CIA attacker ranked best Al-Qaeda informant in years: report

[demoleft]

Source: afp

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Jordanian informant suspected of a suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last week was ranked the agency's best lead on Al-Qaeda in years, the New York Times said on Wednesday.

Citing US intelligence officials, the Times said the Jordanian man was thought to have information about top Al-Qaeda members, including the whereabouts of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organisation's number two.

In fact, the Central Intelligence Agency was so enthusiastic about the information Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi might offer that top officials at the CIA and White House were told he was being brought to Afghanistan for a meeting.
...
The Times reported that Balawi's background as a radical Islamist was known to both Jordanian and US intelligence but that the two agencies believed he had been persuaded to turn on his former colleagues.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/pl_afp/afghanistanunrestusjordanqaedaintelligence

[stray cat]

1. This is the real world unlike posting on web sites

[tekisui]

3. You do realize you posted that on a website, right?

I won't wait for a repsonse. I know you only do post-and runs.

[JDPriestly]

27. Bernard-Henri Levy wrote a fascinating account of his

attempts to investigate the murder of Daniel Pearl. It is the best communication I have read about what that hazy, confused netherworld of Islamic terrorism, of angry vendettas and cruel vengeance mixed with hypnotic pseudo-mystical "religiosity" must be like. It is a fascinating book. I have a feeling that the book was probably much more effective in French. It did not translate well, but still, it is worth reading. Mind you, the specific facts regarding the Perlman assassination may not be accurate but after reading that book you appreciate how difficult the work of intelligence officers is, how frustrating it must be, with regard to terrorism.

From Wikipedia

On September 1, 2003, a book titled Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, written by Bernard-Henri Lévy was published.<22> The book, which the author characterized as an "investigative novel", stirred controversy for some of its speculative conclusions about the killing, and for some of its characterizations of Pakistan, and for the author's decision to engage in an exercise of fictionalizing Pearl's thoughts in the final moments of his life. Lévy was criticized for the book.<23><24><25><26> This book is being adapted into a film directed by Tod Williams and starring Josh Lucas, focusing on the last few days of Daniel Pearl's life.<27>

HBO Films produced a 79-minute documentary titled The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl. It premiered on HBO on October 10, 2006. The documentary chronicles Pearl's life and death, and features extensive interviews with his immediate family. It is narrated by Christiane Amanpour, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Pearl

[tekisui]

2. Damn, our best shot at getting al-Zawahiri was an double-agent

that fooled the CIA into letting him blow 6 agents up.

I wonder who our second best shot is?

[cliffordu]

4. You.

[tekisui]

5. Then we are screwed.

I got nothin'.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

6. 6 agents is technically correct, I guess

But you could also call it 4 agents and 2 kill-for-the-highest-bidder mercenaries. They died doing what they were highly paid to do. I'll give those two a moment of silence--as soon as Blackwater signs the moment-of-silence purchase order I've prepared for them.

[bemildred]

7. Confusion grows over how bomber infiltrated CIA base in Afghanistan

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Washington - The bomber who killed seven CIA employees at an agency forward base in Afghanistan had never been to the compound or met with agency operatives before the attack, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The absence of any previous encounter adds to the confusion over how the attacker -- posing as an informant with valuable information on Al Qaeda -- was able to make it past security with a bomb apparently strapped to his body and lure seasoned CIA operatives to their deaths last week.

A U.S. intelligence official said that the bomber had provided a stream of useful information to the CIA after being presented by the Jordanian intelligence service as an Islamic militant who had switched sides and was now willing to work against Al Qaeda.

But the informant -- a 36-year-old Jordanian physician -- was still seen as an unproven asset by CIA officers, who nonetheless were willing to look past their lingering concerns because they believed that he was poised to deliver an intelligence breakthrough on Al Qaeda's inner circle.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-balawi6-2010jan06,0,6208799.story

---

Personally, I think they ought to stop calling the bomber an "asset".

[NJmaverick]

8. I suspect the CIA thought it was unlikely a physician would become a suicide bomber

A fatal mistake on their part.

[WheelWalker]

9. One would think spooks would nurture a healthy paranoia. As my shrink use to say,

if you're not a little paranoid, you're crazy. He also pointed out that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to get you

[bemildred]

10. I suspect they were under pressure to "get results".

But we won't be told, even if anyone knows.

[NJmaverick]

11. When you consider what it takes to become an MD

you really don't expect that sort of person to just toss their life away.

[bemildred]

12. True, there might be class issues here, I hadn't thought of that.

But generally revolutionary leaders come from the middle or upper classes, so one ought not make such assumptions.

[NJmaverick]

14. Have you noticed most leaders send others to be blown up?

[bemildred]

15. But one cannot assume that.

The fact that sending someone less worthy than oneself to die for the cause is usual doesn't give one license to rely on it. The fact is middle and upper class people often do choose to die for the cause.

[NJmaverick]

16. No doubt the facts show it was a faulty assumption

however I think it was an understandable one.

[bemildred]

17. Well, OK, I don't want to belittle the dead.

It was indeed a mistake any normal person could make.

[The Stranger]

19. True, and I always wondered why revolutionary leaders come from upper or middle classes.

Not the lower classes.

[bemildred]

20. It's an interesting question, but guaranteed to cause arguments. nt

[T Wolf]

21. Your "toss their life away" phrase reveals a lack of understanding of the reaction we generate

in the rest of the world.

The US is not the good guy anymore.

We are the enemy that has invaded their countries, killed their men, women, and children by remote devices without risking our own, destroyed their economies and infrastructures so that the people are far worse off than they were before we invaded, etc...

As opposed to most of us, they are willing to fight for what they believe in. But beyond that, they are fighting for their very survival.

That physician did not throw his life away. He sacrificed himself to resist an enemy invader.

[NJmaverick]

25. I understand this issue better than you do, even if you think otherwise

If you had a clue to their mindset you would have used the term "west" and not the US. The fundementalists use the west and western influence as a scape goat for all short comings and suffering in the region. While the west is guilty of wrong doing, the failures go far beyond the claims by the Islamic fundementalists. Religious conservatives are pretty much alike the world over. They may worship different Gods but their intolerance and willingness to kill is universal. They all manipulate others with dishonest techinques like scape goating. In the US the religious fundementalists target gays, in the mid-east and asia it's the west and western ideas.

[RainMickey]

37. And he had two small children......

......which just goes to show how dedicated these nuts are to the cause. We can't trust any of them farther than we can throw them. I wish we'd just get the hell out of there.

[conspirator]

13. inside job nt

[kiranon]

18. "Trust but verify" always. n/t

[Solly Mack]

22. confusion...fog...something

[bemildred]

23. When the facts aren't pretty, a bit of confusion can look good. nt

[Solly Mack]

24. That is very true

[mbperrin]

26. Sounds like folks beginning to CYA to me.

"Did you know him?" "No, did you?" "No, it was those damned Jordanians!" "No, they say it was the doctors' union!" "No, anybody but me!"

I hate it that my tax dollars are wasted on crap like these wars....

[bemildred]

28. Suicide attack on CIA agents 'was planned by bin Laden inner circle'

US intelligence officials believe that the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin Laden’s close allies, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence.

They think that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taleban group thought to be shielding bin Laden.

---

What has alarmed the US is the fact that al-Qaeda and the Taleban managed, despite an intense US bombing campaign, to mount an operation that wiped out the top CIA experts involved in the hunt for bin Laden. “It’s a huge blow,” a former CIA officer said. “If you are Osama bin Laden, your biggest enemy is the CIA. This is a big hit.”

The attack was carried out by Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who came to the CIA via Jordanian intelligence. He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives but he was allowed on to the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman without undergoing a security check and then permitted access to more than ten CIA employees, an extraordinarily high number to congregate around an Islamist informant. He detonated his bomb soon after entering the base, killing four CIA field agents, three CIA security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer. One of the dead was the CIA’s chief at the base, a woman in her mid-thirties.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6978302.ece

[EFerrari]

29. Has CIA ever actually been good at spying?

I don't think so. But saying that bin Laden's hand is all over this is a nice fig leaf.

[bemildred]

32. Well, I thought he was dead. It's working on nine years now.

And here we find he is still active with an "inner circle" and everything, probably keeps in touch with a Blackberry.

[EFerrari]

33. Maybe CIA should be following his Tweets.

(Yes, I know that sounds horrible because real people really did die. And, they were working for the CIA.)

/oops

[Crowman1979]

30. best lead = told us what we wanted to hear

Rather than give actual fact. I'm sure he was going to lead the CIA on another wild goose chase, even if he didn't plan on bombing them.

[EFerrari]

34. Remember Porter Goss was sent in there to reorganize CIA =

purge it of moderates as H2O Man pointed out to me a few days ago.

Looks like they're believing their own propaganda with very bad results.

[sabra]

31. kind of like "curveball"?

[Capn Sunshine]

35. What no one mentions

imagine all the info about OUR Ops he passed on to his guys.

[bemildred]

36. +1 nt

[daleo]

38. But why wasn't he searched?

It still doesn't compute.

[mbperrin]

39. Showing why "military intelligence" or "CIA intelligence officer" are

both oxymorons.

[bemildred]

40. Report: Al-Qaida CIA bomber was furious over Gaza war

The Jordanian national that attacked a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, killing 7 CIA agents, was furious over the Israel's Gaza offensive, the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Thursday.

The report quotes the brother of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi as saying that his brother, a physician, had even made numerous attempts to join Jordan's doctor's association as way of reaching the Gaza Strip and aiding the local population.

The attack was carried out by a Jordanian, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who had been recruited by the CIA as a counterterrorism intelligence source.

Al- Balawi's brother added that his brother had notified their family that he intended to travel to Turkey to meet up with his wife, but she said he never arrived.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1140996.html

[bemildred]

41. Wife 'proud' of CIA bomber

ISTANBUL — The Turkish wife of the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan expressed pride on Thursday in what he had done.

"I am proud of my husband. He carried out a great operation in this war. I hope Allah will accept his martyrdom, if he has become a martyr," Defne Bayrak told reporters in Istanbul, where she lives.

"I am not ashamed. He did this against the American occupation" of Afghanistan, she said, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

Bayrak's husband, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, blew himself up at a US military base near the Pakistani border on December 30 in the deadliest attack against the Central Intelligence Agency since 1983.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jxOqc6kmnjB-lszUfulnCOnBw3-g