Mir Aimal Kansi
Aimal Kansi | |
---|---|
First degree murder Malicious wounding (3 counts) Use of a firearm in the commission of a felony (5 counts) | |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Details | |
Date | 25 January 1993 |
Location(s) | Langley, Virginia |
Killed | Lansing H. Bennett, 66 Frank Darling, 28 |
Injured | 3 |
Aimal Kansi (born 10 February or 22 October 1964 – 14 November 2002)
Background
Kansi was an ethnic
He entered the United States in 1991 under the name Mir Aimal Kansi and brought a substantial sum of cash which he had inherited in 1989 upon the death of his father. He traveled on forged papers that he had purchased in
He stayed with a
Shootings
On 25 January 1993, Kansi stopped his borrowed brown Datsun station wagon[12] behind a number of vehicles waiting at a red traffic light on the eastbound side of Route 123, Fairfax County.[13] The vehicles were waiting to make a left turn into the main entrance of CIA headquarters. Kansi emerged from his vehicle with his semi-automatic Type 56 assault rifle and proceeded to move among the lines of vehicles, firing a total of 10 rounds into them,[14] killing Lansing H. Bennett, 66, and Frank Darling, 28. Three others were left with gunshot wounds.[11] Darling was shot first and later received additional gunshot wounds to the head after Kansi shot the other victims.[citation needed]
Kansi returned to his vehicle and drove to a nearby park. After 90 minutes of waiting, he realized that he was not being actively sought; he then drove back to his Reston apartment.[11] At the time, reports said police were looking for a white male in his twenties and that the shooting was not thought to be directly connected to the CIA.[15] He hid the rifle in a green plastic bag under a sofa, went to a McDonald's to eat, and booked himself into a Days Inn for the night. The CNN news reports he watched made it clear that police had misidentified his vehicle and did not have his license plate number.[10] The next morning, he took a flight to Quetta, Pakistan. According to Kansi, he killed CIA employees because, "I was really angry with the policy of the U.S. government in the Middle East, particularly toward the Palestinian people", Kansi said in a prison interview with CNN affiliate WTTG.[16]
On 16 February 1993, Kansi, then a fugitive, had been charged in absentia. The charges involved the capital murder of Darling, the murder of Bennett, and three counts of malicious wounding for the other victims, along with related firearms charges.[citation needed]
Arrest and rendition
In May 1997, an informant walked into the
As Kansi was in the dangerous
Trial
During Kansi's trial, the defense introduced testimony from Dr.
Kansi was tried in front of a jury at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Fairfax, Virginia over a period of ten days in November 1997; he had pleaded not guilty to all charges. The jury found him guilty and recommended the death penalty for the capital murder charge.[11]
On 4 February 1998, Kansi was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Darling, who was shot at the beginning of the attack and again after the other victims had been shot. His other sentences of life imprisonment for the first-degree murder of Bennett, a 60-year sentence for the three malicious woundings, and fines totaling $600,000[11] were rendered moot by his execution.
Execution and burial
Kansi was executed by lethal injection on 14 November 2002, at Greensville Correctional Center, near Jarratt, Virginia.[19] Kansi's body was repatriated to Pakistan. His funeral was attended by the entire civil hierarchy of Balochistan, the local Pakistan Army Corps Commander and the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Ashraf Jahangir Qazi. Prayers in Pakistan's National Assembly were led by Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a religious leader elected from Quetta, who intoned, "God, destroy those who handed him over to America. God, his murderers, whether in America or in Pakistan, may they meet their fate soon." (Ahmad was a member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F).)[20][21]
See also
- Capital punishment in the United States
- Capital punishment in Virginia
- List of people executed in Virginia
- List of people executed in the United States in 2002
References
- ^ "2002". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ "CNN.com - Pakistani man executed for CIA killings - Nov. 15, 2002". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ "Mir Aimal Kasi #807". www.clarkprosecutor.org. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- ^ "Pakistani Executed for 1993 CIA Rampage". Fox News. 25 March 2015.
- ISBN 9780231126922.
- ISBN 1-59420-007-6.
- ^ "Mir Aimal Kansi". FBI. web.archives.org. 22 October 1996. Archived from the original on 22 October 1996. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Historical Dictionary of Pakistan (1991) by Shahid Javed Burki.
- ^ a b c Stein, J. "Convicted assassin: 'I wanted to shoot the CIA director'", Salon.com, 22 January 1998. Archived 12 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Davis, P. & Glod, M. "CIA Shooter Kansi, Harbinger of Terror, Set to Die Tonight", Washington Post, 14 November 2002.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Justice A. Christian Compton, Virginia Supreme Court Opinion on Mir Aimal Kansi, 6 November 1998.
- ^ Bill Miller. "Gunsmith Says Tip on Kansi Went Unheeded; ATF Disputes Employee's Account", Washington Post, 12 February 1993
- ^ Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars", New York: Penguin Books, 2004, pp. 246–247
- ^ Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002
- ^ "Gunman Kills 2 CIA Employees at Agency's Gate". Los Angeles Times. 26 January 1993.
- ^ ARCHIVES CNN Pakistani man executed for CIA killings 15 November 2002 Archived 23 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Hasan, K. "How Aimal Kansi was betrayed", Daily Times (Pakistan), 23 June 2004. Archived 29 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Khan, R. "In search of truth", DAWN, 24 November 2002.
- ^ Glod, M.; Weiss, E. (15 November 2002). "Kansi Executed For CIA Slayings". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ "Pakistan's Foreign Policy Predicaments Post 9/11", jstor.org. Accessed 14 February 2024.(subscription required)
- ^ Sahni, Ajai (28 November 2002). "Pakistan's new government 'takes charge'". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 21 December 2002. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)