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The fallout from US-Pakistan tensions over the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis for killing two Pakistanis on January 27 has continued to expand. Dawn.com reported on Friday on the number of US personnel in Pakistan believed to have diplomatic immunity, and on the same day, an American was arrested for overstaying his visa in Pakistan. Taken together, these bits of information suggest that Pakistan is carefully analyzing the data it has on potential US operatives within Pakistan and is carefully documenting their status. On Monday, the Express Tribune reported that it has received word that some suspected US spies in Pakistan have stopped their activities and some have even left the country.
The evidence that Pakistan is scouring its records to search for other operatives similar to Raymond Davis appeared in Dawn on Friday:
As many as 2,570 foreigners currently working in foreign missions of 78 countries in Pakistan enjoy diplomatic immunity, Minister of State (MoS) for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar Friday told the National Assembly.
/snip/
Giving details of the countries and diplomats she said that 851 US nationals working in Pakistan enjoy immunity. Out of these 554 are diplomats while 297 are non-diplomats.
/snip/
It was also informed that 31 US nationals are working in the US Consulate in Lahore and enjoying immunity.
Similarly, 52 and 58 US nationals work in US consulates located in Karachi and Peshawar respectively and enjoy diplomatic immunity.
The Guardian reported on Friday that American Aaron Mark DeHaven was arrested for overstaying his visa in Pakistan:
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”.
/snip/
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.
The website for Catalyst Services, LLC can be found here. It is far more polished than the websites associated with Raymond Davis’ businesses. The US phone number listed for the company has a West Virginia area code, but gives no names for individuals within the company. Searching the West Virginia database of business entities does not find a Catalyst Services, LLC registered in the state, nor does DeHaven’s name turn up associated with any other business entities.
I have not found any documents unrelated to the Guardian article that link Dehaven and Obrikat, but North Carolina state records do show a Catalyst Services USA, LLC with Obrikat as the sole individual identified with it.
It would seem that the news that Pakistan is scouring the records of potential intelligence operatives and even arresting individuals who don’t have all of their affairs in order has some operatives shutting down their activities or leaving the country altogether. The Express Tribune reports on Monday:
At least 30 suspected covert American operatives have suspended their activities in Pakistan and 12 have already left the country, according to sources familiar with the matter.
In the aftermath of the shootings in Lahore on January 27 by suspected CIA operative Raymond Davis, intelligence agencies in Pakistan began scrutinising records of the Americans living in Pakistan and discovered several discrepancies, causing many suspected American operatives to maintain a low profile and others to leave the country altogether.
/snip/
Most of the ‘special Americans’ are suspected of being operatives of US intelligence agencies who are on covert missions in Pakistan, reporting to the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), according to sources familiar with the situation.
Hmmm. It’s nice to see that the rest of the world is beginning to catch up to Jeremy Scahill’s work from December, 2009.
Since security contractors are reported to be leaving Pakistan, it comes as no surprise that DeHaven’s request for bail was denied:
A court in northwest Pakistan Monday rejected the bail application of an American said to have been working for a private security company who is accused of overstaying his visa.
“The bail application of Aaron Mark De Haven has been rejected because he had no legal documents,” public prosecutor Javed Ali told AFP in Peshawar.
The US Embassy seems quite subdued in its latest statement about DeHaven:
A U.S. citizen was remanded into judicial custody this morning at a court hearing in Peshawar. U.S. consular representatives have met with him, as they would with any private American citizen. We appreciate the cooperation of the Pakistani authorities and respect the Pakistani legal process.
So far, at least, it does not look like the US will make the same effort on behalf of DeHaven as it is making for Davis.
30 Comments
Ok America might want to consider hiring Brown people who speak the language as spies who can blend in we have lots of immigrants here from the area.
Yes I know many of our spies are ex special forces mercs but that just means we need more brown people in the special forces.
“At least 30 suspected covert American operatives have suspended their activities in Pakistan and 12 have already left the country, according to sources familiar with the matter.”
So 42 spies total have left that we know of why they could not blend in even with false papers.
Pakistan has nukes and Ossama I do support us spying on them I just wish we were spying on them with a plan.
Maybe Jim we would not need all those spies if the aid money we gave Pakistan was used to create jobs instead of buy buying Pakistani General Mansions?
Davis and DeHaven kind of stand out don’t they?
Those guys think Afpak was dangerous ground, wait til they come home and have to face Pouting Baby.
Rut-roh.
Jim, the Pakistan Observer published this Op-ed…
Tar & feathers first.
I once got an email Q asked to one of those propaganda generals on CNN. Musta been around late 2002, after 9/11 but before invasion of Iraq. The Q was: the short version of U.S. foreign policy is that our friends become our enemies and our enemies become our friends. When are the U.S. new best friends in the Stans going to be U.S. enemies?
Of course the general denied that these alliances with some of the worse scumbags on earth could ever be anything but beneficial to the U.S.
And CNN missed all the irony embedded in the Q.
A few hundred pallets of bricks of hundred dollar bills need to be sent to Pakistan, pronto. Austerity Measures are needed on the homeland.
When Americans know it’s for a good cause, we are willing to suck it up and tighten our belts.
No one could have predicted that white, cocky, trigger-happy assholes from Blackwater would stick out like sore thumbs.
Shockin’ Yaw! – Toby Keith
So we are officially at war with Pakistan? Another war Obama was forced into, I imagine.
except that this has really little to do with actual,you know, spying, and everything to do with ripping off the US government in the name of selling ‘security services.’ The security game is the mother of mother lodes.
Another “good” war.
We are in an endless Global War On Terror. We will pay Blackwater and Dyncorp to seek out Al Qaida and Al Qaida sympathizers wherever they may be. If there be an Al Qiada in a haystack, the entire haystack must be lit up.
Shockin’ Yaw! – Toby Keith
I’m Proud to Be An American – Lee Greenwood
Looking for a needle in a stack of needles.
I noticed at Dawn.com that the US will not even consider a trade.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/01/us-not-to-swap-dr-aafia-with-davis.html
“WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has rejected Pakistan’s proposal to trade Raymond Davis for Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist serving an 86-year term in a US prison, diplomatic sources told Dawn.”
/snip/
“But on Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the Americans are showing no leniency,” the source said. “They have informed Pakistan that they are not even going to pursue it.”
They probably don’t want the backlash of the Pakistanis seeing what condition we left her in.
Also it looks like the Pakistan police is rounding up people that Davis had for contacts on his cell phone (45 arrested so far).
http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/28/investigation-scope-broadened-in-davis%E2%80%99-case-45-arrested.html
Wow, thanks for those updates. Both are very important. I’m not at all surprised on Siddiqui, but it’s pretty incredible they’ve arrested so many of Davis’ contacts.
Are there WalMarts in Pakistan? Given Davis’s choice of clothes. Really got that tourist cover thing down pat.
Very interesting connection. Thanks. Would never have thought about it myself.
Pouting baby wouldn’t fit in. That little @#$%^& is white as snow.
Why do you insist on being so antiamerican alla time. /s
Not that ISI has been a “trustworthy ally.”
The Dawn newspaper is reportedly controlled by the pro-army Haroon family, so that is the official Pak army line. There has been “discussion” between the Pak army and the civilian side, particularly the Pak ambassador in Washington who acceded to the US request for 500 visas w/o vetting. Now it’s blowback time.
Why go to all the trouble of paying others to seek out Al Qaida? Why not just go to the source and ask the guy who’s recruiting them?
http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2011/02/26/139329.html
Does WalMarts sell burial garb as well? Davis is not leaving Pakistan alive. As soon as they squeeze as much info as they can out of him, they’ll have him order up a drone to his own GPS location.
Davis would’ve blended with a dhoti.
Perhaps Pakistanis and even the ISI are coming around to the Chris Rock point of view – “I’m not scared of Al Kayda, I’m scared of Al Cracka!”
Hell yea, kick the terrorists out!
Imagine if a known terrorist claimed diplomatic immunity and tried to weasel out of trial.
The only reason those monsters are getting sympathy is because they’re american.
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Sorry mod.
Only if he had some real information but we know they got nukes and Ossama the only things that can top that are what Never gas, Anthrax or evidence of genocide and I’m not even sure we really care about that.
Hard Evidence Pakistani intelligence is working with Ossama maybe but we already knew that video tape evidence maybe otherwise this guy is a pawn to be traded.
More to the story.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/cia-spy-davis-giving-nuclear-bomb-material-al-20110219-224833-452.html
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/02/cia-spy-captured-giving-nuclear-bomb-to-terrorists/