US suspends 'all high-level dialogue' with Pakistan

[Peter Lemkin]

Davis's Employer: Hyperion Protective Services

A man From Highlands Ranch [Colo.] accused of shooting two Pakistanis reportedly had been working as a CIA security contractor, and living in a safe house in Lahore. …

Public records examined by KCNC News in Denver name Davis as an officer of Hyperion Protective Consultants, a Florida-based firm with an empty office and no one answering the phone. While the man listed as "Managing Director" remains the object of an angry international tug of war, Protesters have already been calling for his hanging. …

http://www.kktv.com/news
Hyperion and Blackwater

Bureau of Investigative Journalism | February 21, 2011:

… The case illustrates the degree to which even the CIA's frontline work has been privatised.

When first arrested on January 27 for gunning down two men in Lahore, Davis described himself as a "contractor" and presented police with a business card identifying his company as Hyperion Protective Services, based in Orlando, Florida.

When the Bureau attempted to speak with the company's co-founder, Mr Gerald Richardson, it was told Mr Richardson had simply provided building security for a previous business at that address, and that his whereabouts were no longer known.

A Hyperion Protective Services is also listed in Las Vegas, Nevada. Raymond A Davis and wife Deborah are listed as the owners, in a company offering private investigations' and an armored car service'.

The given number transfers callers to a rural Arizona address.

Paperwork filed with Arizona State describes Hyperion's work as high risk threat protection'. But the Davis family has moved on, this time to Highlands Ranch, near Denver, Colorado. Calls by local media to the Davis house were initially forwarded to the CIA, inadvertently outing his main employer, according to The Guardian.

Despite being a frontline CIA agent, Davis remains a freelance contractor. Leaked invoices obtained by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper appear to show that Davis is paid $780 a day while stationed in Pakistan and in total is paid $200,000 a year, presumably by the CIA.

It has also been reported that Davis once worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe, the mercenary organisation which is contracted by the CIA on various projects.

Both the US Department of Defense and the CIA have rapidly expanded their use of private contractors in the past decade. Recent estimates have placed the annual contractor bill at $45bn - representing more than half of the entire intelligence budget. …

[Magda Hassan]

ISLAMABAD: Head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta phoned head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Ahmed Shuja Pasha, DawnNews reported. The two intelligence chiefs reportedly discussed the issue of CIA contractor Raymond Davis and the status of cooperation between the CIA and the ISI. Defence sources confirmed the conversation and said the ISI chief expressed his reservations over covert activities of CIA operatives during the talk with Panetta. Sources said the ISI chief emphasised on Pakistan's security and sovereignty during the conversation. Sources further said that the CIA will now be providing the ISI with complete records and data on all such operatives. The CIA will also explain the procedures pertaining to the operatives' activities, sources said. When contacted, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) refused to confirm or negate the telephone conversation. Earlier on Thursday, Pakistani intelligence officials said cooperation between the two intelligence agencies had been scaled back because of the Davis incident. A senior official in Islamabad on Thursday said the Davis case had strained but not broken relations between the CIA and the ISI because the ISI didn't know about Davis before he shot and killed two Pakistanis on January 27. "It's not business as usual; it's not open war," the official said. "Cooperation and operations together will continue at a lesser scale."
http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/26/isi-cia-c...ssues.html

[Christer Forslund]

U.TV.News - Friday, 25 February 2011
ISI tells American agency to unmask all its covert operatives after arrest of Aaron DeHaven in Peshawar, over visa expiry.

Islamabad authorities have arrested a US government security contractor amid a worsening spy agency row between the countries, with Pakistani intelligence calling on the Americans to "come clean" about its network of covert operatives in the country.
The arrest came at the start of the murder trial of another American held in Pakistan, the CIA agent Raymond Davis.

Peshawar police arrested Aaron DeHaven, a contractor who recently worked for the US embassy in Islamabad, saying that his visa had expired.
Little was known about DeHaven except that his firm, which also has offices in Afghanistan and Dubai, is staffed by retired US military and defence personnel who boast of direct experience in the "global war on terror".
It was unclear whether his arrest was linked to escalating tensions between the Inter-Services Intelligence and the CIA, triggered by the trial of Davis, who appeared in handcuffs at a brief court hearing in a Lahore jail.
The 36-year-old former special forces soldier, whose status as a spy was revealed by the Guardian, refused to sign a chargesheet presented to him by the prosecution, which says he murdered two men at a traffic junction on January 27.
Davis instead repeated his claim of diplomatic immunity a claim supported by President Barack Obama, who called him "our diplomat".
The press and public were excluded from the hearing in Kot Lakhpat jail, where Pakistani officials have taken unusual measures to ensure Davis's security amid a public clamour for his execution.
The furore has also triggered the most serious crisis between the ISI and the CIA since the 9/11 attacks. A senior ISI official told the Guardian that the CIA must "ensure there are no more Raymond Davises or his ilk" if it is to repair the tattered relationship of trust.
"They need to come clean, tell us who they are and what they are doing. They need to stop doing things behind our back," he said. There are "two or three score" covert US operatives roaming Pakistan, "if not more", he said.
CIA spokesman George Little said that agency ties to the ISI "have been strong over the years, and when there are issues to sort out, we work through them. That's the sign of a healthy partnership".
Pakistani civilian officials warned that the ISI was amplifying fallout from the Davis crisis through selective media leaks to win concessions from the US.
"They're playing the media; in private they're much more deferential to the Americans," said a senior government official, who added that the two agencies had weathered previous disagreements in private.
The crisis has sucked in the military top brass from both countries. On Tuesday, a Pakistani delegation led by General Ashfaq Kayani met US generals, led by Admiral Mike Mullen, at a luxury resort in Oman to hammer out the issues.
The US stressed that it "did not want the US-Pakistan relationship to go into a freefall under media and domestic pressures", according to an account of the meeting obtained by Foreign Policy magazine.
The ISI official agreed that future co-operation was vital. "They need us; we need them," he said. "But we need to move forward in the right direction, based on equality and respect."
The media furore over Davis has fuelled scrutiny of other American security officials in Pakistan and their visa arrangements, and may have led police to Aaron DeHaven in Peshawar on Friday.
DeHaven runs a company named Catalyst Services which, according to its website, is staffed by retired military and defence department personnel who have "played some role in major world events" including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the military mission to Somalia and the "global war on terror". Services offered include "full-service secure residences", protective surveillance and armed security.
One prospective customer who met DeHaven last year described him as a small, slightly-built man, who wore glasses and had broad knowledge of Pakistani politics. DeHaven said he had lived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for one year, had married a Pakistani woman from Khyber Pakthunkhwa province along the border with Afghanistan, and spoke Urdu fluently.
He said he moved his base from Peshawar to Islamabad last year over suspicions that he worked for Blackwater, the controversial US military contracting firm.
His business partner is listed on company documents as Hunter Obrikat with an address in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Guardian was unable to contact either men at listed numbers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the US and Dubai.
US embassy spokeswoman Courtney Beale said DeHaven was "not a direct employee of the US government" but added that details could not be confirmed until a consular officer had met him. The arrest is another sign of brittle relations between the two countries.
US officials in Washington argue that Davis is a registered diplomat who should be immediately released under the provisions of the Vienna convention. But that plea has fallen on deaf ears in Pakistan, where the papers have been filled with lurid accounts of the spy's alleged activities, including unlikely accounts of him working with the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The US has also struck some blows in the covert public relations war. After a lull of three weeks, the CIA restarted its drone campaign in the tribal belt last Monday, with near-daily attacks on militant targets since then. "It's their way of showing who's in charge," said a senior Pakistani official.
And at the Oman meeting, Mullen warned Kayani he would apply "other levers" to the Pakistanis if a solution to the case was not found, the official added.
Since Davis's CIA status was revealed, US officials have told Pakistani officials that their best hope is in offering compensation to the families of the two men Davis shot in Lahore. Religious parties, however, have pressured relatives not to accept money.
Meanwhile, the Zardari government says it will settle the issue of Davis's diplomatic status at a court hearing scheduled for 14 March.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2011

[Magda Hassan]

The yanquis are getting very tardy with their paperwork these days. :pinkelephant:

[Magda Hassan]

USZ citizen Aaron Mark DeHaven, who was arrested from Peshawar, has turned out to be the Blackwater's chief in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata region, sources said. British website TheNewsTribe.Com reported that the revelation came at a time when a local court in Peshawar is set to decide on his bail application on Monday. Sources in security organizations informed that the activities of Mark had been being monitored for a long time. He came under more suspicious when he tried to shut down his company Catalyst Services Private Limited' after the arrest of Raymond Davis, the CIA's "Cold Blooded Killer" as the police calls him. Sources close to the investigation said that his mobile phone record revealed he had contacts in Fata agencies.


Aaron Mark, the Blackwater Chief in KPK & Fata arrested in Peshawar


Those close to the American claim that he got married to a Pakistani girl after converting to Islam, but could not renew his passport validity on which he was caught along with his wife in Peshawar. The security organizations have also included his wife in the investigation. Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Shaitan Malik has once again shamelessly repeated his rhetoric that there is no existence of Blackwater in Pakistan. Security officials were shocked to find Raymond Davis had more than 40 computerized national identity cards and not even a single ID card recovered from his possession proves him a diplomat. USZ has been insisting that Davis has diplomatic immunity and should be released.

[Magda Hassan]

Why did the CIA's Raymond Davis Make Cell Phone Calls to the Taliban?

7th March 2011


From: "Blowback From the Arrest of the CIA's Raymond Davis"

By DAVE LINDORFF | CounterPunch | March 2, 2011

… Both Pakistani and Indian news organizations are claiming, based upon intelligence sources, that Davis was involved in not just intelligence work, but in orchestrating terrorist activity by both the Pakistani Taliban and the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has been linked to both the assassination of Benezir Bhutto and the capture and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Multiple calls to members of both groups were found by police on some of the cell phones found on Davis and in his car when he was arrested in Lahore.
It is unclear how far the blow-up in Pakistan over the exposure of America's role in stirring up unrest in that country will go. Clearly, the ISI and the Pakistani military have long had their own complicated relationship with the Pakistani Taliban, and much of the current anger in both the ISI and the military has to do with the US being found to be working behind their backs, including in its contact with those groups. …
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff03022011.html

Raymond Davis had Taliban links: Pak media

Press Trust of India | NDTV | February 22, 2011

Islamabad: American official Raymond Davis, arrested for double murder, had "close links" with Taliban and was "instrumental" in recruiting youths for it, the Pakistani media claimed today, close on the heels of reports in the US that he was a CIA agent tracking movements of terror groups like the LeT.

The "close ties" of 37-year-old Davis, arrested in Lahore on January 27 for killing two men he claimed were trying to rob him, with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan came out during investigations, The Express Tribune' reported quoting an unnamed senior official of Punjab Police.
"Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the bloody insurgency (in Pakistan)," the official said.
The report came a day after The New York Times, citing US government officials, said that Davis "was part of a covert, CIA-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country."
Among the groups that Davis was keeping an eye on was the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the New York Times said.

The Express Tribune quoting unnamed sources said that call records retrieved from mobile phones found on Davis had allegedly established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from the banned Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The report claimed Davis was "said to be working on a plan to give credence to the American notion that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not safe."

"For this purpose, he was setting up a group of the Taliban which would do his bidding," it said.
Davis' job was to trace the links of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in different parts of Pakistan but instead investigators found that he had developed "close links" with the Taliban, the report said quoting a source. …

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/raymon...a-87066?cp

From: "The Case of Raymond Davis: A CIA Operative Working with the Taliban?"

By Greg L | African American Clarion Call | February 27, 2011

… Now there are reports coming out that Davis was masterminding terrorist activities working with the Taliban. If true, there are two main reasons for that; destablization of Pakistan and never ending war. Destablization feeds the war machine which justifies them continuing to be at the government trough. Further, this feeds into the designs of the oligarchs for that region of the world.
There is still right and wrong in this world and regardless of how some may try to flip that and mislabel them, that doesn't alter fundamental truths. A tiger doesn't change his stripes just because he moves from place to place and the things he's accustomed to doing one place he will do in another. A government can not claim to be a force for good or to support freedom, while doing the exact opposite abroad. It's only a matter of time before the experience and knowledge honed against a foreign nation is deployed domestically. That is why we need to be concerned about this story. Again, just to be clear, the allegation being made by both Indian and Pakitani newspapers is that the CIA is actively working with the Taliban to foment terrorism; a significant allegation and something that's quite newsworthy. I must have missed the headlines on this.
http://theafricanamericanclarioncall.com/?p=3095

Recruiting "Freshmen" Taliban by unlikely character: Raymond Davis [B]…
[/B]

Mar 4, 2011 … " … The news that the CIA contractor recruited for the Taliban came when the US was encouraging Pakistan to send military against Taliban forces near the Afghanistan border. … "

Raymond Davis close ties with the TTP (the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) has also been established. "Davis was instrumental in recruiting …

pashtunforums.com

[Jan Klimkowski]

"Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the bloody insurgency (in Pakistan)," the official said.
The report came a day after The New York Times, citing US government officials, said that Davis "was part of a covert, CIA-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country."
Among the groups that Davis was keeping an eye on was the banned Lashker-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the New York Times said.

The Express Tribune quoting unnamed sources said that call records retrieved from mobile phones found on Davis had allegedly established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from the banned Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The report claimed Davis was "said to be working on a plan to give credence to the American notion that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not safe."

"For this purpose, he was setting up a group of the Taliban which would do his bidding," it said.
Davis' job was to trace the links of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in different parts of Pakistan but instead investigators found that he had developed "close links" with the Taliban, the report said quoting a source. …

And there we have it.

The False Flag of Gladio flying brazenly in the rarefied air of the mountainous Hindu Kush and the Khyber Pass betwen Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The so-called War on Terror. Cui bono?

Mammon.

[Magda Hassan]

Behind the scenes of Raymond Davis's release

By Huma Imtiaz, March 16, 2011 Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - 11:27 AM [/url]



As March 16 dawned over Pakistan, perhaps no one except for the powers-that-be realized that Raymond Davis would soon be free.
Earlier in the morning, the Lahore Sessions Court had indicted Davis, a CIA contractor, for murder, after he allegedly shot dead Faizan Haider and Mohammad Faheem in Lahore this past January 27.
Hours later, the news broke that Davis was a free man, after he paid blood money to the families of Faizan and Faheem. According to Geo News, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah announced that the families had forgiven Davis, and been paid blood money under the Shariah law of [url=http://www.renaissance.com.pk/septfeart2y2.html]Qisas and Diyat. Another report aired on the channel said that 18 members of both families had announced in front of the judge in Kot Lakhpat jail that they had forgiven Raymond Davis, after which cash was handed over to the families. However, the families' lawyer Asad Manzoor Butt told Geo News that they were forcibly made to forgive Davis, after being led to jail by a man without identification.
Munawar Hasan, leader of the right-wing religious party Jamaat-e-Islami, reacted to the news by accusing the government of being slaves of the United States. "They should know that traitor governments do not last for very long," he said. "They have mocked the law, and the families were forcibly made to sign the Diyat document. Davis was involved with terrorist organizations, and yet they have let him go. The ISI claims to love the country, but they sell people to the States in exchange for dollars, they have failed in their love for the nation today." Hasan says protests against the release of Raymond Davis will be held in the major cities of Pakistan.
Conflicting reports have emerged about how much money has been paid to the families. Sources on various TV channels aired figures ranging from Rs. 60 million to Rs. 200 million (approximately $700,000 to $2,350,000). Davis's whereabouts are also unknown - Dunya News said he had flown to the United States, whereas Geo News claimed he had flown to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Another story attributed to "sources" on Geo News also said that Faizan's widow Zehra had allegedly left for the United States.
Ahsan Iqbal, member of the PML-N, a major opposition party in Pakistan headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, told me in a telephone interview:

What has happened is between the families of the victims and the court and the law, if they have settled for the blood money under the law, then it is the law of the land. If the court has made a judgment we cannot challenge the judgement. However, it also shows that Davis didn't enjoy diplomatic immunity and his case was settled under Pakistan's law and not under the clauses of the diplomatic immunity.

Najam Sethi, a TV anchor and journalist, claimed on TV and Twitter that Punjab's Chief Minister and PML-N leader (and Nawaz Sharif's brother) Shahbaz Sharif had been involved in the negotiations between both parties. However, Iqbal denied the story to me, saying, "It has been very categorically clarified that Punjab government had nothing to do with the settlement, it is between the families and the accused."
Retired General Talat Masood, a defence analyst, told me that that Davis's release is a consequence of the smoothing over of relations between the CIA's and the ISI. "It's a good development, it demonstrates that both have come to an understanding about how they will operate with each other, and co-operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ISI has also determined certain boundaries about how the CIA will operate in the country." Masood says that this was a difficult decision for Pakistan for many reasons, which include changing the Pakistan-U.S. relationship from co-operative to confrontational, and then dealing with the right-wing and religious parties' aggressive stance on Raymond Davis.
A senior security official in Pakistan, speaking under condition of anonymity, told me that, "The Americans had been working on this, they thought that this (the diyat law) was the only way out." And ISI and CIA relations? "The ISI has laid down their terms for reengagement of certain areas where they felt they'd been bypassed, and the other side realized that they needed them. Both agencies need each other."
While rumours and more conspiracy theories continue to swirl in the air, it is evident that Pakistan has emerged as the biggest winner from Davis's strange and sordid case. While the religious parties may cry themselves hoarse over sovereignty of the country and rule of law, the ISI in particular has the upper hand here, and has impressed upon the CIA to make it clear that they cannot run a network under the noses of the powerful spy agency. To use tennis lingo: Advantage: ISI. What happens in the next round is anyone's guess.

http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/201...is_release

[Jan Klimkowski]

Earlier in the morning, the Lahore Sessions Court had indicted Davis, a CIA contractor, for murder, after he allegedly shot dead Faizan Haider and Mohammad Faheem in Lahore this past January 27.
Hours later, the news broke that Davis was a free man, after he paid blood money to the families of Faizan and Faheem.

The Empire has paid the bounty on its hired killer.

This was always going to be the outcome.

As a PMC mercenary, I bet Davis billed the "blood money" on a costs-plus basis to the US taxpayer.

[Magda Hassan]

I notice he is no longer a Diplomat but a CIA agent.

CIA operative arrested outside of bagel shop in Highlands Ranch

6:40 p.m. MDT, October 1, 2011


HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- A local CIA contractor who was released from Pakistan after the U.S. paid millions of dollars to free him has been arrested in Highlands Ranch after a fight Saturday morning.

Police say Raymond Davis was arguing with a man about a parking spot outside of the Einstein Bagels at the Town Center at around 9 a.m.


The verbal argument turned physical, according to Lt. Glenn Peitzmeier, a spokesperson for the Douglas county Sheriff's Office.

Peitzmeier says medial crews were called to the scene, but Davis and the other man involved refused treatment.

Davis was taken into custody on charges of third degree assault and disorderly conduct. He was released on bond a short time later.

In January, Davis was jailed in Pakistan, accused of shooting and killing 2 men in that country. According to the Pakistan government, the families of the two forgave him, and, under Islamic practice, more than $2.4 million in compensation was paid.

Davis maintains he acted in self-defense and says the shooting happened while he was driving through a Pakistani neighborhood and was attacked by the two men.