I’m surprised at the quantity of information here about the homicide bomber who killed 8 CIA officers in Khost, Afghanistan last week (link):
By PAMELA HESS and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writers Pamela Hess And Adam Goldman, Associated Press Writers – 12 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The suicide bomber who killed eight people inside a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan last week was a Jordanian doctor recruited by Jordanian intelligence, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a foreign government official confirmed Monday.
The bombing killed seven CIA employees_ four officers and three contracted security guards_ and a Jordanian intelligence officer, Ali bin Zaid, according to a second former U.S. intelligence official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.
The former senior intelligence official and the foreign official said the bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year old doctor from Zarqa, Jordan. NBC News first reported the bomber’s identity.
He was arrested more than a year ago by Jordanian intelligence and was thought to have been persuaded to support U.S. and Jordanian efforts against al-Qaida, according to the NBC report. He was invited to Camp Chapman, a tightly secured CIA forward base in Khost province on the fractious Afghan-Pakistan frontier, because he was offering urgent information to track down Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man.
Hajj Yacoub, a self-proclaimed spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan, identified the bomber on Muslim militant Web sites as Hammam Khalil Mohammed, also known as Abu-Dujana al-Khurasani. There was no independent confirmation of Yacoub’s statement.
Read the rest (link). This was a huge loss for the CIA, and a coup for those who sent the bomber. I’m curious about how the Jordanians “turned” him, as it doesn’t appear to have worked.
I’m not sure whether we’ll see more information, but it seems possible that this is a strategic counter to the guy who gives a blanket or pack of smokes to an Al Qaeda leader for a bounty that happens to have a tracking beacon that’s followed by Predator drones’ hellfire missiles. The possibility that Al Qaeda found a way to send a bomb with him without his knowledge seems slim.
For whatever reason, this reminded me of Ahmad Shah Massoud (link). He was the legendary anti-Soviet mujahedeen/”Northern Alliance” freedom-fighter killed on September 9, 2001 when two “journalists” came to interview him and their “camera” exploded as they asked him hostile questions. It’s believed that he was taken out in an effort to neutralize the Northern Alliance before an American invasion.
You have to wonder how close Balawi got to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and wonder if there’s going to be a forthcoming video featuring Balawi. The propaganda value on something like that does not seem lost on AQ types.