NYT : Ex-C.I.A. Employee Guilty in Assault of Afghan

Ex-C.I.A. Employee Guilty in Assault of Afghan

By SCOTT SHANE | August 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A North Carolina jury today convicted a former Central Intelligence Agency contractor of felony assault for severely beating an Afghan prisoner who died soon after.

The contractor, David A. Passaro, 40, a former Army Special Forces medic who went to work for the C.I.A. in Afghanistan in 2003, is the first civilian to be convicted as a result of numerous allegations of prisoner abuse in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and in the broader campaign against terrorism. He faces a maximum of 11½ years in prison.

The trial, in federal court in Raleigh, N.C., near Mr. Passaro’s town of Lillington, included testimony from clandestine C.I.A. officers who wore disguises to protect their identities, and it drew close attention from human rights advocates.

Witnesses said Mr. Passaro repeatedly hit Abdul Wali, a local farmer suspected of firing rockets at American troops, using a heavy flashlight and his fists. They said Mr. Wali was in such pain that he pleaded to be shot, and he died the day after a second day of abuse by Mr. Passaro.

Mr. Passaro’s lawyers said he was not trained in interrogation and was under pressure to stop the frequent rocket attacks at the remote base near the Pakistan border. They said Mr. Passaro had attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Mr. Wali after he lost consciousness.

Defense attorneys also tried to mount a “public authority defense,” asserting that top officials from President Bush on down had implicitly authorized harsh treatment for potential terrorists in public statements and legal opinions. But United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle would not allow the defense to call as witnesses senior officials, including the former director of Central Intelligence, George J. Tenet.

In a statement sent to C.I.A. employees after the verdict, General Michael V. Hayden, the agency’s current director, called Mr. Passaro’s actions “unlawful, reprehensible, and neither authorized nor condoned by the Agency.”

General Hayden said the agency responded swiftly and properly to the abuse allegations. “As abhorrent as this situation was, it is a fact that we, as an agency, did not sweep it under a rug,” General Hayden wrote.

The acting United States attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George E. B. Holding, hailed the verdict. “This should be a message to the world that wherever U.S. laws are ruling today, justice will be done,” Mr. Holding said, according to Reuters.

But John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the facts of the case had merited more serious charges, including torture, manslaughter or murder. “We question whether the Justice Department has a real commitment to prosecuting detainee abuse,” he said.

Justice Department officials have said one obstacle to more severe charges was the absence of an autopsy, which they said was not performed on Mr. Wali because his family opposed it.

Mr. Sifton said about 20 abuse cases of abuse have been referred to the Justice Department by the Defense Department and the C.I.A., but Mr. Passaro’s is the only one to have been prosecuted. The referrals, including some involving deaths in custody, focused on civilian intelligence officers, civilian contractors like those who worked as interrogators at Abu Ghraib, and enlisted military personnel who have been discharged.

By contrast, more than 80 members of the military have been ordered to face court martial for abusing prisoners and more than 50 have been convicted, according to Human Rights Watch. At least 40 have been sentenced to jail, though fewer than 10 are serving more than a year, Mr. Sifton said.