Stunning read: How this suicide bomber opened a new front in Al-Qaeda’s war

[tekisui]

Source: Times Online

It was the week after Christmas and there was a line of paper Santas hanging in the small chow house at Forward Operating Base Chapman, sent to Afghanistan by loved ones back home.

Among the CIA agents waiting in the morning chill, amid the exercise bicycles and weights, were a mother of three and a father of three who had had to tell their children they would not be home for Christmas.

This was not the first time since 9/11 that they had been stuck on some remote base in Afghanistan. But this time they believed the sacrifice would be worth it, for they believed they were about to land the biggest present imaginable to an American intelligence agent.

Hunting down Osama Bin Laden has recently been given new urgency by President Barack Obama, anxious for some kind of victory that would enable him to pull out troops from Afghanistan.

(snip)

Astonishingly, in a region where it is the norm to be screened entering any hotel or public building and where even the president’s closest friends go through seven checks before being allowed in, the doctor was not once searched before entering.

One of the base’s security guards said: “I was warned before not to search or stop the car when it arrived.”

According to the guard, Balawi had been to the base before. He claimed that before the doctor reached the first gate, the Afghan security guards in charge of the perimeter security were instructed by US soldiers to go into their rooms.

“They did not want any Afghans to see Balawi,” he said. A US army vehicle then led the car through the next two gates, reaching the inside of the base before stopping outside a block of buildings used by the CIA and military intelligence to debrief their sources.

As Balawi stepped out of the car, seven CIA officers and a handful of soldiers gathered around. According to the guard, it was then that Balawi detonated his bomb, killing eight and injuring six.

Arghawan, still sitting in the driver’s seat, survived the initial blast but a US soldier shot him in the head with his pistol, assuming that he was part of the bomb plot.

(snip)

“Al-Qaeda has revealed that it is capable of running sophisticated clandestine operations with sustained deception,” said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer. “Al-Qaeda did to us exactly what we intended to do to them.”

TEN days on, why the CIA was so careless is still a mystery.

“I can think of at least six basic rules the CIA broke,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Tony Shaffer, a CIA-trained officer who directed operations in Afghanistan for the military's Defence Intelligence Agency in 2003-4.

more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6982465.ece

[Fumesucker]

1. “Al-Qaeda did to us exactly what we intended to do to them.”

Assuming your enemy is stupid is the mark of a fool..

Americans are I think largely incapable of seeing what they think of as untermenchen as being capable and intelligent, it's real cultural blind spot.

[mdmc]

8. wow, look at that word - untermenchen - new to me

thanks for posting..

[Fumesucker]

11. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not..

A problem with purely text based communication..

And I screwed up the spelling it's actually untermenschen..

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

[mdmc]

15. I love words and I hadn't heard this one before

before looking it up (I was able to figure out what the word was as spelled) I tried to figure out what it meant based on your sentence.
I thought it may mean enemy. I looked it up and it is a very interesting word.
As a reader / writer it is kinda rare (although not that rare, all things considered) for me to find a new word..

peace and low stress..

[Fumesucker]

18. Back atcha' ..

:hi:

Glad you enjoyed it..

[malaise]

2. Maybe someone wanted those CIA agents dead

After all they were going after the long dead Bin Laden and may just have discovered it was an exercise in futility. Was the double agent linked to the Dick's wing of the Ops. What did those agents know?

[tekisui]

4. It definitely seems that it was more than al-qaeda involved.

A whole string of 'stand-downs' and altered protocol to lead to the attack.

The driver (witness) with a bullet in his head is very curious, as well.

[Fumesucker]

5. Eh, kind of sounds like 9/11 in that respect..

"A whole string of 'stand-downs' and altered protocol to lead to the attack."

But I guess that would be a conspiracy theory. :eyes:

[malaise]

9. Everything is curious but this stands out

He claimed that before the doctor reached the first gate, the Afghan security guards in charge of the perimeter security were instructed by US soldiers to go into their rooms.

“They did not want any Afghans to see Balawi,” he said. A US army vehicle then led the car through the next two gates, reaching the inside of the base before stopping outside a block of buildings used by the CIA and military intelligence to debrief their sources.

[ShortnFiery]

14. Yes, if one were jaded, they'd consider this attack coupled with ...

the "attempted" suicide bomber who got his wares in Yemen, would be an EXCELLENT BASIS used to justify expanding the Middle East Arena to Yemen?

The fact that these attacks were on Christmas is not lost on me.

MIC and Warmongering Generals: Oh Goody! Santa says we can expand the borders of our very own Middle Eastern Battlefield Disneyland

[malaise]

23. Something's up

It's never what they tell us

[tekisui]

25. Painting the care red, bringing the attacker on the base,

strange things.

It seems to me the result of this attack and the information since then, is an increase in Pakistan. There have been nearly daily drone strikes since the CIA bombing. The video has the bomber sitting next to the head of the Pakistan Taliban.

It introduced a new target to Western audiences, Hakimullah Mehsud. It is more ammo for a drumbeat of more war into Pakistan. That is the purpose it seems to serve.

[snagglepuss]

26. This security fiasco happening at the same time as the underwear

bomber security fiasco is mind boggling.

[arcadian]

3. Fake Bin Laden corpse to presented shortly.

Count on it. They are creating chatter over this.

[Fumesucker]

6. Too many bin Laden family members..

Genetic testing can tell if the corpse is related to known bin Ladens..

[NNN0LHI]

7. Agents used polygraphs or lie-detectors to check Balawi’s sincerity

Not smart.

Don

[ShortnFiery]

16. The best Sociopaths in the world reliably DUPE lie detectors: You have to have a conscious

in order to exude the physiological indicators that would set off the triggers. :eyes:

[NNN0LHI]

19. You would think the CIA would have learned something from Aldrich Ames

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

Aldrich Hazen Ames (born May 26, 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst, who, in 1994, was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia.

In 1986 and again in 1991, Ames passed two polygraph screening examinations while spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, respectively. Ames himself reported that the techniques needed to defeat the polygraph are relatively easy to learn and perform.[ Critics claim that the CIA's over-reliance on the device is harmful to national security.

[Goldstein1984]

21. Plain or habitual liars can fool polygraphs

As you wrote, people who move back and forth between truth and untruth don't have the emotional/physiological response upon which lie detectors rely.

[jonnyblitz]

10. thanks for posting! I always appreciate your war on "terra"

related threads since I am a" Vet for Peace". they are a good anectdote to the SICKENING warmongering going on here lately.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

12. Why do these articles always start out reminding us

of the little children without their Mommies and Daddies. We have a volunteer military. Someone wants to miss
out on their kids childhood while they murder a people in a foreign land, that's their choice. The Hero worship
is running thin.

The people of Afghanistan are going to defend their country and do what they can to protect their own children.
If Obama needs an excuse like Bin Laden's body to withdraw from the region, he's going to have a long wait with
many more Americans dying. Victory, what a joke. There will never be victory in Afghanistan.

[gateley]

13. Stunning is the word -- I was riveted. Are our "enemies" smarter than we?

Al Q was did the same thing to us that we were going to do to them. Did we not even consider they would/could?

I saw Charlie Wilson's War again last night, and I commented that I WISHED our CIA was as tuned in, savvy, and comprehensive as the character Philip
Seymour Hoffman played. I know it's Hollywood, but if we had guys even approaching that level of understanding, I'd feel much more confident.

[Fumesucker]

17. " Are our "enemies" smarter than we?"

I think the evidence is pretty damn clear, they have a sophisticated understanding of us and how we will react to any given stimulus.

We on the other hand seem not to have a clue about them and their motivations and reactions.

"They hate us for our freedoms" seems to be about as far as we're willing to go..

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
- Sun Tzu

[gateley]

22. Yes -- you're right. We don't have a clue. And The Art of War should be

required reading for all of those who are involved in this "War On Terra". But what does an old dead Chinese guy have to offer us, the most most technically advanced, greatest country on the planet? :sarcasm: Our hubris will bring our demise.

[malaise]

20. I t would be a sad day if people didn't defend

their homeland. I'd expect no less from Americans if they were invaded and occupied by any given country. It is the arrogance, the sense of superiority and the assumption that the entire planet is going to lie back and tell the US to rape and pillage their lands with a smile of their faces and flowers to welcome them.

[gateley]

24. Rumsfeld begs to differ. nt

[malaise]

27. And we both know he's

a two bit loser and a big time war criminal. :hi: