MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. Later in the broadcast, the secrets to success for startup companies trying to break out from the Washington region, but first, the secrets that are unraveling in a complicated double murder case in Pakistan. It's now public knowledge that Raymond Davis, the American accused of killing two Pakistani men in Lahore last month, was actually a security contractor for a covert CIA team working inside that country.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIHis arrest and detention have fueled an explosive international dispute between two countries whose relationship was already defined by a complex and often confusing partnership and his status as a CIA contractor may further complicate American pleas for his release. Joining us by telephone is Karen DeYoung. She is a senior diplomatic correspondent at The Washington Post. Karen, thank you for joining us.

MS. KAREN DEYOUNGMy pleasure, Kojo.

NNAMDIIt's a story that reads like a spy novel and it seems fair to say that a lot of people probably read the headlines today and said to themselves, of course this guy Raymond Davis was working for the CIA. Your newspaper knew of his status shortly after this arrest, but agreed not to publish it at the request of U.S. intelligence officials. Why have they agreed to make this information public now and what information about his assignment still remains out of public view?

DEYOUNGWell, I think that the agreement not to publish was changed when his name and affiliation were published first in a British newspaper on Monday that had found out about this, I believe, through sources in Pakistan because the Pakistani government was certainly well aware of his status. And they published it and our agreement was always, as it is in these cases, that if it appears somewhere else, that there is no agreement anymore, that we are then free to publish.

NNAMDIIs there any likelihood that there's another shoe likely to drop about the nature of his assignment that we don't know about?

DEYOUNGYou know, I would never say never in this case because it just seems to get more and more complicated all the time. But our understanding has been from the start that he is a security contractor. The CIA basically hires contractors to protect their installations in other countries. In this case, they had what they refer to as a safe house in Lahore and they had contractors of whom Raymond Davis apparently was one, who provided security for that location and also for agents as they were out doing whatever it is they're doing. What we think they were doing was gathering information about militant groups in Pakistan.

NNAMDIBefore this point, the U.S. government was very careful about describing Raymond Davis and his role in Pakistan. The president even referred to him last week as our diplomat. How does the disclosure of his status as a CIA contractor affect American efforts to get him out of Pakistan?

DEYOUNGWell, you know, this whole question of defining someone as a diplomat is in the first instance in the eye of the sending country. In other words, you can declare anyone you want a diplomat and he certainly had a diplomatic passport, not the blue one that the rest of us have. And he applied for a visa through the State Department, a diplomatic visa. The U.S. argument throughout has been that the holder of a diplomatic passport with a diplomatic visa granted by the hosting country is, therefore, a diplomat.

DEYOUNGThe Pakistanis certainly accepted him at the time as a diplomat. They can argue after the fact that his job and what he was doing is not the standard thing one would think diplomats are doing, but they accepted it up until the point that this incident occurred. And of course, this incident comes, as you explained earlier, in the context of very high levels of anti-Americanism in Pakistan which is fanned by the Pakistani media and has become a sort of political football in Pakistan. So that I think regardless of what the Americans are or are not doing there, they're accused of doing a lot of things that, in fact, they're not doing. We're just finding out some things that they are doing that we weren't aware of.

NNAMDIKaren DeYoung is a senior diplomatic correspondent at The Washington Post. Karen, what's at stake for the Pakistani government with this case? There seems to be a lot of pressure on the government from within Pakistan to stand up to the United States and its intelligence operations. It was only a few weeks ago that the CIA station chief in Islamabad was forced to leave the country after his cover was blown.

DEYOUNGThe federal government in Pakistan, they have a federal system in some ways similar to our own. The federal government there, which is headed by President Zardari, is very weak. It has pretty much surrendered security functions and defense functions to the Pakistani military. At the same time, this event occurred in the province of Punjab in Lahore, which is ruled by a different political party than the party of President Zardari.

DEYOUNGThe party that is ruling Punjab used to be in charge of Pakistan several civilian governments ago. And so there is a tension there where both the Punjab government and the military see it to their advantage to have the federal government being as weak as possible and that government does not see it as very wise to be publicly in favor of the United States, even though, you know, ostensibly Pakistan and the United States are allies in the fight against terrorism. The United States gives them a lot of assistance in terms of economic assistance, military assistance and the Pakistanis have done quite a bit to fight against insurgents that have safe havens in their country. They haven't done as much as the Americans would like them to do, but they have done quite a bit.

DEYOUNGBut all of this, again, is mixed up in domestic politics in Pakistan where it just is not very wise for any politician to say, let's kowtow to the Americans, which is how it would be interpreted. And I think you also have to know, you know, this was a very serious crime. I mean, a man says it was in self defense, a guy driving an unmarked car through a major city, a very crowded area, shoots dead two Pakistani citizens.

DEYOUNGCalls to the U.S. Consulate in Lahore to come and rescue him, a car leaves the consulate with U.S. employees in it, races through the city, hits another person uninvolved and kills them on a motorcycle and then rushes back to the consulate inside the gate. So you have three people dead. You know, this has happened -- there have been incidents like this in other countries, including in this country where people with diplomatic immunity, foreigners, have committed crimes and have been sent back because as the Americans say, we have a treaty. Diplomats are immune and you cannot arrest them, you cannot charge them. All you can do is send them home. There was, of course, a case here...

NNAMDIThe Georgian diplomat, DuPont Circle...

DEYOUNGYes, yes. And in that case, the United States asked the Georgian government to waive diplomatic immunity for a man who had killed someone in Washington and the Georgian government agreed. He was tried and he was imprisoned here.

NNAMDIConversely, in this situation, in this situation in Pakistan, Karen, what's at stake for the United States in how this plays out? Pakistan is a key counter-terrorism partner for the U.S. There was speculation that the U.S. has been scaling back drone attacks in Pakistan since this case has been underway.

DEYOUNGI don't know that that's necessarily true. I think if you look at the statistics, it is this time of year, January and February, there's always been a scaling back in drone attacks. The weather is very hazy. It's very cold. The elevation of these areas is very high. So I don't know if we can necessarily draw that conclusion yet until a few months go on and we see the weather clear. Again, if you look for the past several years, there has always been a drop in January and February in drone attacks so we just don't know. I don't know if they're pulling back.

DEYOUNGI think that, you know, the Americans have always been -- had very little leverage with the Pakistanis. We need them. We need them for the war in Afghanistan. They've been very clever about exploiting that need, while, again, I think it's fair to say they have taken some steps in there in a very difficult situation there at home. So I think the two countries need each other. It is the question of domestic politics that's coming into play in Pakistan now and that's why it makes it so difficult for them to do, even assuming that they wanted to, and I think some do and some don't, within the government to turn this man over.

NNAMDIKaren, Karen, finally a two-part question here. One, does this case have the potential to fundamentally alter the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan or more specifically between the CIA and the Pakistani government or the Pakistan intelligence service, ISI?

DEYOUNGWell, I think it does because, you know, because it's become such a big deal in Pakistan now that I think if they do send him back to this country, I think you're going to see a lot of people in the streets there. You're going to see a lot of upheaval in Pakistan so, you know, I don't see a way that this can end quietly.

NNAMDIAre there any cards on the diplomatic side left to play for the United States? John Kerry traveled to Pakistan last week to pressure the Pakistani government and came back empty-handed. American lawmakers are talking tough about cutting economic and military aid to Pakistan. What are the cards left to play here?

DEYOUNGI think only time. I think they're -- they don't have many cards and I think what they're hoping now is if they just let it simmer down a bit. I don't know that that's going to happen, but that seems to be the only option that they have right now.

NNAMDIKaren DeYoung is a senior diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post. Karen, thank you for joining us.

DEYOUNGYou're very welcome.

NNAMDIWe're going to take a short break. When we come back, trying to make a tech startup in the Washington area successful, trying to bring back Washington's Silicon Valley and how difficult that might be. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.