By Dave Lindorff
Pakistani and Indian newspapers are reporting that Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor in jail in Lahore facing murder charges for the execution-slayings of two young men believed to by Pakistani intelligence operatives, was actually involved in organizing terrorist activities in Pakistan.
As the Express Tribune, an English-language daily that is linked to the International Herald Tribune, reported on Feb. 22 :
"The Lahore killings were a blessing in disguise for our security agencies who suspected that Davis was masterminding terrorist activities in Lahore and other parts of Punjab," a senior official in the Punjab Police claimed.
"His close ties with the TTP [the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan] were revealed during the investigations," he added. "Davis was instrumental in recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban to fuel the bloody insurgency." Call records of the cellphones recovered from Davis have established his links with 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian outfit, sources said.
The article goes on to explain a motive for why the US, which on the one hand has been openly pressing Pakistan to move militarily against Taliban forces in the border regions abutting Afghanistan, would have a contract agent actively encouraging terrorist acts within Pakistan, saying:
Davis was also 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.
According to a report in the Economic Times of India , a review by police investigators of calls placed by Davis on some of the cell phones found on his person and in his rented Honda Civic after the shooting showed calls to 33 Pakistanis, including 27 militants from the banned Pakistani Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an group identified as terrorist organization by both the US and Pakistan, which has been blamed for the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and to the brutal slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Meanwhile, while the US continues to claim that Davis was "defending himself" against two armed robbers, the Associated Press is reporting that its sources in Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), are telling them that Davis "knew both men he killed."
The AP report , which was run in Thursday's Washington Post, claims the ISI says it "had no idea who Davis was or what he was doing when he was arrested," that he had contacts in Pakistan's tribal regions, and that his visa applications contained "bogus references and phone numbers."
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/478
