US demands release of diplomat in Pakistan

[Robb]

Source: AP

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States demanded the immediate release of an American arrested in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis, saying Saturday that he is a diplomat who qualifies for immunity from prosecution and was illegally detained.

(snip)

Western diplomats travel with armed guards in many parts of Pakistan because of the risk of militant attack. Lahore has seen frequent terrorist bombings and shootings over the last two years, though the city's small expatriate population has not been directly targeted.

The senior U.S. official said the embassy was concerned about the man's safety inside a Pakistani jail. He said the killing of the governor of Punjab province earlier this month by a police officer assigned to guard him had alarmed many in Washington.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said he understood that some Pakistanis were angry about the incident. But that he was concerned officials in the Punjab were "pandering" to those emotions instead of calming, citing a visit Friday by the province's chief minister to the home of the Pakistani killed in the car accident.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9iws6Sz9cR5w27FcfFY-Lq4vNCA?docId=30cc58fdccdc4533ab140b58b25fe04e

[dipsydoodle]

1. Presumably the US has yet to learn he has now been charged with murder.

Exactly what is it about a MURDER charge they cannot quite grasp.

A US consular employee has appeared in court charged with the murder of two motorcyclists who were shot dead in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

Mr Davis has been charged with murder under section 302 of Pakistan's law. This means that if the charges against him are proved, he faces life imprisonment and a possible death sentence.

>

He did not have diplomatic immunity and was not one of the foreign security personnel allowed to carry firearms, according to the Pakistani authorities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12305049

[Robb]

2. No, I'm quite sure they know about it.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Hopefully

his back dated , :sarcasm: , diplomatic immunity will appear on Wikileaks at a later date.

[Robb]

4. I'd trust a Mississippi court in the 50s more than a Lahore court today.

No justice meted out there.

[VermeerLives]

5. "According to the Pakistani authorities"

Which Pakistani authorities? The police? I wouldn't put much stock in that one; don't believe everything you're reading in the press. Davis probably had firearms training (and other defensive training as well) before he was posted to Pakistan and was authorized to carry a gun, for good reason. Firearms qualification and other defensive training courses are prerequisites for certain American diplomats being assigned to dangerous posts, and they are authorized to carry a weapon in those posts, I can assure you.

If the Pakistanis are going to screw around on this, I would suggest that our State Department expel the Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. and send him home. This requires a heavy-handed response from Hillary Clinton and the WH.

[struggle4progress]

6. ... ABC News, a major US media network, has identified Raymond Davis, an American accused of killing

two Pakistani men, as an employee of a private security company .. Hyperion Protective Consultants ...

The US Embassy in Islamabad on Saturday demanded that Pakistani authorities release Mr Davis, ... arguing that he was protected by diplomatic immunity ...

Last week, US State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley told a briefing in Washington that the name had been misreported ...

“I can confirm that an employee at the US consulate in Lahore was involved in an incident today,” Mr Crowley said on Thursday. “It is under investigation. We have not released the identity of our employee at this point.”

‘Davis an employee of private security firm’
From the Newspaper
(6 hours ago) Today
http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/31/davis-an-employee-of-private-security-firm.html

[struggle4progress]

7. The (Very) Strange Case of Raymond Davis

Posted on January 30, 2011

Adil Najam

Strangely, the more we get to know about the case of Raymond Davis, the less we seem to know. Even more strangely, the fact that the entire incident happened in broad daylight and in front of dozens of witnesses seems is itself confusing the facts rather than adding clarity. Moreover, it seems that no one seems to want to get much clarity either ...

... earliest reports suggested that Raymond Davis was a “technical adviser” and a “consular” official. More recently, US Embassy officials have described him as a “functionary” of the Embassy assigned to the US Consulate in Lahore and carrying a US Diplomatic passport. Reportedly he was hired at the US Consulate in Lahore as a security contractor from a Florida-based firm Hyperion Protective Consultants. All of this has material relevance to whether he would enjoy diplomatic immunity or not, but even more because of the apprehensions of many Pakistanis that he could be linked to the CIA or to the infamous firm Blackwater ....

... what exactly was happening at Mozang? ... Mozang is not a part of town that you would expect too many foreigners, let alone a US official, visiting; and certainly not in what was reportedly a rented private vehicle ...

This is about US-Pakistan relations: there is just about nothing that the US can say or do which Pakistanis are likely to believe, and there is just about nothing that Pakistan can say or do which Americans are likely to trust. Which is why getting stuck in the intricacies of the Vienna Convention of 1963 is the exact wrong place to get stuck. This is a time for public diplomacy: certainly from the US and maybe even from Pakistan. It is not in America’s interest to be seen to be standing in the way of justice and due process. And it is not in Pakistan’s interest to be seen to conducting a flawed process of justice ...

http://pakistaniat.com/2011/01/30/raymond-davis/