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Seven US 'CIA agents' killed in Afghanistan bomb attack

How are you so sure. Have you seen it happen?



Pakistanis reject US money. I think you been living in a cave in the past year. Again, no pressure will yield any results. The PA has already denied going after Haqqani network. What are you going to do about it?

I think PA just mentioned that it will do operations when and where it deems fit as per requirement, currently we are operating in SWA and Swat so will not likely open up a huge new front till we have no other choice.
However, i do not think we have given any unconditional guarantee to any group of non action even if they do not listen to GOP.

If Haqqani does not behave and his supporters in Pakistan are exposed and it is concluded that military action is the only way to stop him then there shall be nothing holding the Army back.
It is all about the threat perception and what is the tolerable limit within which we can mobilize our forces and keep them active in the long term role of COIN, a decision which is subject to changes over time.
We do not want to be stretched too thin and that is a valid concern, this is how we failed in the Musharraf era...and this is what gave the militants the confidence that they can beat PA whereas our formations were inadequate.
It would also not be possible to concentrate too many formations in FATA and Swat alone.

We have to be decisive in our actions so a lot has to be confirmed before moving in a large swathe of land with many factions and groups.
Our best shot is currently using the anti Taliban groups till our formations in SWA and Swat have successfully offloaded some of their work to FC which has also been modernized in the past year or so.

As Holbrooke said in an interview...

They went into South Waziristan, which is one of the hearts of the insurgency,’ he added.

‘But are they prepared to go further and go more north?’ he was asked.

‘I’m going to leave that to General Kayani and the military for several reasons — it’s their country, it’s a question of military resources, and it’s a military issue which I don’t think should be discussed in public.’


Source http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...special-forces-conducted-raids-pakistan-qs-02
 
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US spies walked into al-Qaeda's trap
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - The suicide attack on the United States Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) forward operating base of Chapman in the Afghan province of Khost last week was planned in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.

The attacker - a handpicked plant in the Afghan National Army (ANA) - detonated his explosive vest in a gym at the base, killing seven agents, including the station chief, and wounding six. The base was officially for civilians involved in reconstruction.

The plan was executed following several weeks of preparation by al-Qaeda's Lashkar al-Zil (Shadow Army), Asia Times Online has learned. This was after Lashkar al-Zil's intelligence outfit informed
its chief commander, Ilyas Kashmiri, that the CIA planned to broaden the monitoring of the possible movement of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Well-connected sources in militant camps say that Lashkar al-Zil had become aware of the CIA's escalation of intelligence activities to gather information on high-value targets for US drone attacks. It emerged that tribesmen from Shawal and Datta Khel, in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, had been invited by US operatives, through middlemen, to Khost, where the operatives tried to acquire information on al-Qaeda leaders. Such activities have been undertaken in the past, but this time they were somewhat different.

"This time there was clearly an obsession to hunt down something big in North Waziristan. But in this obsession, they [operatives] blundered and exposed the undercover CIA facility," a senior leader in al-Qaeda's 313 Brigade said. The brigade, led by Ilyas Kashmiri, comprises jihadis with extensive experience in Pakistan's Kashmir struggle with India.

Once it became clear that efforts to track down al-Qaeda were being stepped up and that the base in Khost was being extensively used by the CIA, the Lashkar al-Zil (Brigade 055) moved into top gear. It is the soul of al-Qaeda, having being involved in several events since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. Under the command of Ilyas Kashmiri, its intelligence network's coordination with its special guerrilla action force has changed the dynamics of the Afghan war theater. Instead of traditional guerrilla warfare in which the Taliban have taken most of the casualties, the brigade has resorted to special operations, the one on the CIA base being the latest and one of the most successful.

Lashkar al-Zil comprises the Pakistani Taliban, 313 Brigade, the Afghan Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan and former Iraqi Republican Guards. It has taken on special significance since the US announcement of a 30,000 troop surge in Afghanistan, due to kick into action this week.

Leaders of the Lashkar al-Zil now knew that CIA operatives were trying to recruit reliable tribal people from Afghanistan so that the latter could develop an effective intelligence network along the border with North Waziristan's Shawal and Datta Khel regions, where high-profile al-Qaeda leaders often move around.

Laskhar al-Zil then laid its trap.

Over the past months, using connections in tribal structures and ties with former commanders of the Taliban and the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the militants have planted a large number of men in the ANA.

One of these plants, an officer, was now called into action. He contacted US personnel in Khost and told them he was linked to a network in the tribal areas and that he had information on where al-Qaeda would hold its shura (council) in North Waziristan and on the movement of al-Qaeda leaders.

The ANA officer was immediately invited to the CIA base in Khost to finalize a joint operation of Predator drones and ground personnel against these targets.

Once inside, he set off his bomb, with deadly results.

"It's a devastating blow," Times Online quoted Michael Scheuer as saying. "[Among others] we lost an agent with 14 years' experience in Afghanistan." Scheuer is a former head of Alec Station, the unit created to monitor bin Laden five years before the attacks of September 11.

Unlike the Taliban's mostly rag-tag army, Laskhar al-Zil is a sophisticated unit, with modern equipment such as night-vision technology, the latest light weapons and finely honed guerrilla tactics. It has a well-funded intelligence department, much like the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan had during the resistance against the Soviets in the 1980s when it had access to advance information on the movement of the Red Army.

However, Laskhar al-Zil is one step ahead of the Hezb's former intelligence outfit in that it has been able to plant men in the ANA, and these "soldiers" are now at the forefront of al-Qaeda-led sabotage activities in Afghanistan.

In addition, a large number of senior government officials both in the capital, Kabul, and in the provinces are sympathetic to the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, and, by extension, to the Taliban. Similarly, several former top Taliban commanders have been given responsibilities by the central government in district areas, and as the insurgency has grown, these former militants have been increasingly useful to the Taliban-led insurgency.

In sum, the US troop surge, coupled with increased US efforts to track down al-Qaeda, has resulted in a shift in southeastern Afghanistan. There has been hardly any uprising against foreign troops in which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could hit the Taliban hard. The insurgents now select specific targets for the most effective outcome, such as the spy base in Khost - it took just one insurgent's life for the "devastating" result.

Consequently, for the first time in the many years that Afghanistan has been at war, the winter season is hot. Last October, the US withdrew its troops from its four key bases in Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan, leaving the northeastern province as a safe haven for the Taliban, under the command of Qari Ziaur Rahman. Kurangal Valley in Kunar province is heavily under siege and Taliban attacks on US bases there could see US forces pulling back from Kunar as well.

And in the meantime, Lashkar al-Zil can be expected to be planning more strikes of its own.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan
 
Taliban's threat to run over Kabul will gain some weight in light of these attacks.

There is also talk that the CIA might be packing up and leaving from Khost.


The worst thing was said right at the end. That the Taliban have already infiltrated the Afghan government and intelligence agencies.
 
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Jordanian bomber 'deceived family'

BBC News - Afghanistan CIA suicide bomber 'fooled family'

Bulawi seemed to be talking more and more like AQ or TTP who talk about Pan-Islamic radicalism and less like Taliban and Haqqani network that are more or less focussed on just getting their power in Afghanistan back.

Where TTP is involved, India is not far behind. If the investigators are smart they'd look into what the CIA base in that region meant for India's influence on Pakistani tribal areas.
 
CIA suicide attacker ‘was Jordanian informant’


WASHINGTON: The suicide attacker who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence as a double agent, US media said Monday.

NBC News cited western intelligence officials as saying the Jordanian, identified in the report as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, had been brought to Afghanistan with the specific mission of finding and meeting Al-Qaida number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

NBC said his handler in Afghanistan, a captain in the Jordanian intelligence services identified by the Jordanian state news agency Petra as Ali bin Zeid, was killed in the attack along with seven CIA officers.

“The officer was also a member of the Hashemite royal family, which is part of the reason the king and queen attended his funeral, and why he is being remembered as a national hero,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and White House adviser, told AFP.

Western intelligence officials told NBC that al-Balawi reportedly called his Jordanian handler last week to say he needed to meet with the CIA team based in Khost, Afghanistan because he had urgent information about Zawahiri, an Egyptian.

“The bomber allegedly was sent by Ayman Zawahiri himself to conduct the attack and claimed he had information on Zawahiri,” Riedel said, adding “that all remains unconfirmed as far as I know.”

There had been earlier reports that the suicide attacker was an informant who might not have been rigorously screened before being brought onto Forward Operating Base Chapman, a base in eastern Afghanistan that the CIA used for its campaign against militants on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Current and former US intelligence officials said the special relationship with Jordan dates back at least three decades and has recently progressed to the point that the CIA liaison officer in Amman enjoys full, unescorted access to GID headquarters, according to the report.

The close ties helped disrupt several known terrorist plots, including the thwarted 2000 “millennium” conspiracy to attack tourists at hotels and other sites, the paper pointed out.

Jordanians also provided US officials with communications intercepts in the summer of 2001 that warned of terrorist plans to carry out a major attack on the United States, The Post said.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, Jordan agreed to create a bilateral operations center with the CIA and helped in interrogations of non-Jordanian suspects captured by the US Central Intelligence Agency and transferred to Jordan in now-famous “rendition” flights, the paper noted.

DAWN.COM | World | CIA suicide attacker ?was Jordanian informant?
 
As i said all what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan is an inside job.
Once indians will be out of afghganistan things will start to get better.
 
Looks like CIA would have to think twice before recruiting and infiltrating these agents next time. It is kind of similar what happened during the late 60s early 70s in Vietnam.
 
No they will not....i insist it is an inside job which will continue to kill US soldiers in afghanistan.
Afghan national army and RAMA need to be freed from the influence of RAW.
All bussiness which profit from war needed to be teckeled.
Drug smuggling needed to be closed.
CIA Drug Planes Part of Massive 50-Plane Deal

If i really think out than i hold iran next suspect, iran claims that US is responsible for Jandullah and the CIA officer women which is killed is blamed to be hiring Balauchis for Jandulla.
 
Well it clearly looks like it wasn't Afghans or ANA involved in the attacks. Some relief in a way to the ANA and Afghan Defence minister I guess.
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CIA Base Bomber 'Was Jordanian Triple Agent'
AMMAN (AFP) – A suicide bomber who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a triple agent who apparently duped his handlers that boasts he wanted to die a martyr were just a cover, reports said.

The Jordanian intelligence services had brought the bomber to eastern Afghanistan with the specific mission of finding Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, believing he was their double agent, US network NBC News reported late on Monday, citing Western intelligence officials.

But instead he blew himself up at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province near the Pakistani border, killing seven CIA agents and a top Jordanian intelligence officer and wounding six other people.

The killings marked the US Central Intelligence Agency's worst single loss of life since the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

There has been no immediate official comment on the reports from the Jordanian authorities.

NBC identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi and said that the slain Jordanian intelligence official, Captain Ali bin Zeid, a member of Jordan's Hashemite royal family, was his supposed handler.

In a mark of Bin Zeid's seniority, King Abdullah II, Queen Rania and other royals were on hand to receive his body when it was flown back to Jordan on Saturday following the December 30 bombing.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and White House adviser, told AFP that, according to unconfirmed intelligence reports, Zawahiri himself had ordered Balawi to carry out the attack using the pretext of information about his whereabouts.

"The bomber allegedly was sent by Ayman Zawahiri himself to conduct the attack and claimed he had information on Zawahiri," Riedel said.

NBC said the bomber had called his handler to say he needed to meet with the CIA team in Khost, because he had urgent information about Zawahiri.

Bin Zeid's family told AFP the intelligence officer had been in Afghanistan for 20 days and had been due to return home on the day he was killed.

The Jordanian intelligence services reportedly concluded they had turned Balawi when he announced a willingness to work for Amman and Washington while in custody more than a year ago.

Jihadist websites reported his arrest in December 2007 without specifying its location, US monitoring service SITE intelligence said.

Balawi had been a prolific contributor to jihadist websites over the previous two years under the online pseudonym Abu Dujana al-Khorasani, SITE added.

He continued to issue calls for jihad, or holy war, even after his release from custody when he was supposed to be working as a Jordanian agent, the monitoring group added.

In a September 2009 posting on a site run by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, he glorified martyrdom and called on others to follow his example.

"If (a Muslim) dies in the cause of Allah, he will grant his words glory that will be permanent marks on the path to guide to jihad, with permission from Allah," SITE quoted him as saying.

"If love of jihad enters a man's heart, it will not leave him even if he wants to do so.

"Indeed, what he sees of luxurious palaces will remind him of positions of the martyrs in the higher heaven."

Jordan has been a staunch Western ally for decades but it has never confirmed the presence of its troops or intelligence officers in Afghanistan as part of the US-led coalition which overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001.

Amman has repeatedly expressed commitment to the US war against terror.

US press reports have said that that commitment extended to helping in interrogations of non-Jordanian suspects captured by the CIA and transferred to Jordan in now-infamous "rendition" flights.

The authorities in Amman likewise never confirmed any role in the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq in 2003.

The invasion sparked opposition protests and Jordanian national Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi went on to lead Al-Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed in a June 7, 2006 US air strike near Baquba, north of Baghdad.

Jordanian public opinion had already turned against the jihadists after Zarqawi's group claimed 2005 suicide bombings against luxury hotels in Amman that killed 60 people.
 
Another bad thing is that he was a known terrorist. Turned or not, they sent a known terrorist into Pakistani areas. I wonder how many other such OPs have gone wrong for the Americans and for Pakistan as a direct consequence.

It seems like Americans who were lecturing us on using Afghanis as pawns and working with known militant groups, are not above working with terrorists and bombers themselves.
 
I guess watching the 'Bourne Ultimatum' made me over-estimate the CIA...
 
As i said all what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan is an inside job.
Once indians will be out of afghganistan things will start to get better.

Things will only get better when there is peace in Palestine ,which is epi center of terrorism , Afghanistan or Pakistan they are the part of great battle field starting form Algeria to Palestine ,Iraq ,Chechinia and upto Kashmir.
 
Jordanian intelligence services have long covertly cooperated with the United States, specifically in the hunt for al Zawahiri and bin Laden, because of the ability of Jordanian agents to blend into the al Qaeda organization, noted the former intelligence official.

[/B]Also killed in last week's attack in Afghanistan was Jordanian Army Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid, a cousin of King Abdullah of Jordan[/B]. [/B]The Jordanian government has not publicly commented on the specific circumstances of bin Zeid's death, but U.S. sources confirmed bin Zeid was present and was the Jordanian operative working closely with al Balawi.

Source: Jordanian double-agent killed 7 CIA officers in suicide blast - CNN.com
 
"It seems like Americans who were lecturing us on using Afghanis as pawns and working with known militant groups, are not above working with terrorists and bombers themselves."

Let's be clear here that nobody was working with a known terrorist group. Nor is it appropriate to equate attacking Zawahiri with attacking afghan civilians. What occurred-ostensibly "turning" an enemy agent of A.Q. and using him as a resource to attack Zawahiri is exactly what I'd expect my government's intelligence officials to be attempting.

A.Q. simply played their hand one step better here. If this account is true, though, then there's a high liklihood that those C.I.A. agents and others were standing before a man who DID know where Zawahiri was located...

...moments before detonating himself and them.

Zawahiri is that close and...evidently inside Pakistan.

I don't see a thing that was illegal about this operation. I see every reason to be impressed with A.Q.'s counter-intelligence. This is a very high stakes and lethal espionage war fought in those reaches of the border.

Thanks.:usflag:
 
Kudos CIA, They raised thee pooch so dat it could hunt them down . Or just another twisting of the facts .... they r really good at this .
 

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