Posted on 01/04/2010 4:54:28 AM PST by Protect the Bill of Rights
WASHINGTON: As names of the seven CIA operatives who died in the Taliban suicide bombing in Afghanistan last week trickle out into public domain espite official silence in Washington, there is another casualty from the episode - trust, never a reliable commodity in the first place in the espionage business.
Intelligence circles are now slowly piecing together what really happened in Forward Operating Base Chapman near the Pakistan border last Wednesday when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest killing eight people, including an Afghan security director and an American perimeter security guard who had escorted him inside unchecked, unscreened, and unfrisked.
According to intelligence accounts, the suicide bomber was a previously trusted Pakistani informant of the Waziri tribe who was often picked up from a border crossing by a trusted Afghan security director named Arghawan and driven to the base. Because he was a familiar figure brought in by a known person (some reports said he had visited the base multiple times), screening him was not on anyones radar particularly since he had been won over by trusting him and he had previously delivered valuable information enabling US agencies to conduct accurate drone strikes, which was the principal mandate of FOB Chapman.
But unbeknownst to the Americans, the Waziri tribesman had become a turncoat either out of personal choice or after he was caught by the Taliban and turned. He was strapped with a suicide vest and sent in to deliver some new information which was believed to be valuable judging by the fact that the CIA flew in a special debriefer from Kabul and more than a dozen operatives had gathered in the basement gym of FOB Chapman to hear him.
Instead, there was a suicide blast that killed eight people, including Arghawan, the female base chief and another woman operative, and five other men. At least half dozen other operatives were injured in an incident that has shaken the US intelligence community to its boots. If the attribution of the attack is correct, then it is the second time that a Pakistani tribesman would have directly attacked CIA personnel: In 1993, Mir Aimal Kansi tshot dead two CIA workers near its Langley headquarters to avenge the death of his father who was a CIA asset subsequently abandoned. He fled to Pakistan, was later captured and brought back to be executed in the US in 2002.
There has some talk of revenge and retribution but the collateral casualty in the attack is trust and experience. The nearly dozen CIA operatives who have been put out of commission by the attack constitute the best of CIA expertise on the region, its players and dynamics and they cannot be easily or quickly replaced. Some of them, including the female base chief, had worked on the subject for nearly a decade, including the hunt for bin Laden in the days before and after 9/11.
"This is a tremendous loss for the agency," Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst who led the bin Laden unit said of the episode in one television interview. "The agency is a relatively small organization, and its expertise in al-Qaida is even a smaller subset of that overall group." The US had struggled for years to find Pushtu and Dari speaking operatives who can work on the field.
The attack is also certain to force the CIA to reassess how it will recruit informants and what kind of scrutiny and security will be employed, particularly after the administration is under attack for being less than alert in the Detroit plane bombing and the Fort Hood massacre incidents. But subjecting sources to mistrust and excessive suspicion will also dry up information. One expert put the new development in the following perspective: During the Cold War, the worst a double agent could do was deliver false information; now they can detonate suicide vests.
Meanwhile, America continued to grieve the loss of its men and women spooks even as questions raged about the need and efficacy of the CIA being on the frontlines of a war when its principal function was to gather and assess intelligence. Although, the US government has declined to release the names of the killed, the families of the victims have been grieving publicly, as a result of which some of the names have been disclosed in local media.
Among the victims was Harold Brown, a Washington DC area resident who was father of three children, and whose mother believed he was a state department employee even as worked undercover in the front trenches of a nasty war. Another operative was an Ohio native named Scott Roberson who was expecting to become a father in February. A third victim was a former Navy Seal Jeremy Wise who was working as a security contractor.
The name of the female base chief, who was mother of three children, was not disclosed. At least five of the operatives who were on the rolls of the CIA will be memorialized with a star on the wall of the CIA headquarters in Langley shortly.
ping
So sad-the only good to come out of this is maybe they will have a better ‘understanding’ of the enemy.
They CANNOT be trusted-ever.
I really don’t think it’s wise to trust any muslim. It’s a shame but they’re bringing it on themselves. No doubt there are a few cottonmouth mocassins that won’t bite too, but you could get in big trouble sorting them out!
While Zero was playing 6 hour rounds of golf in Hawaii.
Thanks for the ping. Can you repost here Scheuer’s comments made on CNN regarding Brennan?
TIA!
In one stroke the animals take out so many war functional assets. Great idea, this fighting the war THEIR way.
They should check each and every Moslem that comes to the base, every moment they come into the base, before they come into the base ...and thoroughly.
Partial CNN Transcript as I posted it last night :-(
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1001/03/sotu.04.html
BORGER: How does this affect both morale and strategy as the agency expands its role?
SCHEUER: Well, I think it hurts morale to a certain extent, naturally, because of the deaths, but it hurts morale even more because one of the officers who got killed had arranged an operation in 1998 that would have killed or captured Osama bin Laden. And Mr. Brennan was instrumental in preventing that operation from occurring. Instead he said the Americans should trust the Saudis to take care of bin Laden.
So its a painful its a painful death, but more importantly its a death that didnt need to occur had Mr. Clinton Mr. Brennan, George Tenet, and Mr. Berger had the courage to try to defend Americans.
BORGER: Now I wish all of those gentlemen were here today to defend themselves.
SCHEUER: I wish they were too. And I would be delighted anytime to talk with them in public on any in any forum, maam.
BORGER: Well, hopefully we can arrange that one day. Because Im sure theyll want to answer your charge.
SCHEUER: I would be delighted. Im sure they would.
BORGER: But thank you very much for being with us here today, Mr. Scheuer.
SCHEUER: My pleasure, maam.
.........one of the officers who got killed had arranged an operation in 1998 that would have killed or captured Osama bin Laden. And Mr. Brennan was instrumental in preventing that operation from occurring. Instead he said the Americans should trust the Saudis to take care of bin Laden. ........
Don’t forget the sno-cones
Giving up a really biggie is no longer a key to the inside.
The cost of infiltration....The “audition information yield “......has just gone through the roof.
If I was in the CIA, I would volunteer to redesign their mole exploitation program :)
But unbeknownst to the Americans, the Waziri tribesman had become a turncoat either out of personal choice or after he was caught by the Taliban and turned. He was strapped with a suicide vest and sent in to deliver some new information which was believed to be valuable judging by the fact that the CIA flew in a special debriefer from Kabul and more than a dozen operatives had gathered in the basement gym of FOB Chapman to hear him.
Instead, there was a suicide blast that killed eight people, including Arghawan, the female base chief and another woman operative, and five other men. At least half dozen other operatives were injured in an incident that has shaken the US intelligence community to its boots. If the attribution of the attack is correct, then it is the second time that a Pakistani tribesman would have directly attacked CIA personnel: In 1993, Mir Aimal Kansi tshot dead two CIA workers near its Langley headquarters to avenge the death of his father who was a CIA asset subsequently abandoned. He fled to Pakistan, was later captured and brought back to be executed in the US in 2002.
There has some talk of revenge and retribution but the collateral casualty in the attack is trust and experience. The nearly dozen CIA operatives who have been put out of commission by the attack constitute the best of CIA expertise on the region, its players and dynamics and they cannot be easily or quickly replaced. Some of them, including the female base chief, had worked on the subject for nearly a decade, including the hunt for bin Laden in the days before and after 9/11.
When the CIA gets a clue that none of the Islamist can be trusted OR believed, then they will reach a level of competency that will be useful.
They need to get out of the Cold War mentality.
You can not “develop” informants from a Religion and mindset that has as it’s main goal the Murder of ALL unbelievers.
The CIA is now obligated to viciously repay whoever was responsible, or else CIA field agents will have big targets painted on them in the future.
Importantly, this is *not* a political decision, and the upper tier of CIA management will likely not be informed, either. Execution will be much it was done during the Phoenix Program in Vietnam:
A known member of the organization responsible will be captured. He will be compelled to give information about his comrades, which in this case will likely be his family and tribe. He will then be executed.
Back when the British administered Afghanistan, if there was a similar violation, then the British army would wipe out the entire village responsible. The CIA response will be about as violent, but will likely include even those peripherally associated with that event.
This means whoever provided the explosives, whatever Imam or drug lord was ambitious enough to take on the CIA. If it was a madrassa, then the entire madrassa goes, “faculty” and students.
All told, it will be a CIA bloodbath. And the survivors and witnesses will learn the golden rule: do not mess with the CIA.
sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
;^)
...All told, it will be a CIA bloodbath. And the survivors and witnesses will learn the golden rule: do not mess with the CIA.
Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Seriously.
Obama just wanted to reach out to the “moderate” Taleban! See what it got him!
I don’t know how reliable your info is, but I pray that it is.
Imagine for a moment if these were KGB or Israelis. The retribution would be swift, painful and wide spread.
Unless of course the Obamaites are involved.
Let’s not rule out that this administration is working against are own people as well.
Years ago, I enjoyed a story of how the KGB did business.
After some Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon, and held for hostage for some months, the kidnappers had the brilliant idea to kidnap four Russian businessmen. KGB agents were immediately dispatched, and counter-kidnapped the “religious leader” of the kidnappers.
Then they snipped off some bits and “mailed” them to the kidnappers, with the advice that this was a limited time offer, and unless they wanted some more important bits of their religious leader mailed to them, they had better release their Russian hostages double quick.
This terrified the kidnappers so much that not only did they release their Russian hostages, but they physically drove them to the Russian embassy. Being good sports about it, the Russians then released their hostage, with the advice that he should “go and sin no more, against Russians. Have a nice day.”
Ironically, this was rather suave and sophisticated compared to how the KGB behaved the generation before.
As an aside, they did have a very effective interrogation tool. After carefully restraining someone’s head, they would insert a long blade of common grass up their nose. This is an impressively painful trick, and often yielded answers, and quickly.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2420680/posts?page=1
Jordanian Double-Agent Killed CIA Officers
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