Even if true, it doesn’t change a thing. They were stupid. They forgot their basic tradecraft.
You don’t let someone come up to you and then search them. You search them first.
Yes, you have to risk the life of the searcher, but that denies them a high priority, high publicity target.
I suspect that the problem is, as another recent article pointed out, that CIA agents rotate from one assignment to another if they want to get ahead. It’s becoming just another bureaucracy, where you keep your nose clean, suck up to the boss, and never get any real field assignments that go on long enough to gain real experience.
I feel sorry for the guys who risked their lives in Afghanistan and got killed. It’s the system that’s broke.
Another reality is we have HVTs alive today because we have been too much by the book, to often and risk adverse.
We lost some valuable warriors / assets here. God Bless them. Another reality of war.