CIA contractor goes on trial over Afghan abuses

RALEIGH, N C, Aug 7 (Reuters) A CIA contractor accused of beating an Afghan prisoner so badly that he died two days later went on trial for assault today in a case that raises questions about the treatment of detainees by interrogators.

David Passaro, a former Special Forces medic who worked under contract with the CIA, is the first civilian to be charged with abusing a detainee in US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Passaro is charged with four counts of assault and accused of using his hands, feet and a large flashlight to beat Abdul Wali, an Afghan detainee, who died two days after the interrogation in June 2003.

The indictment says he did ''knowingly and intentionally assault Abdul Wali with a dangerous weapon and such assault resulted in serious bodily injury to Abdul Wali.'' Passaro worked at a US military base in Afghanistan that was frequently subject to rocket attacks and Wali, a suspect in the attacks, turned himself in voluntarily at the gates of the base and was then interrogated.

Passaro maintains his innocence and his lawyers today argued that the interrogation itself was necessary because the base was under attack.

US District Judge Terrence Boyle heard legal arguments this morning and a jury was selected ahead of opening statements from the prosecution and defense. Boyle said he expected the trial to last one week.

GUIDELINES? During the trial the lawyers are likely to argue that techniques Passaro used in the interrogation were consistent with CIA guidelines approved by his superiors.

''It is necessary for the CIA to issue clear guidelines that cruel treatment is prohibited because this case shows there was confusion about what was prohibited and what was not,'' Priti Patel, an attorney with Human Rights First who is watching the trial, told Reuters.

She said the fact that Passaro was the first civilian to be tried and the first defendant associated with the CIA also made it significant.

The issue of guidelines given to interrogators has been in focus since a scandal broke at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 and numerous prisoners released from the US facility at Guantanamo Bay say they were tortured or abused during interrogations.

Critics of government policy say its guidelines on what constitutes torture issued since the September. 11 attacks have led to confusion and created a climate in which abuses of detainees have flourished.

Defence lawyers argued today the government was hindering its case by saying witnesses including former CIA Director George Tenet, whom they have said they intend to call, have been labeled by the government as classified.

REUTERS DH RK0159