The Contractor ignites heated discussion in Pakistan
We all have heard about Raymond Davis – the CIA operative who sparked a diplomatic row after gunning down two men on the streets of Lahore in January 2011. He has penned ‘his side of the story’ for the first time in a memoir titled The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis.
Davis was charged for killing two Pakistani men at Qurtaba Chowk in downtown Lahore. A third Pakistani man was struck and killed by a vehicle that was reportedly racing to Davis’ aid. The violent confrontation escalated into a diplomatic crisis, making front-page headlines across the world and straining ties between Islamabad and Washington, as US policymakers pressed for diplomatic immunity for Davis and pushed for his immediate release.
The book was released on Amazon.com on June 27. This is what the description of the book says:
“A lot has been written about the time contractor Raymond Davis spent in a Pakistani jail in 2011. Unfortunately, much of it is misleading—or downright false—information.
Now, the man at the center of the controversy tells his side of the story for the very first time. In The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis, Davis offers an up-close and personal look at the 2011 incident in Lahore, Pakistan, that led to his imprisonment and the events that took place as diplomats on both sides of the bargaining table scrambled to get him out.
How did a routine drive turn into front-page news? Davis dissects the incident before taking readers on the same journey he endured while trapped in the Kafkaesque Pakistani legal system. As a veteran security contractor, Davis had come to terms with the prospect of dying long before the January 27, 2011 shooting, but nothing could prepare him for being a political pawn in a game with the highest stakes imaginable.
An eye-opening memoir, The Contractor takes the veil off Raymond Davis’s story and offers a sober reflection on the true cost of the War on Terror.”
A former soldier, Davis had experience with the US Special Forces and ran a small security company, according to public US records.
US officials never released details about Davis’ precise job in Pakistan, saying only he was a ‘member of the administrative and technical staff’ of the Islamabad embassy and traveled on a diplomatic passport.
The CIA contractor spent 49 days in Pakistani custody, and was released on March 16, 2011, after the families of the two slain men reached an agreement and were paid $2.4 million in blood money. The Lahore High Court acquitted him on all charges and Davis was flown out of Pakistan.
Courtsy Samma News Pakistan
www.sammanews.com
#Raymond davis #JI #Pakistan #General Pasha
Comments