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Afghanistan

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

2010-01-07

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.

The attack was carried out by a Jordanian doctor whom the CIA believed was about to divulge the whereabouts of bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al- Zawahiri. It is one of the deadliest blows against the CIA and has increased tensions between the US and Pakistan because of Islamabad's repeated failure to target the Haqqanis.

The Haqqanis control a large block of territory on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border near the Afghan town of Khost, a Taleban hotbed near where the CIA officials were killed on December 30. It is also where the US believes bin Laden is hiding.

One former CIA officer, who did not wish to be named, told The Times that the agency had taped evidence of a Pakistani army officer tipping the Haqqanis off about a raid and a member of Pakistan's intelligence service boasting that the Haqqanis are our guys'.

Pakistan has ignored US demands to target the strongholds of the Haqqanis' leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose father, Jalaluddin, founded the network and was a Mujahidin commander and ally of the US during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The network is said to be behind several audacious attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008.

Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit tracking bin Laden, said: There is no way this operation would have occurred in Khost without the knowledge and active support of Jalaluddin Haqqani and/or his son. They and their organisation own the area and nothing occurs that would impact their tribe or its allies without their knowledge or OK. Both men, moreover, would be delighted to help bin Laden in any way they can.'

Mahmood Shah, who served as security chief of Pakistan's lawless tribal region, agreed: The attack may have been planned by al-Qaeda, but it could not have been possible without the help of the Haqqani group.'

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.'

Certainly makes Binny to be the stronger horse in the region, doesn't it ...

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

Thus demonstrating his 'bona-fides' ...

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.

CIA is supposed to be better than this. This is slip-shod fieldcraft. I don't care how much you 'trust' the guy, you're supposed to trust no one and behave accordingly.

Several of the [dead] were ... among the top five experts on al- Qaeda in the United States,' Mr Scheuer said. When you lose that type of expertise, it's very hard to replace it; impossible in the near term.'

Former CIA officials told The Times that the high number of CIA officers travelling from Kabul to meet al-Balawi reflected how desperate the agency was for information on bin Laden.

That al-Balawi came via Jordanian intelligence has proved deeply embarrassing for Jordan, exposing how closely the country works with the US in sharing intelligence and operatives on the front line in the war against extremists. The Jordanian intelligence official killed in the blast was buried in Jordan on Tuesday but the Jordanian Government refused to acknowledge his role with the CIA in Afghanistan. Anti-US sentiment is high in Jordan.

Posted by:Steve White

#5 It ain't over yet, someone's gonna pay. Stay tuned.

Posted by: Deadeye Turkeyneck6035 2010-01-07 22:16

#4 B. Raman disagrees with this interpretation of the attack. He doesn't believe that it was done by bin Laden's inner circle and the Haqqanis. He beleives instead that it was Al Qaeda in Iraq and Pakistani (though not Afghan) Taliban. He lays out his thinking here and here.

Posted by: Pstanley 2010-01-07 15:17

#3 I think that there was always the concern, especially after the turnaround in Iraq, that AQ et al would lay low until after the US Presidential election where a Democrat was all but assured a win, most likely on a toning down on the war. ~~Human~~ Man caused disasters? That is someone smoking while filling the car up with gas, VH1 programming, Congress, not a term for what should be considered SF operations.

There are the symbolic attacks, but disruption of economics/trade was also a strategy. The important Aden theatre has been a quiet hot for a couple years. We have seen a counter offensive after quietly expanding the operations in this region, which should have been anticipated.

That an airline bomb and high level turncoat were big cards played everyone needs to understand, and to people not on the in the KSM trial and non-conclusion of Ft. Hood is like playing Blackjack without checking the down card. There is hush-hush then there is the obvious expansion of this killing confict without acknowledgement from the commander in chief in any effort other than passing phrases IMHO.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-01-07 12:59

#2 From James Risen's "State of War" (2006)

Bill Clinton Decimated the CIA

Upon taking power in 1993, Risen reports, the Clinton administration "began slashing the intelligence budget in search of a peace dividend, and Bill Clinton showed almost no interest in intelligence matters."

The agency cutbacks combined with presidential disinterest took their toll almost immediately.

"Over a three-or-four-year period in the early-to-mid 1990s," reports Risen, "virtually an entire generation of CIA officers - the people who had won the Cold War - quit or retired. One CIA veteran compared the agency to an airline that had lost all of is senior pilots . . . "

After Clinton CIA Director John Deutch cashiered several senior officers over a scandal in Guatamala, the situation got even worse.

"Morale [at the CIA] plunged to new lows, and the agency became paralyzed by an aversion to high-risk espionage operations for fear they would lead to political flaps. Less willing to take big risks, the CIA was less able to recruit spies in dangerous places such as Iraq."

The Clinton era of risk aversion also hobbled CIA efforts to get Osama bin Laden. In early 1998, Risen says, the agency was prepared to launch a special operation to kidnap the al Qaeda chief in Afghanistan.

"To be sure the operation was high risk, and there was a strong possibility that it would be so messy that bin Laden would be killed rather than captured. [CIA Director George] Tenet and the CIA's lawyers worried deeply about that issue; they believed the covert action finding on al Qaeda that President Clinton had signed authorized only bin Laden's capture, not his death."

Frustrated by restrictions that made dealing with the big challenges too difficult, the agency turned its energy to lesser problems.

Reports Risen: "Thanks to Vice President Al Gore, for example, the CIA briefly made the global environment one of is priorities."

Posted by: Willy 2010-01-07 12:03

#1 He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives

Sometimes you must give up operatives to make operatives. Not an entirely new concept.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-01-07 11:04

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