Pakistani Facing Execution Next Week in CIA Attack Says He Discourages Retribution

RICHMOND, Va. – A day after the government warned that the execution of a Pakistani could result in attacks against Americans, the condemned man said he does not support any retaliation by his fellow Muslims.

"I'm against attacks on civilian Americans. They are not responsible for my execution," Aimal Khan Kasi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday from death row at a state prison in Waverly. "I'm not encouraging attacks against anybody."

Kasi killed CIA communications worker Frank Darling, 28, and CIA analyst and physician Lansing Bennett, 66, as they sat in their cars at a stoplight outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., on Jan. 25, 1993. Three other men were wounded as Kasi walked along the row of stopped cars, shooting into them.

He is to be executed by injection Nov. 14.

On Wednesday, the State Department warned that the execution of Kasi could result in retaliation against Americans around the world.

Officials said Americans should "increase their security awareness" when they visit places where fellow countrymen congregate, such as residential areas, clubs, places of worship, schools and hotels.

"I was expecting that," Kasi said. "You know, particularly in Pakistan people like me very much."

Kasi, 38, who said he earned a master's degree in English literature in Pakistan, insisted he is not a terrorist. "What I did was a retaliation against the U.S. government" for American policy in the Middle East and its support of Israel, he said. "It had nothing to do with terrorism."

Kasi said he did not agree with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. "They were totally wrong. They were attacks against civilian people."

He refused to condemn the attack on the Pentagon "since the Pentagon is an agency involved in attacks against Muslim countries."

He said he has no regret about the killings he committed.

"I'm not sorry for attacking the CIA," he said. "You know, I feel sorry and sad for the families of the victims. I don't say that I feel happy or proud for it."

After the CIA killings, Kasi fled the country and spent most of the next 4 years hiding in and around Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. He was caught in a hotel while visiting Pakistan. He was tried and convicted in November 1997.

Kasi said he is continuing his daily routine on death row — praying, exercising and watching the news on TV. He is observing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by fasting from daybreak to sunset.

Kasi said he does not fear execution. "I'm not concerned about it so much. Naturally, I don't like somebody killing me. I believe what God wants, that's going to happen."

Kasi has an appeal pending with the U.S. Supreme Court. He said his lawyer will submit a clemency request to Gov. Mark R. Warner.

Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore is opposing Kasi's appeal. In an earlier statement about the Kasi case, he said "the rest of the terrorist world must know that we will severely punish those who engage in such acts of violent cowardice."