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Posted on 01/02/2010 4:49:02 PM PST by GOP_Lady
WASHINGTON -- The attack that killed seven Central Intelligence Agency officers on a U.S. base in Afghanistan appears to stem from a strategy of calculated risk in running the spy agency's informant network, posing a sharp challenge as operations ramp up for the Obama troop surge.
U.S. intelligence and military officials said Friday that Wednesday's attacker had been recruited as a possible informant and brought onto Forward Operating Base Chapman, passing through at least one checkpoint. He detonated his charge shortly before being searched, blowing himself up, killing seven and wounding six.
It was a "high-level asset meeting gone bad," said one former intelligence official familiar with the incident.
In providing additional details of the Wednesday suicide bombing, the agency's worst loss of life since 1983, former and current U.S. intelligence officials painted a clearer picture of how the agency has battled Taliban and allied militants.
In particular, Chapman appears to have taken a less strict line on security than at other U.S. military bases. Only modest searches are performed there, some U.S. officials say, in the hopes of establishing trust with those who may furnish information. Through its efforts in the region, the CIA has been able to create a large network of informants about the activities of al Qaeda and other militants.
"The CIA team there was very professional, and they knew there was a risk to their security protocols," the official said. "But they felt the need to gather viable, time-sensitive intelligence was so pressing that it justified the trade-off."
Some former officers have been critical of the practice. One said allowing informants onto a CIA base was poor spy tradecraft and that officers should meet informants off-base.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You don't invite him for dinner...
They got sucker punched....and there's a few moles around.
Probably some cultural sensitivity mandate implemented by the Obama administration.
I wonder how they feel about it now, with their senior field officers now dead.
I wonder how they feel about it now, with their senior field officers now dead.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html
DECEMBER 17, 2009.Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected
By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE
WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
(excerpt)
Just one more touchy-feely rule all our war-related personnel now have to live with.
With the expected (by professionals) result!
Probably the DC bosses are ecstatic...particularly if the senior personnel were either holdovers from the evil Bush administration or were known to be dedicated patriots who loved their country...Just thinning the herd for what is coming..
Isn’t O’s new policy to make nice with the natives? Citizens first, or something like that.
When you're at the tip of the spear, there are times you gamble....These people knew the risks....Obviously went complete FUBAR but these people knew the risks......Becoming more risk adverse would not be the correct course of action.
Granted we can all come up with the "why this, why that"...but reality is we were not on the ground and not involved with this situation. At this time it is more than best to trust the judgment of those that were there and who's as$es were on the line.
“The CIA team there was very professional, and they knew there was a risk to their security protocols,” the official said. “But they felt the need to gather viable, time-sensitive intelligence was so pressing that it justified the trade-off.”
As a famous 19th century Illinois lawyer once said, in giving advice to neophytes, “Look for the nub of the case.” And the above quote seems to be the nub of the article.
I know I got a better frisking the last time I got on a plane and it sounds like I may have gotten a better going-over while trying to sneak refreshments into the last movie I saw, `Saving Private Ryan.’ (Yeah, it’s been that long.)
As I stated in an earlier thread, I believe this will come back to a directive issued to an agent in charge by the
WH which probably sounded a lot like Clinton’s egg-sucking CYA directive to General Garrison, Mogadishu, 1992, something along the lines of: “Don’t raise too high a profile.” Or, “Don’t insult our hosts by suspecting them of wanting to kill you.”
And it cost them their lives. So they were professional, and brave men and women, like the Rangers they followed orders—if that was the case—and they, too, deserved a better commander in chief.
This disaster points to Obama macro policy where deaths will be immense.
All the military and USA cities are at risk.
CIA,
WILL YOU PAAHHHLLLEEEZE LOOK UP TAQIYYA, YOU CAN’T BELIEVE ANYTHING THE ENEMY TELLS YOU. OK?
The woman who was the base commander was his special target, I would presume she had input into her base security procedures
tragic case of risk vs gain, risk lost in the end
(I wonder if her being female added special ire to the taliban desire to target that group)
It certainly has a way of upsetting men on FR whenever a woman is in charge or becomes a casualty of war. However, it seems as if it was the bomber’s only visit to the base so he wouldn’t necessarily know it was being run by a woman.
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