A CIA contractor accused of beating an Afghan prisoner so badly that he died two days later went on trial for assault on Monday in a case that raises questions about the treatment of detainees by interrogators.Once Upon A Time...
David Passaro, a former Special Forces medic who worked under contract with the CIA, is the first civilian to be charged with abusing a detainee in U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Passaro is charged with four counts of assault and accused of using his hands, feet and a large flashlight to beat Abdul Wali, an Afghan detainee, who died two days after the interrogation in June 2003.
The indictment says he did "knowingly and intentionally assault Abdul Wali with a dangerous weapon and such assault resulted in serious bodily injury to Abdul Wali."
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Passaro maintains his innocence and his lawyers on Monday argued that the interrogation itself was necessary because the base was under attack.
[ cf Reuters: CIA contractor goes on trial over Afghan abuses ]
In america, if you beat a person so badly that they died, you were put on trial for the charge of manslaughter in the least.
Wow, and to seek the excuse that because the base was under attack, and had been under attack before and after, that this justified Destruction of the Information Container....
So who knows, maybe the trial will have the correct verdict. It might even oblige folks at the CIA to make commitments as to which of their policy posturing positions were the ones that they really held about what is acceptable Torture when seeking to commit Aggrevated Battery sufficient to commit the death of an Information Container.
Or most likely not.
Maybe NOW the VOCHAS will get over their chicken hawk syndrom and Into the War On Whatever.... Especially since this is going on before a US District Judge, and would not really require the VOCHAS to travel abroad to engage in acts of Vindications OF Their Holiness...
Or most likely not.