RALEIGH, N.C., – A former Army special forces soldier working as a contractor for the CIA in Afghanistan was charged Thursday with brutally assaulting a prisoner during three days of interrogations that ended in the Afghani man’s death last year. David Passaro, 38, became the first civilian to be charged in the scandal surrounding abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. A grand jury handed up a four-count indictment that accused him of using a large flashlight to beat a detainee suspected of participating in rocket attacks on a U.S. military base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Abdul Wali died in his cell on last June 21, three days after he surrendered for questioning at Asadabad Base.
AIDS activists target Larry Flynt
About 20 AIDS activists carrying props resembling giant condoms rallied outside the front door of porn mogul Larry Flynt’s Beverly Hills office Thursday, demanding actors in his company’s adult films be required to use condoms. The demonstrators said the Flynt Publications office was singled out both because of Flynt’s prominence in the adult entertainment industry and his recent statement in a Los Angeles Times commentary that films with condoms “don’t sell.” At least five porn actors tested positive for HIV in April.
Alabama: Shooting kills 3 officers
Three police officers at a house to make an arrest were shot to death Thursday, and the sheriff said a suspect was taken into custody. Colleagues of the officers found their bodies outside the house where the three had gone to serve “misdemeanor-type warrants,” a Birmingham city spokesman said. Authorities did not release further details, but the small, one-story dwelling, divided into apartments, had a reputation in the low-income neighborhood as a crack house.
Maryland: Triple killer executed
A triple murderer was put to death by injection in Baltimore Thursday after a week of appeals in which his lawyers claimed the lethal drugs used for execution were potentially painful and therefore unconstitutionally cruel. Steven Oken, 42, was executed for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, a 20-year-old newlywed. He also was convicted of killing Patricia Hirt, his wife’s sister, and Lori Ward, a motel clerk in Maine, during a 15-day spree.
D.C.: Senate votes to boost Army
Defying the Bush administration, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to add 20,000 troops to an Army stretched thin by the war in Iraq and other commitments around the world. The 93-4 vote in the Republican-led Senate – following a similar action by the House – reflected the anxieties lawmakers have been hearing from families of service personnel whose tours in Iraq keep getting extended and whose return to civilian life is repeatedly postponed. The increase was approved as an amendment to a $447 billion defense authorization bill.
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