Murders dent US’ Davis rescue: NYT

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Murders dent US’ Davis rescue: NYT

March 14, 2011


NEW YORK - Raymond Davis’ fatal shooting of two Pakistanis has ‘complicated’ US attempts to portray him ‘as a paper-shuffling diplomat’ and confirmed suspicions among many in Pakistan that US has deployed a secret army of spies and contractors inside the country, a leading US newspaper conceded Sunday.

In a dispatch on the adverse impact of the detained CIA operator’s action as well as his activities, The New York Times said the developments also “called unwelcome attention to a bigger, more dangerous game in which Davis appears to have played just a supporting role.”

The CIA team Davis worked with, according to US officials, had among its assignments the task of secretly gathering intelligence about Lashkar-e-Taiba. During a visit to Islamabad last July, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared Lashkar a “global threat,” a statement that no doubt rankled his Pakistani hosts, according to the Times’ report. “And so a group that Pakistan has seen for years as an essential component of its own national security, and that American counterterrorism officials could once dismiss as a regional problem, has emerged as a threat that Washington feels it can no longer ignore,” the Times said.

“Given such a fundamental collision of interests, it was perhaps inevitable that Lashkar would one day provoke tensions between Pakistani and American security officials, and the collision itself would come into full public view. Rather than being a cause of the problem, Davis was merely an all-too-visible symptom.

As Davis discovered, the regularly accepted rules of the spy game don’t apply here, the dispatch said. “There was little chance of quickly brokering a quiet deal, allowing Davis to be spirited out of Pakistan without anyone making a fuss,” it added. The Times said Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Lashkar’s charismatic leader, gives regular anti-US sermons in Lahore on Fridays. Christine Fair, a Pakistan expert and Georgetown University professor who closely studies Lashkar’s operations, said the group has set up sophisticated networks throughout Asia to train dozens of sleeper operatives for attacks in India. But, citing experts on Lashkar, the dispatch said that in recent years the group has expanded the focus of its operations.
“Whatever the reason, American intelligence officials believe that hundreds of Lashkar operatives now operate inside Afghanistan, and have teamed with other militant groups to attack American troops,” according to the Times. .

Wendy Chamberlin, former US ambassador in Islamabad, said that America’s relationship with Pakistan remains essential for security in the region, even if some lawmakers in Washington might see cutting aid to the country. There are many reasons for continuing the relationship with such a large and strategically important country, she said. At the very least, Chamberlin said, the appetite of the Afghan war makes ending the relationship impossible, because there are no better routes over which to transport all the military supplies that currently are shipped through Pakistan. “Like it or not,” Ms. Chamberlin said, “Pakistan is our lifeline.”


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