Pakistan judge: Charge CIA lawyer, agent for drone strike
ISLAMABAD (AP) – A Pakistani judge on Tuesday ordered criminal charges be filed against a former top CIA lawyer who oversaw its drone program and a former station chief in Islamabad over a 2009 strike that killed two people.
Former acting general counsel John A. Rizzo and ex-station chief Jonathan Bank must face charges including murder, conspiracy, waging war against Pakistan and terrorism, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court ruled. A court clerk and a lawyer involved the case, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, confirmed details of the judge’s ruling.
Rizzo and Bank could not be immediately reached for comment. The CIA declined to immediately comment when reached by The Associated Press.
Bank fled Pakistan in 2010 after his cover was blown when a Pakistani man named Kareem Khan initially threatened to sue the CIA and others for $500 million over the deaths of his 18-year-old son, Zaenullah Khan, and his brother, Asif Iqbal, in a purported Dec. 31, 2009, strike on the North Waziristan tribal region.
The AP and other media organizations reported at the time that three people were killed in a missile attack that day in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Pakistani intelligence officials said then that the men were militants, but offered no proof.
As the outrage over the lawsuit grew, protesters in Islamabad began carrying placards bearing Bank’s name as listed in the lawsuit, urging him to leave the country. The CIA didn’t move Bank, who had previously served in Baghdad, until he began receiving death threats.
via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1Fyuugz
No comments:
Post a Comment