据美国《外交政策》杂志近日披露，今年3月22日早晨，54岁的班尼特与妻子在美国弗吉尼亚州劳登郡的一处河边公园散步。不久，一辆两侧没有窗户的白色可疑车辆驶入公园，随后公园里传出一阵骚动。这辆白车驶走后，有人发现班尼特被杀害，而他的妻子也受重伤。
这一谋杀案因为班尼特的“前美军军官”身份令人产生不少疑问，而随着死者信息越来越多地被披露出来，这一事件愈发引起关注。据报道，1999年，北约对南联盟发动了为期78天的空袭，时任陆军中校的班尼特正在美国中央情报局任职。中情局发言人乔治表示，班尼特在2000年就已离职。美情报部门消息人士透露说，班尼特并非主动离职，而是遭到中情局的解雇---作为给情报部门提供轰炸目标的军官，班尼特对北约轰炸中国驻南联盟大使馆一事负有责任。
美国《洛杉矶时报》当时的报道也印证了班尼特遭解雇的原因。该报在2000年4月8日曾经披露，中情局解雇了1名职员，还对6名职员进行了惩戒，这7人涉及一起“致命事件”。尽管中情局拒绝透露相关消息，但有美国官员透露，被解雇的那名官员负责给美军提供轰炸目标，当时他在地图上把“×”画在错误的地方，最终酿成中国驻南联盟大使馆遭受空袭的惨剧。众多消息源指出，这名画错“×”的人就是班尼特。
目前，包括联邦调查局在内的多个部门正就班尼特被谋杀案进行调查。调查人员现在寻找到4至5名案件相关人士，并呼吁公众提供谋杀案当天有可疑举动之人的线索。与此同时，美国中情局出面否认了传闻。一名官员表示：“目前没有任何迹象表明班尼特被杀一事与其军方背景和供职中情局的生涯有联系。”不过，劳登郡办公室发言人则表示：“目前没有迹象指向哪个方面，但我们确实不能排除任何观点。”
Last month, former Army officer William Bennett was found murdered after being out with his wife on an early morning walk in a residential neighborhood in Lansdowne, Virginia. His wife Cynthia was badly injured but survived the March 22nd attack, which is being investigated by local and federal authorities。
In 1999, sources bring to our attention, Bennett was a retired Army lieutenant colonel working at the CIA on contract as a targeter during the 78-day NATO air war on Kosovo. He was one of the people, according to a former U.S. intelligence source, found responsible by the Agency for feeding the target into the system that resulted in the May 7, 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade。
CIA spokesman George Little told the Loudoun Independent that Bennett left his job at the Agency in 2000。
The former U.S. intelligence source says Bennett was fired as a consequence of the CIA investigation into how the Chinese embassy was targeted。
On April 8, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that the CIA “has fired one employee and sanctioned six others, including a senior official, in the first official punishment of those involved in the deadly incident. …The State Department informed the Chinese Embassy in Washington on Saturday of the disciplinary actions by the CIA … The CIA declined to identify those who were disciplined for the bombing, which killed three Chinese civilians and wounded 27 others. But a U.S. official said the agent who was fired ‘was the one who selected the target . . . and essentially put the X on the map in the wrong place.’"
According to the former intelligence source, that one person fired by the CIA over the incident was Bennett。
The CIA would not confirm that. “When it comes to Bennett, the CIA has not commented on what his responsibilities were as a contractor, noting only that his service with the Agency ended in 2000,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told Foreign Policy Saturday。
责任编辑：虫虫
