AP: Ex-CIA contractor sentenced to prison...Killed detainee

[catgirl]

RALEIGH, N.C. - A former CIA contract employee was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 8 1/2 years in prison for beating an Afghan detainee who later died.

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David Passaro, 40, was accused of hitting Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicking him in the groin during a two-day interrogation at a remote military base in Afghanistan in July 2003. Wali died within 48 hours of the interrogation, after complaining of abdominal pain and an inability to urinate.

Passaro was the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was found guilty last year of assault and could have gotten 11 1/2 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle sentenced Passoro to eight years and four months, and has said that a lack of an autopsy probably kept Passaro from being charged with murder.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_cia

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

1. Should have gotten life without parole

nm

[Judi Lynn]

4. How strange they didn't deem it necessary to get an autopsy, and spared this murderer

the sentence he deserves.



What a triumph, beating a helpless, broken prisoner to death.

[hpot]

5. It is a message to other contractors

They can be held criminally liable. That is, until Bush (or Cheney) pardons them.

[catgirl]

6. Let's see how he fairs in prison.

He's walking in as a coward. Cowards don't do well with
in prison.

[William Bloode]

17. He'll do ok actually.

He will go into protective custody most likely. Any member of law enforcement, and or justice system is supposed to be automatically place in protective custody.

[MsKandice01]

2. Assault...

That's all they charged him with. Interesting.

[Doondoo]

3. K&R

[The Stranger]

7. NPR (Neocon Public Relations) reported it as a sentence for "abusing a detainee."

Somehow they left out the part about the detainee dying as a result of the "abuse."

[Lance_Boyle]

8. That is accurate.

Because the trial was for assault, not murder, the sentence was for assault, not murder.

[The Stranger]

9. Of course it isn't accurate.

To omit the necessary end result of the "abuse" is, in effect, to conceal, rather than report, the story.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. It is entirely accurate.

Your beef is with the charges being for assault instead of murder. I share that beef. However, there is no way that sentencing for murder can result from a trial on charges of assault. NPR's reporting on that matter is accurate.

[The Stranger]

12. It is entirely inaccurate.

Regardless of yours or anyone else's "beef," the news piece omitted the fact that the victim died as a result of the assault. It doesn't matter how the person was charged, it is whether or not the news was being accurately reported.

To omit such critical facts is inconsistent with accurate reporting. Worse, it is evidence that the report seeks to slant the actual facts due to the nature of death and killing. None of this is a legal question.

[Lance_Boyle]

14. The news piece was about the trial and sentencing.

The trial was for assault, not murder, and so was the sentencing. The news piece accurately reflected the charges and the sentence. I don't understand why you insist that facts not relevant to the trial and sentencing should be included in reporting on those events. Inclusion of superfluous detail is not generally a hallmark of accurate reporting.

[The Stranger]

16. You seem to insist on being wrong.

As stated previously, the NPR piece did not include the fact that the victim of the crime died as a result of the crime. Even here, in the AP piece that is the subject of this thread, these facts were included:

RALEIGH, N.C. - A former CIA contract employee was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 8 1/2 years in prison for beating an Afghan detainee who later died.

So by your very own account and by your own reliance upon this news piece, the NPR report should have included these facts as well.

(Although, candidly, your little sentence about "superfluous detail," and "a hallmark of accurate reporting" was thoroughly amusing.)

[Lance_Boyle]

18. I guess we'll agree to disagree.

I stand by my previous assertion that the NPR piece accurately reflected the trial and sentencing, even if it omitted a superfluous fact that you insist it should have included. The NPR piece was about the trial and sentencing, and accurately reported the facts of the trial and sentencing. You are free to your own opinion, high horse and all.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Thanks for illuminating N.P.R. It's painful trying to listen to them, isn't it?

It'd be good to read what everyone has ever thought the first time they heard them hammering that good old right-wing message home, using the same quiet, thoughtful voices we heard in the past, only with a completely sinister undertow. What a nightmare.

They must be mad to think they're EVER going to get their listeners back.

[MGKrebs]

10. Well at least he got enough info to stop the Taliban.

Oh wait...

[gratuitous]

13. Bummer, Mr. Passaro

If you'd committed your special crime in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer's CPA would have absolved you of all culpability by executive fiat. Well, eight years from now you'll only be 48, maybe still in good enough shape to be a mercenary for someone else. I reckon the straggling remnants of South Africa's apartheid regime will be take just about anyone, and someone with your record could probably command top dollar.