‘CIA mulls targeting Pakistani agents”

Pakistani diplomatic sources say the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is considering targeting Pakistani diplomats, in retaliation for the arrest of one of the agency’s contractors.

The sources also insist that the situation is increasingly turning out to be not merely a loss of the cover of a CIA spy, Raymond Davis, but, actually, the loss of a key asset of the notorious US spy agency, a report said on Saturday.

“It is unlikely that they (American intelligence apparatus) would let it go without returning it to the Pakistani counterparts one way or the other,” the Pakistani sources added.

According to the report, the CIA is mulling over targeting Pakistani diplomats and intelligence agents across the world in an effort to pressure Islamabad to release Davis.

The sources pointed out that “easy prey of this revenge design of the Americans could be Pakistani intelligence staff serving abroad chiefly in US, Europe, and Afghanistan.”

The US government insists that CIA contractor Davis deserves diplomatic immunity over his killing of two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27.

Washington has demanded his release, while Islamabad says its courts will decide his fate.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people have staged an anti-American rally outside the US Consulate in Lahore. The protesters demanded that Davis be executed.

The Davis detention issue seems to be taking its toll on US-Pakistan relations, which were already strained over stepped-up US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region and disagreements over the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

A Pakistani court on Saturday sent another American national identified as Aaron Mark DeHaven to jail, a day after he was detained in the northwestern city of Peshawar for overstaying his visa, a government lawyer said.

The Inter-Services Intelligences (ISI) has demanded that the CIA share a list of all its contractors working in Pakistan.

“They need to come clean, tell us who they are and what they are doing. They need to stop doing things behind our back,” an ISI official said.

Source: Press TV