Friday 11 February 2011

Raymond Davis case gets messier.

The Raymond Davis case in Lahore is getting messier and messier. Today he was remanded in custody for a further two weeks as police rejected his explanation that he had killed two men in self-defence. Former special forces soldier Davis, who shot the two men a total of eight times through the windscreen of his hired car on 26 January, claims he was working as a consultant to the US consulate in Lahore. In his pocket he carried business cards for a company called Hyperion Protective Consultants of Orlando, Florida.
However, an investigation by Counterpunch magazine in the United States has revealed that the address for the company is an empty shop front and that the phone numbers and website are fake. They also point out that Davis was able to shoot both men twice in the front and twice in the back before stepping out of his rented car to photograph the results on his mobile phone. Police who searched the car found a loaded Glock pistol gun and three full magazines, plus the Beretta used to kill the men, along with other paraphernalia associated with special forces operations.
There is also a strong suggestion coming from witnesses in Lahore that the second vehicle involved in the incident in which a third man was run down and killed was not responding to an emergency call from him but was actually with Davis at the time of the shooting. According to this scenario, the bystander was killed as the second vehicle fled the scene at speed, hitting other cars in the street and knocking down the unfortunate person.The driver of the second vehicle is being sought by the Pakistani police, but it is likely he or she has long since left the country.
Proof that Davis photographed the two men he had just shot dead comes from Dunya TV, which has published what it claims are still photos from Davis' camera, plus some video of part of his interrogation bythe Lahore police. The film appears to have been shot from a mobile phone lying on a table in front of Davis.You can see the footage here or on YouTube.
As more and more evidence comes to light it is becoming clear that this incident was no simple attempted robbery. Davis was fully tooled up, in an unmarked, rented car with a back-up vehicle. He opened fire and expertly shot dead the two men on a motorbike. Eveyone knows this now and the room for political manoeuvre is shrinking by the minute.
One theory, examined by ABC reporter Nick Schifrin, is that the two dead men were actually ISI (Pakistan intelligence service) agents, tasked to trail Davis. If that is true, there will be no quick end to this affair.

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