View source for 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters

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An attack took place on January 25, 1993 near the entrance of [[CIA|Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)]] headquarters in [[Langley, Virginia]] where two CIA employees were killed and three others wounded. The perpetrator, Mir Aimal Kasi, shot CIA employees in their cars as they were waiting at a stoplight.

Kasi fled the country and was placed on the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives]] list, sparking a four year international [[Manhunt (law enforcement)|manhunt]]. He was captured by Pakistan agents in [[Pakistan]] in 1997 and [[rendition (law)|rendered]] back to the United States to stand trial. He admitted that he shot the victims of the attack, and was subsequently found guilty of [[Capital punishment in the United States|capital]] and first-degree [[murder]], and was executed by [[lethal injection]] in 2002.

== Background ==
[[Image:Mir-aimal-kasi.jpg|thumb|110px|Aimal Kasi, shortly after his capture in 1997]]
Kasi ({{lang-ar|مير أيمال كانسي}}) was a [[Pakistan]]i national, born in [[Quetta]], [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]]<ref name="dawnfuneral">Baluch, S. "[http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/25/fea.htm Kasi’s funeral: mourners come in their thousands]", ''DAWN'', November 25, 2002.</ref> on February 10, 1964,<ref>[http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/kasi807.htm Mir Aimal Kasi]. ''The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney''. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.</ref> and belonging to the [[Pashtun people|Pashtun]] tribe of [[Kasi tribe|Kasi]]<ref name="dawnfuneral"/>. He went to the US in 1991, taking a substantial sum of cash he had inherited on the death of his father in 1989<ref name="dawnfuneral"/>. He travelled on forged papers he had purchased in [[Karachi]], altering his name to "Kansi", and later bought a fake [[United States Permanent Resident Card|green card]] in [[Miami]]<ref name="salon">Stein, J. "[http://www.salon.com/news/1998/01/22news_kasi.html Convicted assassin: 'I wanted to shoot the CIA director']", ''Salon.com'', January 22, 1998.</ref>. He stayed with a [[Kashmiri people|Kashmiri]] friend, Zahed Mir<ref name="harbinger">Davis, P. & Glod, M. "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55638-2002Nov14 CIA Shooter Kasi, Harbinger of Terror, Set to Die Tonight]", ''Washington Post'', November 14, 2002.</ref>, in his [[Reston, Virginia]] apartment, and invested in a courier firm<ref name="dawnfuneral"/> for which he  also worked as a driver<ref name="supreme">Justice A. Christian Compton, [http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvtx/1980797.txt Virginia Supreme Court Opinion on Mir Aimal Kasi], November 6, 1998.</ref>. This work would be decisive in his choice of target: "I used to pass this area almost every day and knew these two left-turning lanes [were] mostly people who work for CIA."<ref name="salon"/>

According to Kasi, his first thoughts of an attack came after the purchase of an AK-47 from a [[Chantilly, Virginia|Chantilly]] gun store. The plan soon became "more important than any other thing to [him]."<ref name="salon"/>

== Shootings ==
At around 8 a.m. on January 25, 1993, Kasi stopped a borrowed brown [[Datsun]] [[station wagon]]<ref name="Washington Post">Bill Miller. "Gunsmith Says Tip on Kansi Went Unheeded; ATF Disputes Employee's Account", ''Washington Post, ''Feb. 12, 1993</ref> behind a number of vehicles waiting at a red traffic light on the eastbound side of [[Virginia State Route 123|Route 123]], [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]].<ref>Steve Coll, "Ghost Wars", New York: Penguin Books, 2004, pp. 246-247</ref> The vehicles were waiting to make a left turn into the main entrance of CIA headquarters. Kasi emerged from his vehicle with an [[AK-47]] and proceeded to move among the lines of vehicles, firing a total of 10 rounds into them,<ref name="sacredcows">Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002</ref> killing Lansing H. Bennett, 66, and Frank Darling, 28. Three others were left with gunshot wounds.<ref name="supreme"/>  Darling was shot first and later received additional gunshot wounds to the head after Kasi shot the other victims.

During his later confession, Kasi said that he'd only stopped firing because "there wasn't anybody else left to shoot", and that he only shot male passengers because "it would be against [his] religion to shoot females".<ref name="supreme"/>

He was also surprised at the lack of an armed response: "I thought I will be arrested, or maybe killed in a shootout with CIA guards or police."<ref name="salon"/>

Kasi climbed back into his vehicle and drove to a nearby park. After 90 minutes of waiting, it became clear that he was not being actively sought and so he drove back to his Reston apartment.<ref name="supreme"/> He hid the assault rifle in a green plastic bag under a sofa, went to a [[McDonald's]] for something 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.<ref name="harbinger"/> The next morning, he took a flight to Quetta, Pakistan.<ref name="dawnfuneral"/>
According to Kasi, he killed American CIA people because, "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.<ref name="CNN">ARCHIVES CNN [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/11/14/cia.killings.execution/ Pakistani man executed for CIA killings] November 15, 2002</ref>

== Investigation ==
An investigative task force (named "Langmur" for "Langley murders") was drawn together from both the FBI and local [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]] police. They began sifting through recent AK-47 purchases in [[Maryland]] and Virginia—there had been at least 1,600 over the previous year alone. Mir Aimal Kasi's name was on the sales slip from a gun store in [[Chantilly, Virginia|Chantilly]], where he had exchanged another gun for the AK-47<ref name="harbinger"/> just three days before the shootings.<ref name="supreme"/>

This information provided the first solid lead in the investigation when Kasi's roommate, Zahed Mir, reported him missing two days after the shootings.<ref name="supreme"/> He also told police how Kasi would get angry watching CNN reports of attacks on Muslims<ref name="harbinger"/> — in particular, Kasi would later cite the US attacks on Iraq, Israeli killings of Palestinians, and CIA involvement in Muslim countries.<ref name="salon"/><ref name="supreme"/> Although Mir didn't think much of it at the time, Kasi had said he wanted to do "something big", with possible targets of the [[White House]], the [[Israeli diplomatic missions|Israeli Embassy]] and the CIA.<ref name="harbinger"/>

A police search of Kasi's apartment turned up the hidden AK-47 under the couch. Ballistics tests confirmed it was the weapon used in the shootings, and Kasi became the chief suspect of the investigation.<ref name="harbinger"/>

Kasi was listed as one of the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/19961022211252/www.fbi.gov/mostwant/kansi.htm FBI-Ten Most Wanted Fugitive-Mir Aimal Kansi<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The search was focused on Pakistan, and agents spent the next four years following hundreds of leads, taking them as far afield as Thailand, but to no avail.<ref name="harbinger"/> Kasi would later reveal he had spent this time being sheltered by fellow Pashtun tribesmen, in the border regions of [[Afghanistan]], making only brief visits to Pakistan.<ref name="salon"/><ref name="supreme"/>

== Capture and rendition ==
In May 1997, an informant walked into the [[Diplomatic missions of the United States|US consulate]] in [[Karachi]] and claimed he could help lead them to Kasi. As proof, he showed a copy of a driver license application made by Kasi under a false name but bearing his photograph. Apparently, the Pashtun tribals who had been sheltering Kasi were now prepared to accept the multi-million dollar reward offer for his capture.<ref name="dt">Hasan, K. "[http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-6-2004_pg7_36 How Aimal Kasi was betrayed]", ''Daily Times (Pakistan)'', June 23, 2004.</ref> Other sources claim they were pressured by the Pakistani government.<ref name="dawnfuneral"/>

Kasi was in the Afghan border regions, so the informant was told to lure Kasi into Pakistan where he could be more easily apprehended. Kasi was tempted with a lucrative business offer—smuggling Russian electronic goods into Pakistan—which brought him to [[Dera Ghazi Khan]], in the [[Punjab (Pakistan)|Punjab]] province of Pakistan, where he checked into a room at Shalimar Hotel.<ref name="dt"/>

At 4 a.m. on the morning of June 15, 1997, an armed team of FBI agents, working with the Pakistani [[Inter-Services Intelligence|ISI]], raided Kasi's hotel room. His [[fingerprint]]s were taken on the scene, confirming his identity.

There is some dispute over where Kasi was taken next—US authorities claim it was a holding facility run by Pakistani authorities<ref name="supreme"/>, while Pakistani sources claim it was the US embassy in [[Islamabad]]<ref name="dt"/> — before being flown to the US on June 17 in a [[C-141 Starlifter|C-141]] transport.<ref name="supreme"/><ref name="dawntruth">Khan, R. "[http://www.dawn.com/2002/11/24/op.htm#3 In search of truth]", ''DAWN'', November 24, 2002.</ref>

During the flight, Kasi made a full oral and written confession to the FBI.<ref name="supreme"/>

Kasi's extrajudicial [[rendition]] was controversial in Pakistan—no formal request for his extradition was made, and no extradition proceedings were initiated.<ref name="dawntruth"/> US authorities would later assert the rendition was legal under an extradition treaty signed with the UK, before [[Partition of India|Partition]] when India was under colonial rule.<ref name="supreme"/>  Kasi argued against his rendition in court but his assertions were found to have no basis in law.  The Court wrote:

{{quote|&hellip;the treaty between the United States and Pakistan contains no provision that bars forcible abductions, nor does it otherwise 'purport to specify the only way in which one country may gain custody of a national of the other country for the purposes of prosecution.' Id. at 664 (emphasis added). Nor does the treaty provide that, once a request for extradition is made, the procedures outlined in the treaty become the sole means of transferring custody of a suspected criminal from one country to the other. Finally, because Kasi was not returned to the United States via extradition proceedings initiated under the Extradition Treaty between the United States and Pakistan, Kasi's reliance upon [[United States v. Rauscher]] does not avail him.<ref>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=022P&exact=1 FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>}}

== Trial ==
On February 16, 1993, Kasi, then a [[fugitive]], had been charged [[in absentia]]. The charges involved capital murder of Darling, murder of Bennett, and three counts of malicious wounding for the other victims, along with related firearms charges.

During the trial the defense introduced testimony from Dr. [[Richard Restak]] a [[neurologist]] and also a [[neuropsychiatrist]], that Kasi was missing tissue from his [[frontal lobes]], a congenital defect that made it hard for him to judge the consequence of his actions. This testimony was re-iterated by another [[psychiatrist]] for the defense based upon independent examination.

Kasi was tried by a Virginia state court jury over a period of ten days in November 1997, on a plea of not guilty to all charges. The jury found him guilty, and fixed punishment for the capital murder charge at death.<ref name="supreme"/>  On February 4, 1998, Kasi 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. Among his other punishments were a [[Life imprisonment|life sentence]] for the first-degree murder of Bennett, multiple 20-year sentences for the malicious woundings, and fines totalling $600,000.<ref name="supreme"/>

==Possible vendetta ==
Days before Kasi's conviction in November 1997, four US oil executives and their Pakistani taxi driver were shot dead in Karachi, in what has been described as a deliberate response to Kasi's guilty verdict.<ref>Knowlton, B. "[http://www.iht.com/articles/1997/11/21/warn.t.php Americans Abroad Face a Rising Risk of Terrorism]", ''International Herald and Tribune'', November 21, 1997.</ref>

==Execution==
Kasi was executed by [[lethal injection]] on November 14, 2002, at [[Greensville Correctional Center]] in [[Jarratt, Virginia]].<ref name="slayings">Glod, M. & Weiss, E. "[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/239005481.html?dids=239005481:239005481&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Nov+15%2C+2002&author=Maria+Glod++and+Eric+M.+Weiss&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=A.01&desc=Kasi+Executed+For+CIA+Slayings  Kasi Executed For CIA Slayings], ''Washington Post'', November 15, 2002.</ref> Kasi's body was repatriated to Pakistan, his funeral was attended by the entire civil hierarchy of Baluchistan, the local Pakistan Army Corps Commander and the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, [[Ashraf Qazi|Ashraf Jahangir Qazi]].<ref name="Kapila, Subhash">"Pakistan's Foreign Policy Predicaments Post 9/11", ''South Asia Analyst Group'', ''Paper No. 564'', December 12, 2002</ref> 

== Victims ==
The two fatalities of Kasi's attack were Lansing H. Bennett M.D., 66, and Frank Darling, 28, both CIA employees. Bennett, with experience as a [[physician]], was working as an intelligence analyst assessing the health of foreign leaders.<ref name="bennett">"[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-929679.html Lansing Bennett, Physician Slain Outside CIA]", ''Washington Post'', January 27, 1993.</ref> Darling worked in [[covert operation]]s.<ref name="harbinger"/>

The three people wounded in the attack were Calvin Morgan, 61, an engineer; Nicholas Starr, 60, a CIA analyst; and Stephen E. Williams, 48, an [[American Telephone & Telegraph|AT&T]] employee.<ref name="harbinger"/>

== Memorials ==
=== Central Intelligence Agency memorial wall ===
[[Image:Cia-memorial-wall.jpg|thumb|230px|The [[CIA Memorial Wall]] at their Langley headquarters, on which Bennett and Darling are memorialized]] 
Bennett and Darling were memorialized as the 69th and 70th entries on the CIA's "[[CIA Memorial Wall|memorial wall]]" of stars in the foyer of the Langley headquarters building, although President Clinton, in an address to the CIA, attributed the two individuals as the 55th and 56th stars.<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1994/940104c.htm Remarks from President to CIA employees]</ref>

=== Route 123 Memorial ===
The Route 123 Memorial, consisting of a granite wall and two benches facing each other near the site of the shooting, is dedicated to Bennett and Darling.<ref name="ciavirtualtour">[https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/virtual-tour/virtual-tour-flash/flash-movie-text.html CIA virtual tour]</ref> This memorial is illuminated at night.  The memorial is not at the exact location of the shooting due to traffic reasons.

An inscription reads:
{{quote|<poem>
In Remembrance of Ultimate Dedication to Mission Shown by Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency Whose Lives Have Been Taken or Forever Changed by Events at Home and Abroad.

Dedicato Par Aevum
(Dedicated to Service)
May 2002
</poem>}}

The memorial was dedicated May 24, 2002.<ref name="ciavirtualtour"/>

=== Lansing Bennett Forest ===
A forest was renamed in Bennett's honor—the Lansing Bennett Forest in [[Duxbury, Massachusetts]], where he was formerly chair of the Duxbury Conservation Commission.<ref>[http://www.town.duxbury.ma.us/Public_Documents/DuxburyMA_Conservation/ConAreas/lbforest Duxbury, MA - Lansing Bennett Forest]</ref>

Bennett is buried in the Dennis Village Cemetery, [[Massachusetts Route 6A|Route 6A]], north of [[Bourne, Massachusetts]].

=== Kasi's Memorial ===

[[Image:Aimal_Kansi.jpg|thumb|230px|Mosque in built in the name of Kasi in his home province of [[Baluchistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]], [[Pakistan]]]]
Kasi is memorialized through a mosque build with his name as [[Shaheed]] Aimal Kansi [[masjid]] (Martyr Aimal Kansi mosque) in the port city of Ormara in Kansi's home province of [[Baluchistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]] in [[Pakistan]].<ref>[http://blog.dawn.com/2010/05/18/revered-but-for-what/ "Revered – but for what?"]</ref>

==See also==
*[[1993 World Trade Center bombing]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://webscript.princeton.edu/~paw/memorials/memdisplay.php?id=3946 Article about Princeton alumnus, Lansing Bennett, M.D., detailing his medical career, State Department work, CIA work]
* [http://libweb5.princeton.edu/theses/thesesid.asp?ID=39000 Princeton thesis written by Bennett]

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[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Virginia]]
[[Category:1993 murders in the United States]]
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[[Category:Presidency of Bill Clinton]]
[[Category:Murder in Virginia]]
[[Category:Extraordinary rendition program]]
[[Category:Spree shootings in the United States]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in 1993]]
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