CIA Reports Officer Killed in Prison Uprising
Ex-Marine Was Interviewing Prisoners When Non-Afghan Taliban Fighters Began Revolt

By Vernon Loeb and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 29, 2001

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.

A family friend who answered the door yesterday afternoon said the family did not wish to comment. Faatz said he believed Spann's wife and the children had left the house at least a few days ago after getting word that Spann was missing.

At Manassas Park Elementary school, where Spann's oldest daughter, Alison, 9, is in the fourth grade, administrators had been awaiting confirmation of Spann's death before telling her classmates. "There's a great deal of sadness to be dealt with," said principal Patricia Miller. "She's a wonderful child, a bright child. When we last saw her, she didn't know."

"I know the children will be very supportive," Miller said. "Fourth-graders will express their sadness as fourth-graders can."

Speaking to reporters outside his home in Winfield, Spann's father, Johnny, a real estate agent, said the Spann family had already told Alison what had happened to her father.

"We told her exactly what he was doing -- he was out there fighting for his country and our freedom," Spann said. "Our family wants the world to know that we are very proud of our son, Mike, and we consider him a hero.

Asked who he blames for his son's death, Spann father had a clear, short answer: "Osama bin Laden." He added without elaborating that he also believed that media reports from northern Afghanistan over the last week had increased the danger to his son.

Spann recalled how his son once told him why he joined the CIA: " 'To make the world a better place for us to live,' " Spann said. "And that is exactly what he was doing in Afghanistan -- and we're proud of his dedication and his service to our country."

Family friends in Winfield spoke of Spann's determination, even as a high school student, to become either an FBI agent or a CIA officer. "He was a good competitor -- a tough kid, mentally and physically," said Joe Hubbert, the retired coach of the Winfield High School football team and fellow parishioner at the Winfield Church of Christ.

He recalled how Spann, at about 5 foot, 8 or 9 inches and 160 pounds, came out for football his senior year and played in every game at either running back, wide receiver or defensive back before heading to Auburn University.

"One day, I asked him, 'Mike, what do you want to do in life?' and he said, 'First of all, I want to get college behind me, and then I want to be either an FBI or a CIA agent -- and maybe even fly an airplane,' " Hubbert said.

Instead of flying jets, Spann joined the Marines straight out of college as a private and became an officer less than a year later. "He was kind of a tough guy, is what he was," said Marine Maj. Mike Mullins, who served in Okinawa for a year and a half as Spann's commanding officer in Lima Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines. "His purpose in life was to prepare himself and his unit to go to war."

Mullins said Spann, then a lieutenant, became his executive officer and kept the artillery unit functioning like clockwork. "I knew he was trying to get into the CIA because he asked me for a letter of recommendation -- and I never knew if he got it. Obviously, he did," Miller said.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking minority member on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said yesterday that the prisoners at Mazar-e Sharif had hidden weapons and "didn't plan to surrender."

After speaking by telephone with Spann's father and wife, Shelby said: "I've been briefed on the circumstances, and they should be proud of him."

Staff writer Maria Glod contributed to this report.