Bad news! That means they've penetrated into the base somehow.
The Vietcong did this kind of crap. Worked at the PX in the day; set charges at night.
I thought there was something wrong with the original story...
Early reports said that Iraqi troops also were eating lunch in the tent...
Not really hard to do. We hire local nationals to work in dining facilities, do repairs around the camp, etc. In virtually all cases, the jobs with Kellog Brown and Root (KBR) are coveted by the locals because, by local standards, they pay extremely well. KBR does a rough background check on the individuals involved (and yes, lots of folks get turned away due to questionable backgrounds. It's in KBR's best interests to have good guys working for them, because past performance is an evaluation criteria for future awards of contracts.)
Now, imagine this. We hire Hadji to work in the dining facility. The evil local thug comes to his home one night and tells Hadji that if he doesn't blow up the chow hall, Evil Local Thug will kill the man's family. Hadji refuses, and his family gets killed. Then, Evil Local Thug goes to Habib, Hadji's friend who also works for KBR and gives him the same story. Habib complies. Americans die, but Habib's family is still alive.
It's ugly but it's how it is.
Even yesterday I thought this smelled like an inside job. Time for some serious (and forceful!) interrogation techniques. And NO, I'm not talking about panties.
Prairie