Posted on 11/30/2001 4:21:47 AM PST by calmseas
A CIA agent killed by a Taliban mob was kicked, beaten and BITTEN to death, US intelligence chiefs said last night.
Victim Johnny Spann - known as Mike - sparked the revolt inside an ancient fortress as he and a fellow agent quizzed captured foreign fighters.
The CIA men, both fluent linguists, were trying to find out where the POWs had come from and whether they were members of al-Qa'ida.
But when Mike, who was wearing Afghan robes and a long beard, asked one man why he had come to Afghanistan, the prisoner snarled back: "We're here to kill you!" and lunged at him.
Ex-US Marines captain Mike, 32, shot dead his attacker and three others with his pistol - but was then overpowered by the screaming mob and dragged to the ground.
As he was battered to death his partner Dave, who killed at least one Taliban, managed to flee and raise the alarm.
He sprinted across the courtyard of the Qalai Janghi fortress and told his commander over a satellite phone: "I think Michael is dead."
The savage murder was the flashpoint for a full-scale riot and three-day battle which left all 500 Taliban dead.
Dad-of-three Mike, from the small town of Winfield, Alabama, was the first American to be killed by hostile action.
His body was eventually retrieved by US special forces soldiers.
The blood of one American is not worth the lives of a thousand of these misfits of humanity. Nevertheless, there is some satisfaction that he took out three of these pieces of human debris before checking out himself.
I loved his Dad's news conference. His Dad is as proud as a father can be, and rightly so.
I can't figure out why pictures of David where flashed all over the news. So much for staying under cover, huh. Time to reel the media back in.
At the press conference he gave, Mike Spann's dad ripped the media for worrying so much about a scoop they may endanger our guys. The difference between "us" and "them": Spann was in this for love of his country and for what is right. THEY are in it for "glory" and "virgins" in the afterlife.
I'm glad he took out three of the scum. God rest his soul. Let's pray for all the others still over there in that hell.
I'm glad to hear that; it gives that argument a lot more creedance coming from this man who lost a son to this war.
Can't even call these people animals as animals only bite and kill in order to eat. They are lower than animals.
Our prayers go out to his family.
How very sad this young man had to die because other administrations did not think terrorism was a threat even though many Americans died during the prior 8 years that can only be attributed terrorism.
What?....ya mean the Peacenik "Why can't we all get along" crowd are fools?
These Taliban animals can not be reasoned with, they want to see ALL Americans dead, this can't be changed with a "HUG".
I only wish that stories like this would make these Anti-American freaks see the light. Unfortunately it won't, they will say that if we weren't over in Afghanistan in the first place then this wouldn't have happened. They just don't get that ALL Americans are targets, including them. I wonder if they would change their tune if they or a family member died as a result of a terrorist attack?
This makes me so sad to know that this brave man suffered before he died, I'm really glad that he got to send 3 of these scum to the pits of HELL before he went to be with the angels though.
MKM
Sorry.
Boris, expecting to be pecked to death by ducks.
How many of these 500 unrestrained prisoners were two Marines, armed only with "hand-guns", trying to question at one time? This story sounds remarkably different than the "hand-grenades" story we were told immediately after the incident.
It's beginning to look like whoever made the decision to send these two interrogators into that room, substantially out-numbered, grossly underestimated the savageness of their enemy.
There was nobody monitoring the situation and prepared to provide back-up, if the situation got out of hand? Sounds like a military inquiry should be under way already or starting real soon.
This was a totally unnecessary loss of life.
I heard this too, and I thought, "Good for you, Dad. I'm glad you're saying this." Spann's dad sounded like an admirable man, and he was rightly proud of his son and called him a HERO which he was.
Someone sends 2 CIA interrogators into an area to question (how many?) unrestrained prisoners so far removed from the rest of this make-shift prison that 5, 10, 15 (how many?) shots aren't enough to "sound the alarm"?
This reads just like the initial accounts of Phil Bronstein's visit with a "Giant, Man-eating, 7-Foot-Long, Killer Komodo Dragon"!
Who's in charge of CIA interrogations in the Middle-East, Sharon Stone?
I think the goal of this war is to kill all of the Taliban and alQuaida. After all, these people are known to go from war to war, they're in Kashmir, Chechnea, etc. The Northern Alliance have killed a lot of people after accepting their surrender. In this situation a scenario was created in which the Taliban could be slaughtered without any objections.
Many people might think that the image of 'david' on their tv set calling into his superiors that he thinks 'michael' is dead is evidence that the situation occurred as they say. It is a CIA agent's job to create images that will allow the desired result to occur. If it occurred as they say, then why was there a 2-3 day delay in reporting it as such.
It would've been stupid to walk into a prison full of 500 Taliban and interrogate in close quarters a group of them with nothing to protect yourself but two men with sidearms. I think it more likely that Michael died some other way and he was merely used to create images that would justify the killing of these Taliban.
We should understand that lying is now a normal tool of our government to manipulate events, the CIA happens to be very skilled at it.
The CIA needs to hire someone like Tom Clancy to write their fiction for them. They should send the guy that wrote this nonsensical account in to interrogate the next batch of 500 prisoners we round up in Afghanistan. Alone. Armed with a "Taser" or maybe just a "Billy Club" or can of mase.
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