Pak frees CIA spook for 'blood money'

WASHINGTON: US intelligence operative Raymond Davis, accused of killing two Pakistani nationals, was released on Wednesday after the victims' families were given "blood money" in accordance with Islamic law.
The deal brought to an end — for now — an ugly and protracted spat between Pakistan and the United States over a secret war on terror that Washington is conducting inside Pakistan, of which Davis was a part.The CIA contractor was flown out of Pakistan immediately.
Davis, a former special forces commando posing as an undercover diplomat, shot and killed two young Pakistanis said to be ISI footsoldiers shadowing him, on a busy Lahore street on January 27. He was apprehended before he could escape and a getaway car which came to his rescue ran over and killed a pedestrian in the botched attempt.
It was not immediately clear what the status of that separate hit-and-run case is since the US personnel in the getaway car have already left Pakistan.
In the weeks since, Davis's incarceration and trial became an elaborate charade by a weak Pakistani civilian government bowing to the dictates of its hardline army and jihadi footsoldiers, even as Washington raged against the circus. Davis, who was operating under diplomatic cover, was later revealed to be part of a US team investigating Lashkar-e-Taiba operations in Pakistan.