CIA Reports Officer Killed in Prison Uprising

Ex-Marine Was Interviewing Prisoners When Non-Afghan Taliban Fighters Began Revolt

The CIA reported yesterday that an agency paramilitary officer was killed Sunday during an uprising by Taliban prisoners in northern Afghanistan and broke with tradition by identifying him as Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann. He is the first known U.S. combat casualty in the war in Afghanistan.

CIA Director George J. Tenet confirmed Spann's death after days of reports by Northern Alliance commanders that an American intelligence officer had been killed at the start of the prison riot by Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans who had fought with the Taliban before being captured by rebel forces.

The death of Spann, 32, a former Marine and father of three who lived in Manassas Park, underscored the extraordinary role being played by the CIA in the Afghan war. The agency has deployed paramilitary officers on the ground to work with anti-Taliban rebels and operated experimental missile-armed unmanned aircraft that have fired on Taliban targets.

Tenet informed CIA employees of Spann's death in a closed-circuit television broadcast yesterday morning before releasing a statement in which he called Spann "an American hero." He said Spann was inside the fortress in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif interviewing prisoners when the bloody revolt began.

"Although these captives had given themselves up, their pledge of surrender -- like so many other pledges from the vicious group they represent -- proved worthless," Tenet said. "Their prison uprising -- which had murder as its goal -- claimed many lives, among them that of a very brave American, whose body was recovered just hours ago."

Spann was the 79th CIA employee killed in the line of duty, and will soon be memorialized as the 79th star chiseled into the agency's wall of honor in the lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley. But many of the agency's dead have never been publicly identified to protect the identity of intelligence sources overseas.

Spann, a native of Winfield, Ala., joined the CIA in 1999 after eight years in the Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of captain and specialized in artillery.

He and his wife, Shannon, lived in a town house in Manassas Park, with two young daughters from Spann's previous marriage and an infant son born just before the Sept. 11 attacks. Spann's annual salary was less than $50,000, according to one Bush administration source.

Spann, a member of the CIA's Special Activities Division assigned to the agency's Counterterrorist Center since Sept. 11, was used to frequent overseas deployments. His neighbors yesterday recalled seeing a "welcome home daddy" banner strung across his garage door just a few months ago.

Neighbors and friends said Spann was a quiet family man who mostly kept to himself. They said he never mentioned his work for the CIA.

"He carried himself as a Marine," said Richard Faatz, 30, Spann's next-door neighbor and one of only a few people in the neighborhood who knew much about him. "They just seemed like a great family. A happy family."

Neighbors said Spann would drive his daughters to the school bus stop in the morning -- all of a half-block away. After Sept. 11, the family put out an American flag that still hangs from the door moldings.