Whipped Cream Difficulties

Remember Raymond Davis?

“U.S. officials”, “speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter”, have confirmed to the WP that yes indeed, Mr. Davis is CIA.

A former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, Davis was hired as a contract employee of the CIA’s Global Response Staff, a unit that is responsible for providing security for agency employees and facilities in other countries.

Also worthy of note:

The Washington Post learned of Davis’s CIA affiliation after his arrest, but agreed not to publish the information at the request of senior U.S. intelligence officials, who cited concern for Davis’s safety if his true employment status were disclosed.

I still believe Davis was probably justified in shooting the two guys who attacked him, and will until I see convincing evidence to the contrary (the statements from Pakistani authorities don’t add up for me) but this is certainly even more of a sticky wicket than it already was.

Edited to add: I intended to link to this LAT followup article earlier, and will do so now, even though it has been overtaken by events.

Edited to add 2: The NYT is on things with their own story, also quoting “American government officials”, and stating “The New York Times had agreed to temporarily withhold information about Mr. Davis’s ties to the agency at the request of the Obama administration”.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Clippings, Guns, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.