Source: Foreign Policy Magazine, from Wash Post report http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Jordanian double agent behind CIA attack
The suicide bomber who attacked an outpost in Khost, Afghanistan last week killing seven CIA agents and a Jordanian spy was a Jordanian double agent, recruited by both countries' intelligence services to provide information about al Qaeda's top leadership, according to Western government officials.
The Washington Post reports that Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi was a 36-year-old physician with a history of supporting Jihadist causes and was well known on extremists online message boards. Balawi was arrested by Jordanian authorities in 2007 and recruited as a double agent. Balawi gained the trust of Jordanian authorities and the CIA with a stream of valuable intelligence leaks, which may explain why he was allowed on the base without more thorough screening. SNIP
For those familiar with the details, this is precisely how 9/11 happened. Several of the suicide hijackers were CIA/Saudi General Intelligence Directorate (GID) double-agents. MORE, below . . .
The attack on the CIA complex in Afghanistan is eerily reminiscent of the intelligence policy and operational failures that led up to the September 11 attacks.
The CIA let Mr. al-Balawi into the compound without checking him very closely. That negligence led to the loss of seven officers and contractors. Like the Afghanistan CIA suicide bomber, the Agency let known al-Qaeda terrorists in the front door and allowed them to freely wander around the country making contacts and taking flight training.
There are of course major differences. In 2001, even after the Agency learned the targets of the intended hijackings and other details about the attacks -- and outlined this information for the President in the August 6 PDB and other briefings -- the Bush-Cheney White House and elements of the CIA and other U.S. intel continued to protect the double-agents from nosy FBI field agents. See, http://www.dailykos.com/...
As far as we know, the White House had no forewarning of the Afghanistan attack or the failed Xmas airliner bomb attack. However, there are certainly some unlearned lessons here for the officers doing Counter-Terrorism in Langley and in the field (most of them hired during the Bush era.) The use of foreign double-agents without adequate safeguards is one of them. If they don't seem to learn from this sort of mistake, it is in large part because no one will own up to the policy "errors" that allowed the 9/11 attack to occur and started America's three current wars.
Of course, those ultimately responsible for 9/11 "failures" were Bush, Cheney and a small circle of top national security decision-makers. No accountability at the top, no learning in the ranks. A sure recipe for more policy failures and operational disasters.
This should also be a wake-up call for President Obama, as well. Only the current President can make sure that accountability and learning actually occurs, and it is his responsibility to do whatever is necessary to make sure that mistakes are not repeated. To try and put policy failure "behind us" invites even greater disasters to come.
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ON EDIT:
Here are additional links related to the CIA-AQ relationship and the role of double-agents in events leading up to the 9/11 attack: http://www.dcbureau.org/... ; http://www.historycommons.org/...