminal proceedings are instituted against a consular officer, he must appear before the competent authorities. Nevertheless, the proceedings shall be conducted with the respect due to him by reason of his official position and, except in the case specified in paragraph 1 of this article, in a manner which will hamper the exercise of consular functions as little as possible. When, in the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1 of this article, it has become necessary to detain a consular officer, the proceedings against him shall be instituted with the minimum of delay.Except in the case specified in paragraph 1 of this article, consular officers shall not be committed to prison or be liable to any other form of restriction on their personal freedom save in execution of a judicial decision of final effect.

2. I cited a document created by the State Department that defines for law enforcement what privileges are afforded to specific positions, which shows that nobody in any consular capacity enjoys diplomatic immunity from prosecution. His privilege extends no further than not being compelled to make a statement as a witness to a traffic accident.

3. If the goal was to place Mr. Davis under the umbrella of diplomatic immunity, placing him in a position as consular staff that afforded him virtually none and certainly not from prosecution for a double-homocide had to have been a screw-up. Or he wasn't supposed to be engaged in anything that really required diplomatic immunity.

Diplomatic immunity from arrest is limited to diplomatic agents (ambassadors and assistant ambassadors) and members of administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission. Consular officers and staff (Davis' official cover, he claimed to be an employee of the Lahore consulate) do not have dimlomatic immunity and may be arrested, detained, and prosecuted.

How ironic is it that the CIA benefits from Sharia law?

but the families only got $4 million (which is a lot of money in Pakistan). The rest went to politicians, judges and military -- as is the usual scenario in Pakistan.

There was $60 million rupees paid to each family, or $700,000 in US dollars to each family.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-contractor-raymond-davis-freed-pakistan/story?id=13146587

I read somewhere he was there to aid the Taliban destabilize the Pakistan gov't by helping them plant bombs, and the two guys he shot were ISI agents tracking him. The goal is to gain control of the Pakistan gov't by installing a US puppet after dissatisfaction with the current one brings it down.

I seriously doubt he was there to "aid the Taliban." Good grief.

Have you ever used a search engine?

What makes you think Google is always right? And what specific links to that information did "Google" bring up? What was Google's source? Google isn't always "your friend."

You should read my initial post. I stated that "I read somewhere...". I didn't state it as certainty. It has been reported by various sources.

It's really not a good idea to try and defend your case by saying "I read it somewhere."

What is this "case" I'm trying to "defend"?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistan-frees-cia-contractor-after-blood-money-deal-2244101.html

One of the biggest crises between Pakistan and the United States has been defused after a Lahore court released Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor facing charges of double murder, after a blood-money settlement was paid to families of the victims.

While the release of Mr Davis cools tensions, after plunging relations to a low point, it is likely to inflame an already enraged Pakistani public and media. Islamist parties took to the streets in protest last night.

Each of the two men's families were paid $700,000 (£437,000) by the CIA, senior Pakistani officials told The Independent. Under Pakistan's laws, a Sharia-based provision allows the families of murder victims to forgive the accused in exchange for monetary compensation. The "blood money" laws have been invoked in a majority of murder cases in Pakistan.

The arrangement was the result of lengthy direct negotiations between the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the CIA. Last night, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, denied that the American government had paid the money.

Piece of shit will be voted in too.

Welcome to America.

Hope he's not guilty of what they say, but few will ever know what these men & women gotta do.

Unique solution too.

(Reuters) - Pakistan's powerful spy agency is claiming major gains from a deal which resulted in the freeing of a CIA contractor and dismissal of murder charges against him, although a U.S. official denied operational concessions were made.

People familiar with the views of the Pakistani government say that as part of the deal for the freeing of Raymond Davis, the CIA agreed to give Pakistan more credit for its role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, to cut back on U.S. spying in Pakistan and to keep Pakistani authorities better informed of CIA activities.

But a senior official in Washington who has been following the case closely denied that any such agreement has been struck, although the official said discussions between intelligence officials of both governments were continuing.

A Pakistani court on Wednesday acquitted Davis, 36, described by U.S. officials as a CIA contract bodyguard, of murder charges and released him after a deal that involved paying compensation -- "blood money" -- to the victims' families. Davis shot and killed two men he said were trying to rob him in Pakistani city of Lahore on January 27.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-pakistan-usa-idUSTRE72G7K420110317

:rofl: