How CIA was fatally duped by Jordanian double agent

[IndianaGreen]

The head of the group that blew up the CIA spooks in Afghanistan was a guest of Ronald Reagan at the White House, and was pals with the protagonist in "Charlie Wilson's war." Blowback!

Can you imagine how talk radio and Fox News would be doing now had President Clinton had hosted Haqqani in the Lincoln bedroom!

How CIA was fatally duped by Jordanian double agent

Doctor-turned-bomber who was recruited by Americans to hunt down Bin Laden's right-hand man was in fact working for al-Qa'ida

By David Usborne, US Editor

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Family members yesterday said that al-Balawi had been working as a doctor in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan near Zarqa, which happens also to be the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa'ida leader who was killed in Iraq in 2006. They said he had told friends months ago that he was going away to study in Turkey.

But family and friends, it seems, were not the only people that al-Balawi duped. First arrested over a year ago by Jordan as a suspected al-Qa'ida sympathiser and operative, al-Balawi subsequently convinced the Jordanian intelligence agency that he was ready to switch sides and infiltrate the terror group. In time, the Americans were apparently also convinced that he had been successfully turned.

To cement the deception, al-Balawi reportedly supplied the Jordanians and the CIA with what officials have called "actionable intelligence" on al-Qa'ida on more than one occasion.

That he continued to pen pro-jihad messages on websites associated with al-Qa'ida, and to speak publicly of his support for armed jihad, seemingly did not give Western agents pause, perhaps because they assumed he was doing so to build up his own cover as a double agent. Al-Balawi's specific mission was to help the Americans track down down al-Qa'ida's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Minimal precautions were apparently taken when al-Balawi, accompanied by Jordan's Bin Zaid, travelled to the CIA facility in Khost province last week, apparently after indicating that he had important information to share.

It was as he approached one of the main buildings at the complex that al-Balawi detonated a powerful bomb concealed in his vest. Among the immediate concerns being raised are why he had not been thoroughly searched on entering the compound, and why there were so many CIA people with him at the moment he set off the explosives he carried. American intelligence officials are working to identify the masterminds of the attack.

According to at least one report, US military officials believe it may have been orchestrated by the Haqqani network, an al-Qa'ida-linked militant group that operates out of north-west Pakistan and has launched many attacks in Khost in the past. Ironically, the network's ageing leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was formerly a close US ally in the covert Afghan war against the Soviets. He visited the Reagan White House and was described by Texas politician Charlie Wilson as "goodness personified".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-cia-was-fatally-duped-by-jordanian-double-agent-1859007.html

[bemildred]

1. Isn't it possible that this guy acted alone?

Could he not be his own "mastermind"? He has to have been sharp to pull this off, why make the mistake of assuming he was a tool?

[ShortnFiery]

3. No, I believe we'll never know "the truth."

I have a difficult time believing that people as highly skilled and trained as CIA Operatives could have screwed this up so badly.

Something does not add up and it is VILE.

Again, I'm not a conspiracy geek, but this does not pass the "smell test" on it's very surface.

[bemildred]

4. Maybe he was just way the heck smarter than they were? nt

[ShortnFiery]

5. Yes, it's possible ... but such thoughts are disturbing to consider. eom

[bemildred]

6. Well, getting your ass blown up when you thought you were making the big score

could be upsetting too. It's pretty clear this guy cleaned their clocks for them. It seems most straightforward to me to think it was not luck.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Yes, consider that the M$M guided by The Pentagon and CIA fooled us AMERICANS into

and illegal and immoral war based on blatant LIES.

How GULLIBLE does that make US, the American People?

I believe little to nothing reported by the M$M.

I compare it with Euro News and other foreign news sources.

We need to CHALLENGE the M$M at EVERY TURN. :thumbsup:

[bemildred]

7. How did an Al-Qaida double agent dupe the CIA?

For seven years he was known by the alias Abu Dujana al-Khorasani, an influential purveyor of jihad on the Internet. His writings, assessments, and sermons were widely disseminated on the web. His entries were often laced with evasive, slippery language rich with Koranic references and citations that he used to burnish his credentials as a supporter of violent resistance to the United States.

It became clear two days ago that behind the Internet persona lurked a 36-year-old doctor from the Jordanian village of Zarqa. Last week, he did with his body what he had been preaching for years: he killed American security personnel.

The doctor from the same town which produced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia who was killed by the Americans in 2006, himself became a suicide bomber who infiltrated a secret CIA base on the Afghan-Pakistani border and killed seven American senior intelligence officials and one Jordanian intelligence officer. Some reports claim the name of the doctor is Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. Relatives say he worked at a clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan and that he sought to join a medical aid mission to the Gaza Strip.

A year ago, he was arrested by Jordanian authorities and was subsequently interrogated by the country's experienced intelligence agencies.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1140361.html