CIA thug found guilty of assault causing death in Afghanistan

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060817/ts_nm/afghan_usa_cia_dc_3

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - A former CIA contractor was found guilty on Thursday of assaulting an Afghan prisoner who later died in a case that raised new questions about the treatment of detainees by U.S. interrogators.

David Passaro, a 40-year-old former Special Forces medic, was the first civilian to be charged with abusing a detainee in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said Passaro beat Abdul Wali so badly he pleaded to be shot to end his pain. Wali died of his injuries two days after the interrogation in June 2003.

Passaro's lawyers portrayed their client as a good soldier who went out of his way to offer care to Wali. They said Passaro even performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in an unsuccessful bid to revive him.

Prisoners released from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where the United States is keeping suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members, also say they were tortured or abused.

[warrens]

1. This American Life had eyewitness testimony to what happened

Abdul Wali was an Afghan man who died in US custody on June 21, 2003, aged 28.

At the time of his death, he had been held for three days at the US base 10 miles south of Asadabad, in Kunar province, Afghanistan, on suspicion of involvement in a rocket attack on the same base. The cause of his death was at first reported to be a heart attack, but this came into question when three members of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division came forward to testify that CIA contractor David Passaro assaulted Wali, kicking him and beating him 10 to 30 times with a heavy flashlight. Passaro has since been charged of two counts of assault and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon (the flashlight). He has pleaded not guilty and is being held until his trial.

Wali's story in part was told on National Public Radio by Hyder Akbar for the show This American Life. Hyder escorted Wali to the US forces as a sign of protection and good will, as Hyder's father was governnor of the Afghani section under which the incidents happened. Some time after Hyder left, Wali died, and Hyder and his father were told about it later.


I would recommend hunting down that This American Life episode (I think it was in early 2003, perhaps February) and listen to how he described it. He's an American kid, and he and his father, the local governor under Karzai, talked Wali into giving himself up, and accompanied him when he surrendered. Then got called back and lied to..."he just died. He was in his cell and just died."

Highly recommended.

[Disturbed]

2. "Murder"

That's the charge he should have to defend.

[jeanarrett]

3. I read about this scumbag.

He ought to get life. He wasn't a soldier gone bad. He was a private contractor bully wannabe badass getting his jollies torturing other people. He should get it as good as he gave.

[OregonBlue]

4. Was this reported in the the Mainstream Media?

[Disturbed]

5. "The Mainstream Media" is a myth.

America has a Corp. Media controlled by a few RW Moguls.

[OregonBlue]

7. True, so I guess that's a no.

[Mir]

6. He's a mercenary

and deserves no mercy at all. I'm sick and tired of these assholes torturing people for profit. Is there a lower form of life on earth than these bastards?