Pakistani officials said President Obama's national security advisor summoned Pakistan's ambassador to the White House Monday evening to deliver a threat from the president: Release Raymond Davis, an American being held in Lahore for killing two Pakistanis, or face the consequences.
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon told Ambassador Husain Haqqani, according to two Pakistani officials involved in negotiations about Davis, that the U.S. will kick Haqqani out of the U.S., close U.S. consulates in Pakistan, and cancel an upcoming visit by Pakistan's president to Washington, if Davis, a U.S. embassy employee, is not released from custody by Friday.
| And cut off the money. Cut off the money and threaten to give it all to India. |
The outlines of the threat were confirmed to ABC News by a senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. A White House spokesperson, Tommy Vietor, declined comment.
Ambassador Haqqani denied, via Twitter, that any "US official, incl the NSA, has conveyed any personal threats 2 me or spoken of extreme measures."
Davis, 36, is expected in court early Friday morning in Lahore to face charges of shooting two men on motorcycle on Jan. 25. Davis says he killed the men because they had been following his car and were trying to rob him. Video emerged Thursday of Davis showing his State Department credentials to Pakistani police officers and saying, "I'm a consultant."
| Which means the worst the Paks could do is PNG him and send him home. Why hasn't the US ambassador to Pak-land been screaming night and day? |
Davis is in Pakistan on a diplomatic passport, and the U.S. has demanded his immediate release on the grounds of diplomatic immunity. The stand-off between Washington and Islamabad has brought the already tense relationship between two uneasy allies to a new low. |