|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Virginia set to execute CIA killer
JARRAT, Virginia (CNN) -- Virginia is moving ahead with the scheduled execution of a Pakistani man who went on a 1993 shooting rampage outside CIA headquarters -- an attack motivated by his anger toward Washington's Middle East policies. The execution of Mir Aimal Kasi, 38, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET Thursday, has prompted the State Department to issue warnings that his death may trigger retaliatory attacks against U.S. interests overseas. "We are proceeding for 9 o'clock. We have not been told to step down," said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. "We're aware of the security issues, and we're dealing with those issues." Kasi was convicted in 1997 for the killings of two CIA employees -- Frank Darling, 28, and Lansing Bennett, 66 -- as they sat in their cars in morning traffic outside CIA headquarters. Three other CIA employees, all in separate cars, were wounded in the attack. Around 8 a.m. on that day, January 25, 1993, Kasi walked among the automobiles with an AK-47 firing randomly. The cars were stopped at a red light, waiting to turn into the CIA entrance. When he got to Darling's vehicle, he shot out the rear window, striking Darling in the torso. Kasi then walked to the front of the car and fired again, blowing off part of Darling's head. "I was real angry with the policy of the U.S. government in the Middle East, particularly toward the Palestinian people," Kasi said in a prison interview with CNN-affiliate WTTG. Kasi worked for a local courier service at the time of the shooting and was familiar with the area around the CIA headquarters. He fled the scene and remained on the run for more than four years until he was captured by FBI agents in a hotel in Pakistan in June 1997. According to prosecutors, he spent most of his time hiding in Afghanistan, with only occasional stops in Pakistan. On the flight back to the United States, authorities said, he gave an oral and written confession to FBI agent Bradley Garrett after signing a written rights waiver form. He was found guilty after a 10-day trial in Fairfax County in November 1997. Kasi's fate now rests in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. The Supreme Court is reviewing his appeal of his conviction and request of a stay. Warner is reviewing a clemency request.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
