Pakistan arrests another US CIA security contractor

ISI tells American agency to unmask all its covert operatives after arrest of Aaron DeHaven in Peshawar, over visa expiry

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 February 2011

Supporters of the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami rally against CIA employee Raymond Davis, accused of murdering two Pakistanis. Photograph: K.M.Chaudary/AP Pakistani 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 along the border with Afghanistan, and spoke Pashto 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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/pakistan-arrests-security-contractor-cia

CIA agent Raymond Davis worked for private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater

US reveals that CIA agent Raymond Davis worked for private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater

US official Raymond Davis, arrested for double murder, had “close links” with Taliban and was “instrumental” in recruiting youths for it, a media report claimed on Tuesday, close on the heels of reports in the US that he was a CIA agent.

The “close ties” of Davis, arrested in Lahore on January 27 for killing two men he claimed were trying to rob him, with Tehrik-e-Taliban came out during a probe, The Express Tribune reported quoting an unnamed official of Punjab Police.

“Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban,” the official said. The report came a day after The New York Times said that Davis “was part of a covert, CIA-led team of operatives.”

The Express Tribune said that call records retrieved from mobile phones found on Davis had established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The report claimed Davis was “said to be working on a plan to give credence to the US notion that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe.”

The report came a day after The NYT, 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 LeT, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the NYT said. 

Meanwhile, a Pakistani court accepted the government's request to hold the trial of Davis in the heavilyguarded Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore , where he is currently lodged, for security reasons. 

The Obama administration on Monday insisted that he still has diplomatic immunity under international law and Pakistan should release him forthwith . Soon after, the US state department wheeled out one of its "foremost experts in international law" to make the case that regardless of Davis' reported affiliation, he was entitled to diplomatic immunity because the US had clearly intimated to Pakistani government that he is a member of the administrative and technical staff under Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. 

Sources also said that Pakistan had been told he is an intelligence operative working undercover. 

THE CURIOUS CASE OF RAYMOND DAVIS
Pakistan & US are at loggerheads over the arrest of Davis, who is facing trial for gunning down two men in Lahore. The two sides differ on diplomatic immunity for Davis. Other disputed points in the case: 

THE SHOOTING 
Cops say Davis fired at the two motorcycle-borne men when they tried to stop his car; the duo were ostensibly chasing him after his vehicle bumped a rickshaw US says Davis believed his life was in danger after one of the men 'cocked his pistol and pointed towards' him 

SELF-DEFENCE 
Davis and US say he acted in self-defence after the two men tried to rob him at gunpoint 
Punjab law minister says the weapon carried by one of the victims wasn't loaded and thus Davis can't claim selfdefence ; Lahore top cops says Davis fired at one of the men as they were fleeing 

THE VICTIMS 
Davis and US say the two men were robbers Pak media & politicians dismiss suggestions that the duo were ISI operatives and term them 'innocent youths' with no criminal record

Who is Raymond Davis?

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 to confuse the facts further. The reason for this maybe because no one seems to want to get much clarity; although different parties may want different parts of the story to ‘disappear’, everyone seems keen that the story goes away. However, we may all live to regret it, if it actually does.Here is what one does know about Raymond Davis. He is a staff member of the US consulate in Lahore, shot dead two Pakistani men last Thursday in a crowded part of Lahore (Mozang Chowk); according to him in self-defence. A vehicle of the US consulate rushed to Mr Davis’ ‘rescue’ ran over a third person, who also died. A murder case was registered against Raymond Davis, who was handed into police custody. A case has also been registered against the driver of the US consulate vehicle that ran over a third person, but the driver has yet to be apprehended.

After a fair deal of scrambling by both US and Pakistani officials on what to do or say, their positions have now started becoming clear and they have taken the stance that is usually taken in such cases: the US is asking that Raymond Davis, as a diplomatic functionary, should be handed back to them; Pakistan seems to be responding that the matter is sub judice and that the law should take its course.

Beyond that, there are more questions than answers. For most part, these questions fall into three categories: (1) Who is Raymond Davis? (2) What exactly happened at Mozang, Lahore? (3) What should happen now?

The answer to the first question is: the 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 is entitled to 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 (later renamed XE Services).

And that leads squarely to the second question: what exactly was happening at Mozang? In line with the immediate knee-jerk reaction of many Pakistanis, an early commentary by Jeff Stein in The Washington Post seemed to suggest rather fancifully that the shootout could have been a “Spy rendezvous gone bad”? That could be a conspiracy theory, but not an entirely implausible one. 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. And while Pakistan today is clearly an unsafe place, the question of just why an embassy official was carrying a firearm be wished away.

On the other hand, however, Mr Davis claims that he shot in self-defence as the two men on the motorcycle were trying to rob him at gun point. Anyone who knows Pakistan knows all too well that this, too, is entirely possible. TV footage and reports coming immediately after the incident showed one of the young men lying dead with a revolver and wearing an ammunition belt. And certainly, the question of why at least one of the two young men on the motorcycle was carrying a loaded firearm cannot be wished away just because of enmity

Indeed, serious questions need to be asked about just who the two young men on the motorcycle were, just as they need to be asked about who Raymond Davis is. There just seems to be too many unnecessary weapons in too much proximity in this story. All of the many explanations that are floating around are very disturbing, but also very plausible. This is exactly why this story is even more dangerous if left unresolved.

Finally, the third question – which is now getting the most attention – about what should happen now. Much is being made – maybe too much – about the Vienna Convention and its implications for diplomatic immunity. Familiar diplomatic games about the minutia of vocabulary are being played and will in most likelihood result in all too familiar results. That is exactly what one would expect in any such situation anywhere.

But this is not ‘any’ situation’; and this is not ‘anywhere’. This is about US-Pakistan relations: A relationship that is so jaundiced that 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.

There are too many people on the extreme in both countries who will not and cannot change their opinion and apprehensions about the other. But there are even more people in both countries who could all too easily be swayed to the extremes on distrust if this delicate case is not handled with clarity and transparency by both sides. Doing so will probably bring with it more than just a little diplomatic embarrassment. Not doing so can only bring worse in the tinderbox that is US-Pakistan relations.

The writer is a professor of International Relations at Boston University and founder of the blog ‘All Things Pakistan’.