It hardly surprised David Passaro's neighbors or a former wife that he should be arrested for beating an Afghan man in custody last year, becoming the first civilian charged in the US military's widening prison abuse scandal.
His first wife said Passaro, a former Army Special Operations soldier who worked for the CIA in Afghanistan, hit her when he drank too much. His second wife, who is separated from him, filed court papers asserting Passaro had been "verbally abusive and threatening" to her. His neighbors in Lillington said Passaro, following a dispute over their dogs, fired a bullet through the windshield of their empty car while their children played nearby.
PHOTO: AP
In 1990, Passaro was fired from the police force in Hartford, Connecticut, after he was arrested for beating a man in a parking lot brawl, officials said. Passaro later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and paid a US$115 fine.
Passaro is accused of beating an Afghan detainee, Abdul Wali, with his hands, feet and a large flashlight inside a northern Afghan prison last June 19 and 20. Wali died the next day, apparently of a heart attack, officials have said. Passaro was charged Thursday with four counts of assault and faces 40 years in prison.
His family and lawyer argue that Passaro, 38, is not a violent man. They contend the complaints from his estranged wife and his ex-wife are exaggerated or untrue. They say the fight that got him fired from the Hartford Police Department was provoked by the other man. And they assert that he never fired his gun at his neighbor's car.
"You're going to hear that David has a gung-ho and high-charging, butt-kicking side to him," said his younger brother, Stephen Passaro.
"It doesn't mean you're bad or you're wrong, it's just how you're perceived. Unfortunately David has this high-charging side and I have it too. Everything we do, we put in 110 percent," Stephen Passaro said.
Passaro's supporters also assert that he deserves special credit for serving the country in dangerous hot spots around the world. Passaro, working with both the military and the CIA, was repeatedly granted clearances to handle secret information.
"That generally doesn't happen unless you have a pretty spotless record," Gerald Beaver, Passaro's lawyer, said.
The CIA conducted a background check of Passaro last year while he was working as a civilian medical planner for the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The examiners concluded that Passaro's marital problems and firing from the Hartford Police Department were not serious enough problems to warrant rejecting his application to work with the agency.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS