Passaro will serve 8 years for beating

RALEIGH -- Former CIA contractor David Passaro, the only person associated with the agency to be prosecuted for prisoner abuse, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years, four months in prison for beating an Afghan detainee who later died.

In August, a jury convicted Passaro, 40, of Lillington, of one felony and three misdemeanor assault charges in connection with the death of Abdul Wali, an Afghan farmer suspected in rocket attacks on a military outpost near Asadabad, Afghanistan. Passaro was working for the CIA as part of a paramilitary team hunting terrorists near the Pakistan border.

Prosecutors say Passaro created a "chamber of horrors" for Wali, ordering soldiers not to allow him to sleep, limiting his access to food and water and subjecting him to two consecutive nights of interrogation and beatings. Beyond the smacks to the shins, elbows and wrists, soldiers testified that Passaro kicked Wali in the groin hard enough to lift him off the ground and jabbed Wali in the abdomen with a flashlight. After the two nights of beatings, Wali begged the soldiers to shoot him in the head and was left moaning a phrase that meant, "I'm dying."

In June 2003, Wali died on his fourth day in custody. Throughout the beatings, he repeatedly denied any involvement in the rocket attacks.

"Passaro's conduct was a truly heinous crime," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said after the sentencing. "It was an affront to every man and woman serving overseas trying to bring freedom and the rule of law to those who are oppressed."

Holding said he was pleased with the sentence.

Federal public defender Thomas McNamara declined to comment about the sentence, which will likely be appealed.

Passaro, speaking in low tones in court, offered a rambling religious statement to the judge. "I served my country as patriotically as I possibly could. I put my country above God. The Bible says I cannot serve two masters."

Passaro said he failed to treat Wali, whom he described as a terrorist but also a human being, with love and compassion. "I'm ashamed of it. I just ask that this court shows mercy," Passaro said. "The truth is Jesus Christ."

The bigger picture

Human rights observers said Justice Department officials have not done enough to prosecute those responsible for prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Both his prosecution and his sentence are definitely a positive development," said Priti Patel, an attorney with Human Rights First. "But he's one person, and we know that there was systematic abuse of detainees in U.S. custody and we need to make sure everybody is held accountable for that."

Patel said at least 20 cases of CIA agents and civilians involved in prisoner abuse have been referred to the Justice Department for prosecution and nothing has happened.

In August, Passaro's trial brought the detainee abuse scandal to Raleigh's federal courthouse for two weeks. Jurors heard testimony from CIA agents using fake names and false mustaches to disguise their identities. A half-dozen 82nd Airborne soldiers told jurors about the beatings, which they observed while guarding Wali's cell or assisting Passaro.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle to sentence Passaro to 11 1/2 years in prison, but he could have faced as little as 15 months in prison.

Passaro's attorney, assistant federal public defender Joseph Gilbert, asked for a lighter sentence, depicting Passaro as a hero and a patriot for his 13 years in the military and 45 days as a CIA contractor.

"He answered the call. He went over there," Gilbert said. "Every day, every guy who's over there wakes up not knowing if he's coming home."

Gilbert noted that Passaro has done well in jail, starting an exercise program and a 10-member choir to sing on Sundays because there are no religious services.

Prosecutors took offense at the depiction of Passaro as a hero. They submitted to the judge a letter from Said Fazel Akbar, the governor of Kunar province who persuaded Wali to turn himself over to U.S. authorities. Akbar wrote that Wali's death made it more difficult for him to get the people to trust the new Afghan government and U.S. forces.

Akbar wrote, "The distrust of the Americans increased, the security and reconstruction efforts of Afghanistan were dealt a blow, and the only people to gain from Dave Passaro's actions were Al Qaeda and their partners."