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CNN Live At Daybreak

CIA Director Calls Spann a Hero

Aired November 29, 2001 - 05:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to learn more now about Mike Spann. He has become, he's actually being called a hero by his boss. He is a CIA operative. He is the first U.S. combat fatality in Afghanistan.

We learn more about Mike Spann now from our David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency the flag has been lowered to half staff to honor the first American combat casualty in Afghanistan. 32-year-old Mike Spann had been two years at CIA, eight in the Marine Corps before that, seen here in a recent family photo.

In Winfield, Alabama, a grieving father spoke with pride.

JOHNNY SPANN, MIKE SPANN'S FATHER: When he decided to leave the military service to work for the CIA, he told me he did so because he felt that he'd be able to make the world a better place for us to live. We recall him saying, "someone has got to do the things that no one else wants to do." And that is exactly what he was doing in Afghanistan.

ENSOR: CIA officials say they believe Spann was killed Sunday at the beginning of the prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, which has since been suppressed. But, that it wasn't until daybreak Wednesday that U.S. officials were able to get to the part of prison fortress where his body lay.

At the time of his death, Spann was in the fortress gathering intelligence from Taliban prisoners, U.S. officials say, about Taliban intentions and whereabouts. He was armed when he died.

In a statement, CIA Director George Tenet said, "Mike fell bringing freedom to a distant people, while defending freedom for all of us here at home. Mike Spann was an American hero," said Tenet, "a man who showed passion for his country and his agency through his selfless courage."

There are 78 stars on the wall in the lobby at the CIA, one for each CIA officer killed in the line of duty since the agency's inception in 1947. A 79th star will now be carved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you blame anyone for his death?

J. SPANN: Osama bin Laden.

ENSOR (on camera): Spann was part of the Special Activities Division at CIA. These are covert operations officers, many of them former military personnel adept with firearms and trained for deadly missions. Alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, there are hundreds of CIA officers, risking their lives to try to wrap up al Qaeda and the Taliban.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That prison uprising took part in the northern part of the country.

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