Mazer E Sharif
Subject: Re: Independent:
CIA threatened to let prisoner be killed
Date: Sat, 08 Dec
2001 21:59:10 -0800
From: "Russell D. Hoffman"
<rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
To:
Doug Salzmann <doug@talkpath.com
Dec. 8th, 2001
Hi Doug,
I too have been rather baffled by this lack
of concern for what the CIA
agent was saying on the tape. It seems
that the following was his basic
claim to the Taliban prisoners at Mazer E
Sharif:
1) Everyone of you is going to die soon
except
those the Red Cross learns
about.
2) The Red Cross isn't going to learn about
everyone -- they can only take
a few of you.
3) We are only going to tell the Red Cross
about the ones that talk to us.
4) The rest of you are all dead meat.
You'll die here -- and soon --
unless you start talking to us.
Now, that's what it sounded to me like he
was
saying to the
prisoners. Talk now or die soon.
Personally, I think this incident might be
the beginning of the end of the
CIA. That tape is damning, is it not?
Yours,
Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA
At 09:26 PM 12/8/01 , you wrote:
This, of course, was clear from the
MSNBC/Newsweek
story on the Die Welt
footage I circulated the other day.
It didn't, however, seem to have
occurred to the reporter or editors of that
piece that death threats
against POWs were a problem -- just as it
doesn't seem to concern the
American public. After all the guys
are terrorists, aren't they?
-Doug
---
Video evidence has emerged that CIA operatives
were threatening Taliban
prisoners they would be left to die if they
did not co-operate under
interrogation.
In an exchange captured on video by an
Afghan
cameraman, two officers
threatened the American Taliban fighter John
Walker, who was being held at
a prison fortress near the northern city of
Mazar-i-Sharif two weeks ago.
One of the officers is Mike Spann, a member
of the special activities
division of the agency's directorate of
operations
the paramilitary wing
of the agency's secret espionage branch
who was killed in an uprising at
the prison only hours later. Nearly 400
Taliban
prisoners were also killed
as the uprising was put down.
The precise nature of the threat
raised
by Mr Spann and a CIA colleague
called Dave is unclear, but on the video
Mr Spann, 32, wearing jeans and
a black jumper and with an AK47 assault rifle
strapped across his back, is
seen nodding towards Mr Walker, 20, and then
saying to Dave: "I explained
to him what the deal is". The video shows
Mr Walker kneeling on the
ground, emaciated, filthy, wearing loose black
trousers and a tunic, with
his elbows tied behind his back, and cowering
as Mr Spann remonstrates
with him. Mr Walker stares at the ground
throughout.
"Dave" then replies: "The problem is, he's
got to decide if he wants to
live or die. If he wants to die, he's going
to die here. Or he's going to
f****** spend the rest of his short f******
life in prison. It's his
decision, man.
"We can only help the guys who want to talk
to us. We can only get the Red
Cross to help so many guys."
The mention of the Red Cross appears to be
a reference to a representative
of the international charity who was trying
to register the thousands of
Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters in the prison.
<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=108988
---
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury
of the State and district
wherein the crime shall have been committed,
which district shall have
been previously ascertained by law, and to
be informed of the nature and
cause of the accusation; to be confronted
with the witnesses against him;
to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses
in his favor, and to
have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Homepage.
DU
in Afghanistan