A four-year international manhunt for the alleged killer of two CIA employees ended Wednesday as a somber, bearded - some say troubled - Pakistani faced charges in a Virginia court.
Mir Aimal Kansi, arrested last weekend with the secret help of Afghan citizens and the government of Pakistan, faces the death penalty if convicted for the rush-hour slayings outside CIA headquarters that stunned the na-tion's spy service.Kansi, wearing a dark green prison suit, sneakers and a lead identification wristband, appeared in a two-minute court session Wednesday morning and told Judge J. Howe Brown he understood the charges against him but could not afford an attorney. Brown ordered that counsel be appointed and set a court date of June 27.
"Do you have a lawyer?" Brown asked.
"No, I don't," Kansi replied in English with a slight Pakistani accent. "I don't have money to pay the lawyers, sir."
Brown said Kansi faces 10 charges, five for the two slayings and three woundings, five more for illegal use of a weapon in those assaults. He granted prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr.'s request that Kansi be held without bond because of the seriousness of the charges and because he fled the country the day after the crime.
"At this juncture, I'm going to ask for the death penalty," Horan said after the hearing.
Horan said Kansi "has been no problem" since his arrest, but he would not say whether Kansi was cooperating.
Reporters glimpsed Kansi as Fairfax County authorities escorted the shackled suspect Tuesday night from a helicopter to the county criminal justice building. It was the final leg in a journey that brought Kansi, 33, from hiding in Central Asia to his arraignment in Fairfax, a Washington suburb.
One of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Kansi fled the United States after the Jan. 25, 1993, shootings on a busy boulevard in which a gunman using a Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle shot at people in cars waiting to turn into the CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters during the morning rush hour. The attack turned a routine morning commute into mayhem.
CIA employees Lansing H. Bennett, 66, an analyst, and Frank Darling, 28, a communications engineer, were killed. Two other CIA employees and a telephone company employee working on contract at the CIA were wounded.
Within weeks, authorities focused on Kansi. The break came when his roommate, also Pakistani, allowed police to search his apartment, where they found an AK-47 assault rifle that matched bullets fired in the slayings.
In a statement praising the FBI and CIA, President Clinton said Wednesday the arrest shows the United States "will not relent in the pursuit of terrorists . . ., no matter how long it takes, no matter where they hide."
Spokesman Mike McCurry said Clinton approved the plan to arrest Kansi "and followed its execution along the way."
In February 1993, a Fairfax County grand jury indicted Kansi for capital murder, because more than one person was killed. In Virginia, executions are by lethal injection unless the condemned requests electrocution.
"Ever since then, the question has been whether or not we could find the man who was indicted," Horan said Tuesday night.
While authorities appeared uncertain about the motive in the shootings, they remained convinced that it was the act of a lone gunman, not in connection with any terrorist group.
One classmate of Kansi interviewed in the months following the slayings described Kansi as "psychologically disturbed," possibly due to the death of his mother.
A number of failed attempts preceded Kansi's capture. But the FBI has maintained a constant presence in Pakistan seeking leads in the case with the help of Pakistani authorities. FBI officials refused to discuss which countries helped in Kansi's apprehension or whether any country or individuals were paid the $2 million reward the State Department posted for information about the accused.
"We can't talk about country, and we can't talk about money" said Susan Lloyd, an FBI spokeswoman. "There is an intertwining reason."
Officially, U.S. officials said only that Kansi "has been delivered abroad by Afghan officials to the custody of United States authorities."
In Pakistan Wednesday, private security guards watching U.S. government buildings were put on alert.
"Why today are we on a high state of alert? Because Kansi was taken out," said Ikram Sehgal, managing director of Security and Management Services, Pakistan's largest private security firm.
At the time of the murders, Kansi lived in Reston, Va., and worked for a courier service.