Cia Shooting Suspect Confesses Admits ‘93 Slayings On Flight From Pakistan, Officials Say

The Pakistani under arrest for the deadly rampage near the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1993 confessed to the attack to federal agents who captured him, law-enforcement officials said Thursday.

The suspect, Mir Amal Kansi, who was brought to the United States on Tuesday, admitted the shootings and signed a confession during the long flight aboard a military aircraft from an undisclosed base in Pakistan to Dulles airport here, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

If convicted of the attack, Kansi could be sentenced to death. The shootings, on Jan. 25, 1993, left two people dead and three others wounded. He is being held without bail in the Fairfax County Jail in suburban Virginia.

The officials said Kansi’s arrest took place at a hotel in Pakistan, contradicting accounts by government representatives who said earlier in the week that the capture had taken place in a remote border area of Afghanistan.

Kansi’s confession was first reported Thursday by The Associated Press, which also quoted a receptionist at the Shalimar Hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, who said the arrest had been made on Sunday in a predawn raid at the hotel. The town is about 210 miles east of Quetta, Kansi’s hometown.

The arresting agents appeared to have precise knowledge of Kansi’s whereabouts. They arrived in three or more four-wheel-drive vehicles, entered the hotel and went to the room occupied by Kansi, who was using an assumed name. They left within 10 minutes, thanking the inn-keeper in English.

During his conversations with agents, officials said Thursday, Kansi provided details of the CIA shootings. He is said to have told the agents that he remembered firing 10 shots from an AK-47 assault rifle along a highway entrance to the intelligence agency headquarters.

Federal agents routinely seek information from suspects after their arrest, asking them to sign a form in which they agree to waive their right to speak with a lawyer before making any statements.

Kansi is said to have discussed his motive for the attack with the agents. The precise reason for it remains uncertain, however, except that officials said he had harbored a grudge against the agency, which engaged in a covert effort to support Afghan rebels, operating in areas where Kansi’s family lives.