The American being held in a prison in Lahore after shooting two Pakistani gunmen last month, was working for the CIA, two U.S. officials told on Monday as they raised concern that the life of Raymond A. Davis is in danger in the Lahore prison where he is being held. Davis was providing personal security detail to U.S. officials working at the consulate in Lahore and the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad when he shot down two men he claimed were trying to rob him. Davis is also a former Special Operations officer who had worked in the past for military contractor Blackwater, now known as Xe. According to The New York Times, which was first to break the story, Davis was part of a covert, team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country. He carried out scouting and other reconnaissance missions for a CIA task force of case officers and technical surveillance experts. But a senior U.S. official told Fox News that Davis "was not an al Qaeda chaser. "On Jan. 27 at the time of his shooting he was not working for Blackwater. He was simply providing protective security for U.S. embassy officials. ... This was a robbery gone awry." In a leaked interrogation video aired on Pakistani television, the American identified himself as a "consultant" at the Lahore consulate. But the Guardian revealed on Sunday that he is a CIA agent, citing interviews in the US and Pakistan. A number of US media outlets are also aware of his status but have kept quiet following representations from the American government. Davis is on Pakistan's "exit control list", meaning he cannot leave the country without permission. However, two men who came to his rescue in a jeep that knocked over and killed a motorcyclist have already fled the country. Davis claimed to be acting in self-defence, firing on a pair of suspected robbers. But eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he shot the men 10 times, including once as he fled the scene, and was carrying a telescope, a GPS set, bolt cutters, a survival kit, and a long-range radio at the time of his arrest. Pakistani prosecutors said Davis used excessive force and charged him with two counts of murder and one of illegal possession of a Glock 9mm pistol. There have been claims that the dead men were working for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, with orders to follow the American. The ISI co-operates closely with the CIA in the American agency's tribal belt drone programme, but resents US intelligence collection elsewhere in the country. US efforts to have Davis released have focused on the issue of immunity, which has become tangled in a political and legal web. Noting the "legal complexities of the case", Gilani stressed that Pakistan's government would follow its international obligations but did not say whether it would offer immunity. Meanwhile, authorities stressed the stringent measures they have put in place to protect Davis in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail, following angry rallies in which his effigy was burned and threats from extremist clerics. Surveillance cameras are trained on his cell in an isolation wing, his guards have been disarmed and a ring of paramilitary Punjab rangers are posted outside. About 25 jihadi prisoners have been transferred to other facilities. The furore over Davis has not stopped the controversial drone strike programme. On Sunday news emerged of a fresh attack on a militant target in south Waziristan, the first in nearly a month. Pakistani intelligence officials told the Associated Press that foreigners were among the dead, including three people from Turkmenistan and two Arabs.
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