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12:33 p.m. • 2-11-12

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Ex-CIA worker appealing verdict in detainee's beating death


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Former CIA Contractor Passaro May Be Sentenced Today
Former CIA Contractor Passaro May Be Sentenced Today

A former CIA contractor from Harnett County who was convicted in 2006 of beating an Afghan detainee while working in Afghanistan wants a new trial.

David Passaro, a former Special Forces soldier who worked as a civilian special operations employee at Fort Bragg, was sentenced in February 2007 to 100 months in prison after being convicted of assault in the 2003 death of Abdul Wali.

Wali died in custody after being beaten with a flashlight and kicked during a two-day interrogation at a U.S. base in Afghanistan in June 2003.

Passaro's attorneys argue that the U.S. District Court in Raleigh did not have jurisdiction over the case and that the jury was given faulty instructions.

In addition, classified military information that could prove that Passaro was justified in his tactics was unfairly sealed, his attorneys claim. That meant the evidence could not be brought into trial.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court in Richmond, Va., will hear arguments on the case in March.

RELATED TOPICS: Harnett County, Fort Bragg, Afghanistan, Raleigh, Richmond County

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We considered the tactics used by Saddam Husseins government, to be a brutal dictatorship, without regard to human rights. This is mirror image of that rule. Are we better than a brutal dictatorship ? The courts decided we are.

he deserves a pardon!! high fives to all those "Jack Bauers" out there defending our country no matter what it takes!

Red America is over - we're going to return to values the country was founded on and folks who want to beat people to death with flashlights are no longer going to be running things.

He was trying to get information out of him to help our service men and women, so whats the problem. Maybe some of y0u have forgot 9-11 or how they treat Americans when we are kidnapped over there.

Mr. Passaro deserves to be exactly where he is. Interrogators do not have a free license to beat and kill their detainees.

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