Patterico's Pontifications

12/31/2009

CIA Officers, Chief Killed in Afghan Attack (Updated)

Filed under: Terrorism,War — DRJ @ 3:14 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Seven CIA officers and the CIA base chief at a pivotal forward operating base were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan National Army uniform, and six more CIA officers were injured. The bomber’s ability to infiltrate the secure base is worrisome:

“The use of an army uniform raised the possibility that the uniform was stolen or that the Afghan National Army ranks had been infiltrated by insurgents, a potentially more serious and pervasive problem.

The attack happened close to dusk, when some people on the base were finishing their daily work and relaxing or taking a break before dinner or before returning to their offices for the evening.

A NATO official said the bomber managed to elude security and reach an area near the base’s gym. Among other questions raised was whether the bomber worked at the base and had clearance, or if a security slip allowed him to gain entry.”

The deaths reportedly doubled tripled the number of CIA officers killed since 9/11:

“The attack dealt a significant blow to the often insular, tight-knit intelligence organization, which has lost only 90 officers in the line of duty since its founding in 1947.

Previously, the spy agency has revealed that four of its officers have been killed since the Sept. 11 attacks, all of them memorialized with stars carved into a marble wall at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va.”

My condolences to the families of these heroes.

— DRJ

UPDATE: The AP reports the suicide bomber had been invited onto the base as a potential informant. Sources report that either he was not searched or he set off the bomb as he was about to be searched.

13 Responses to “CIA Officers, Chief Killed in Afghan Attack (Updated)”

  1. No way a terror group got intel and access like this without assistance from a major powers assets

    EricPWJohnson (9b7688)

  2. Very sad news. I had heard a report that he was allowed on the base because he was alleged to be an informant.

    GeneralMalaise (68a574)

  3. If we had universal health care this wouldn’t have happened.
    /sarc

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  4. AP reported the bomber was invited onto the base and wasn’t searched.

    Gazzer (d98659)

  5. I wondered what was what when I heard that “non-military” Americans were killed in a suicide bombing. Still unclear to me who was responsible for the security of the area, etc. Were these CIA working out of a NATO installation? A small self-contained unit (I doubt)?

    Interesting to me to read in Gazzer’s link the head of the CIA unit was a mom. I’m all for the contributions of women, but in a situation where direct/hand to hand combat is relatively likely… there is a reason why there are no female defensive ends in the NFL, and they don’t play to the death as they do in Afghanistan.

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  6. This was a major loss as these folks were the front lines. The CIAS is full of analyst as**oles but these folks were the real deal.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  7. 4

    I sincerely doubt that at all – the security even in Qatar is very high – I call BS on the AP story

    EricPWJohnson (9b7688)

  8. I’ved updated the post with an AP report via GeneralMalaise and Gazzer. Thanks for the link, Gazzer.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  9. There is no way two correspondents who are not even stationed in the middle east somehow was able in a matter of minutes to receive statements from anom sources from a base that has just been attacked

    EricPWJohnson (9b7688)

  10. Sounds like someone got sloppy.

    chaos (9c54c6)

  11. An alert reader points out that if 4 CIA agents have been killed since 9/11 and this attack killed 8 agents, the total killed is 12 which is the triple of 4, not the double. I’ve corrected the post to replace “doubled” with “tripled” in the sentence regarding the number of CIA deaths since 9/11.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  12. Somebody did not do their job,will that person take responsibility or were they also killed? This war is going to cost many more lives if proper procedures are not followed. The enemy hates us, do not trust, everyone entering our bases must be checked for arms etc.

    Don Rossi (6ef284)

  13. First, the Secret Service let gate crashers into the White House. Next, TSA allows the Nigerian Undy-bomber aboard an airplane bound for Detroit. Now, the CIA invites a suicide bomber to a war zone operating base and declines to perform a standard search.

    The pattern is clear, in each case fundamental security precautions were ignored or disregarded.

    ropelight (73b5b8)


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