NEW YORK, 15 NOV - E' stata eseguita negli Stati Uniti la condanna a morte di Mir Aimal Kasi, un pachistano che nel 1993 uccise due dipendenti della Cia e feri' altre tre persone in un agguato motivato dal suo odio per l'America.

   Kansi e' MORTO per un'iniezione letale poco dopo le 21:00 locali (le 03:00 in Italia) nel carcere di Jarrat, in Virginia.

      L'esecuzione e' stata accompagnata da forti preoccupazioni da parte degli Usa per possibili attentati a scopo di ritorsione in Pakistan e nel mondo islamico contro obiettivi

americani.

15 November, 2002

US executes Pakistani killer

The case has prompted protests in Pakistan

A Pakistani national convicted of the murder of two CIA employees has been executed by lethal injection in the US state of Virginia.

Aimal Khan Kansi, 38, was convicted of the 1993 killings in a shooting rampage outside the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

I have no regrets... I told the US that its officials would not be safe in their homes if it continues to target Palestinians

 Aimal Khan Kansi 

Hours before his execution, Kansi told the BBC's Urdu service that he felt no remorse and that he carried out the attack to register his anger at American "anti-Muslim" policy in the Middle East.

 The US had warned of possible reprisal attacks, and several hours later an explosion on a bus in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad killed two and wounded five.

 It was not clear whether the blast was linked to the execution.

 The US State Department had said it would close its embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi.

 Protests in Pakistan

 Kansi was executed at Virginia's Greensville Correctional Center, and was pronounced dead at 2107 on Thursday (0207 GMT Friday).

 He repeated the phrase "There is no god but Allah," until he lost consciousness.

 Prior to his execution, Kansi met two of his brothers, his lawyers, and his spiritual adviser.

 No relatives of the two victims attended the execution.

 Protests against the execution continued in Pakistan on Thursday.

 Kansi: Would do the same again

 In Kansi's home town of Quetta, reports say about 150 members of the condemned man's tribe chanted "Aimal is our hero" and "Death to Bush".

 Last week, the US State Department issued a worldwide caution to its citizens about the potential for "retaliatory acts" in response to the case.

 Kansi's family - supported by the Pakistani embassy in the US - launched a last-ditch appeal for clemency.

 But the Virginia Governor, Mark Warner, turned it down, saying in a statement that Mr Kansi had "shown absolutely no remorse for his actions".

 An appeal to the US Supreme Court also failed, with only two of the nine justices voting in favour of a stay.

 Composed

 Aimal Khan Kansi was calm and composed when the BBC interviewed him by phone from his high-security cell.

I saw Osama Bin Laden once in Kandahar - I shook hands with him

 Aimal Khan Kansi 

"Yes, I did kill two people outside the CIA headquarters and I said so in my confession to the FBI," he said.

 "I told them I wanted to register my objection to their foreign policy - their Middle East policy, specifically their pro-Israel policy, their anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian policy."

 He denied having links to al-Qaeda, although he admitted having friends among the Taleban and having met Osama Bin Laden once.

 "I saw Osama Bin Laden once in Kandahar. I was standing there. People were shaking his hands - I, too, shook hands with him."

 But he stressed: "He didn't know me".

 Abduction

 Kansi, 38, was captured in 1997 after being lured back into Pakistan by FBI and Pakistani security agents.

 Pakistanis are up in arms

 The day after the 1993 shooting, Kansi flew back to his native Quetta in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, before slipping over the Afghan border to escape arrest.

 He told the BBC his only regret was that the Pakistani Government had allowed him to be kidnapped by the US.

 Kansi was sentenced to death in 1997 for the murders of CIA intelligence analyst Lansing Bennett, 66, and CIA agent Frank Darling, 28, who were gunned down outside CIA headquarters four years earlier.

 Three others were wounded in the attack.

Pakistani man executed for CIA killings

November 15, 2002   

From right, FBI agent Bradly Garrett helped capture

 Mir Aimal Kasi in 1997. 

 JARRATT, Virginia (CNN) -- A Pakistani man was executed Thursday night for killing two CIA employees in a 1993 shooting rampage outside the agency's headquarters -- an execution the State Department warned could trigger retaliatory attacks against U.S. interests overseas.

 Mir Aimal Kasi, 38, died by lethal injection at 9:07 p.m. ET at the Greensville Correctional Center.

 His final statement was: "There is no God but Allah."

Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said Kasi was "chanting, I believe, in his native tongue when he did come into the chamber.

 "His spiritual adviser also was chanting, kind of in a whispered chant. And once the spiritual adviser was escorted out of the execution chamber, (Kasi) continued to chant softly," Traylor told reporters.

 It took about three to four minutes for Kasi to die after the first drug was administered.

 "He appeared nervous. I'd say his breathing was a little labored. When the first drug took effect, he did have a bit of a snore as he exhaled. That's not uncommon," Traylor said. "Other than that, there were no complications."

 Other witnesses said Kasi waved two fingers in a sort of victory sign on his way into the chamber and was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans and sandals without socks.

 No family members of the victims were present at the execution, Traylor said.

 In Pakistan, Kasi's family mourned his death but appealed for calm Friday. (Full story)

 CIA chief: Killer's victims 'remain in our thoughts'

CIA Director George Tenet said the agency will never forget the CIA employees killed and wounded in the attack: "Today, our thoughts are with our two colleagues who were murdered on January 25, 1993, as well as the three others who were wounded that day," Tenet said in a statement issued after the execution.

 "They and their loved ones will always be part of our agency family. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers long after today."

 Kasi had asked Brad Garrett, the FBI agent who tracked down Kasi and brought him back from Pakistan, to attend the execution and the agent stood next to Kasi's gurney. 

Kasi's body was being transported to the medical examiner's office in Richmond, where an autopsy will be performed before it is turned over to his family. The family has said it wants to return the body to Pakistan.

 Dozens of anti-death penalty activists protested outside the prison and held a candlelight vigil. One woman held a sign reading, "Life is sacred. Do not kill."

 Stays and clemency denied

Hours before his death, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner rejected a request for clemency.

 The Pakistani native was convicted of an ambush-style murder spree outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on January 25, 1993. Two agency employees died, three others were wounded.

 Lawyers for Kasi had asked the justices for a stay of execution and to overturn his state conviction, both of which were rejected. Only Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to grant the stay.

 Kasi's family, along with Pakistan's embassy in the United States, had asked for clemency.

 Kasi's execution prompted the State Department to issue warnings that his death may trigger retaliatory attacks against U.S. interests overseas.

 Traylor said earlier, "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., 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.

 "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 FBI agents in a hotel in Pakistan captured him 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 Garrett after signing a written rights waiver form. He was found guilty after a 10-day trial in Fairfax County in November 1997.

 The State Department last week issued an advisory that the execution could prompt attacks against Western interests. "The potential exists for retaliatory acts against U.S. or other foreign interests in response to the execution," the advisory said.

 Kasi himself referenced that possibility in the recent interview.

 "In Pakistan, a lot of people like me. So I believe there will be big chances for retaliation against Americans there. But personally, I don't encourage anyone to attack Americans," he said. 

Richmond Times-Dispatch

NOVEMBER 15, 2002:

VIRGINIA - Execution - Kasi dies for CIA killings

 Praying quietly until the end, Mir Aimal Kasi was executed by injection last night for the 1993 slayings of two CIA employees.

 In his last statement, Kasi said, "There is no God but Allah," according to Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

 Then, Kasi chanted quietly, Traylor said. He was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m.

 Media witnesses said Kasi prayed with a Muslim spiritual adviser for his last hour.

 As he lay strapped on the gurney, Kasi gestured with his right hand, witnesses said.

 "My personal impression was a peace sign" directed at the witnesses, said Guy Taylor, of The Washington Times. "He appeared almost saddened."

 Another media witness, reporter Chris Gordon of the NBC affiliate in Washington, said he saw something "like a twitch" but wasn't sure it was peace sign.

 Describing the death, Gordon said, "He appeared to go to sleep." Though not linked to any extremist organizations, Kasi, 38, a Pakistani national, gave the United States a taste of terrorism years before the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

 He was sentenced to death for the murders of Frank Darling, 28, and Lansing Bennett, 66. They were killed with an AK-47 assault rifle as they sat in their cars at a stoplight outside CIA headquarters in McLean on Jan. 25, 1993.

 3 other people, 2 with the CIA and a telephone company employee, were wounded. Kasi fired a total of 11 bullets into 5 cars.

 An FBI agent testified that Kasi confessed he wanted to punish the U.S. government for bombing Iraq, for what he saw as its involvement in the killing of Palestinians and because the CIA was too deeply involved in the internal affairs of Muslim countries.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory for Americans abroad last week because of the pending execution. Threats had been made in recent days in Pakistan to harm Americans should Kasi be executed. 4 Americans were killed in Pakistan during his 1997 trial.

 In Kasi's hometown of Quetta, Pakistan, paramilitary troops stood guard as supporters rallied yesterday in protest of the execution, burning an American flag and calling for the United States to stop interfering in their country.

 However, a reporter from Pakistan who was covering the execution last night said Kasi is not widely perceived as a hero there.

 "He's not a hero. He's committed a crime," said Azim M. Miam, United Nations bureau chief for the Jang Group of Newspapers.

 Miam said there has been a great deal of interest in the case in Pakistan because there has been so much coverage in the American media. "In these days of globalization, CNN, ABC - they are beaming these things over there about Aimal Kasi."

 More law enforcement vehicles were stationed near the Greensville Correctional Center entrance than usual for an execution, and corrections officers armed with shotguns and rifles stood watch. Kasi's execution also attracted far more media outlets than usual, as measured by the number of vehicles with satellite dishes in the prison's parking lot.

 In Richmond, state and Capitol Police cruisers, with blue lights flashing, were positioned last night on East Franklin and North Eight and Ninth streets around the building that houses the Virginia Supreme Court and Virginia Court of Appeals.

 No threats had been received, said Lt. Robert Northern of the Virginia State Police. The extra security was merely precautionary "because of the unique nature of the person being executed."

 Outside the prison, about 75 people held a candlelight vigil to protest the execution. They prayed for Kasi and his victims as they gathered in a circle under a nearly full moon on the cool night in the low 50s. "We're here because we don't believe you can end violence with violence," said Judith Shanholtz, a Henrico County resident.

 The protesters carried signs bearing messages such as "Life is Sacred - Do Not Kill" and "Don't Kill For Me."

 Ann McBride, 57, a Fairfax County preschool teacher, said she has corresponded with Kasi for the last 3 years.

 "He's a great person. That's why I'm very sad," she said. "It's incredibly hard for me to see how people can choose to kill."

 Shanholtz and McBride acknowledged Kasi was guilty, but they said that didn't justify another killing.

 The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Kasi's last appeal and request for a stay of execution yesterday afternoon. Then Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner turned down a clemency request from Kasi's stepmother and the Pakistani Embassy.

 Warner, in rejecting Kasi's clemency petition, said the death penalty is appropriate in this case. "Mr. Kasi has admitted to the crimes for which he was convicted and shown absolutely no remorse for his actions," the governor said.

 Judith Becker-Darling testified at Kasi's trial that she and her husband, Frank Darling, were driving to work, "And all of a sudden, I heard glass smash behind me. My husband looked in the rear view mirror and said right away, 'My God, I've been shot. Get down!'"

 Becker-Darling said she ducked beneath the dashboard as her husband struggled to maneuver their Volkswagen Jetta out of harm's way. She continued to hear what sounded liked balloons popping.

 "I picked my head up and I was looking down the barrel of a gun . . . my husband said again, 'Get down.'" She obeyed and heard more shots. "When I picked my head up, Frank was shot in the head."

 Kasi flew to Pakistan the day after the shootings and was not found for 4 years. He spent most of that time in Afghanistan, hiding in and around Kandahar.

 The FBI nabbed him from his hotel room in the Dera Ghazi Kahn in central Pakistan on June 15, 1997, and brought him back to the U.S. to stand trial.

 Kasi's real name is Aimal Khan Kasi, but he was charged and convicted as Mir Aimal Kasi. He was the 4th person executed in Virginia this year and the 87th since the death penalty was allowed to resume by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.