Afghan Attack Tremendous Setback for CIA

(CBS)  The flag at CIA headquarters flew at half staff Thursday for seven of its own. Director Leon Panetta said they died far from home and close to the enemy - too close it turned out.

An Afghan informant was brought onto the base without any of the searches that would have detected explosives, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin. He walked up to where more than a dozen CIA operatives had gathered for a meeting and detonated his suicide vest.

According to former CIA Counterterrorism Chief Bob Grenier it was the Taliban equivalent of a precision guided weapon.

"The fact that this individual apparently penetrated as deeply on that base as he did, the fact he was able to get access to the individuals that he did suggests that this was not only his intent, but there must have been some sort of trusted relations with that individual," Grenier said.

The CIA is keeping the identities secret but one of the dead, the base chief, was a mother of three. Six other agency employees were gravely wounded.

Located on the border with Pakistan, Camp Chapman was used as a base for recruiting spies who, according to former CIA officer Gary Berntsen, would be sent to pinpoint targets for commando raids and air strikes.

"Collection would take place on both sides of the border in an effort to identify leadership targets within the Taliban and key al Qaeda targets," Berntsen said.

Officials credit the base with providing some of the intelligence which has enabled CIA drone strikes to eliminate much of al Qaeda's top leadership. It is a vicious game in which anyone suspected of spying for the Americans is executed and someone forgot the most basic rule of espionage.

"You can never be sure that you can trust anyone and the individual that you can trust today you may not be able to trust tomorrow," Grenier said.

With seven dead and six wounded, that base has now been knocked out of action until the CIA can send in a new team of operatives.

[wyodutch]

"Located on the border with Pakistan, Camp Chapman was used as a base for recruiting spies who, according to former CIA officer Gary Berntsen, would be sent to pinpoint targets for commando raids and air strikes."
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in other words... our version of Gestapo Headquarters in Paris, where the French collaborators would sneak in and inform on their neighbors so the Gestapo could conduct midnight raids.
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Nobody likes a rat.

[wyodutch]

The Afghan people will not live under the yoke of a foreign occupation... not British... not Russian and no... not even American.

[edgy44]

If they made one mistake that killed them, you can bet they made a bunch of other mistakes as well. Field agents this stupid are not doing the country any favors.

[sjc_1]

This guy was a Taliban in an Afghan army uniform and known by the CIA. The CIA is suppose to know the REAL identity of people they work for, that is why they call it Intelligence. I can not believe that they let their guard down this much. I am sorry for the deaths and injuries but this does not make any sense.

[jwesel1]

US occupation of Afghanistan doesn't make sense either

[WiseWidget]

No, actually the CIA has bigger problems with its continued use of the Blackwater murderers. Are these CIA people retarded or what?

[rmwhitman]

My thoughts and prayers for our forces and CIA risking their lives. It's hard for us to think like the Taliban and terrorists do, but we'll adjust to match their cunning. I can't wait till the Afghans do more to fight their own battle, at some point we need to say to the Afghans that they have to want opportunity we have provided for them badly enough to sustain it themselves.

[stryker54]

they really don't want it.

[worldcitizen1]

Should we pray that the US can teach the Afghans to kill more efficently? They do not want us there or need us, except for the corrupt few that profit from the conflict. These are the "Freedom fighters" that defeated the Soviet Union. These people know how to fight!

[Nikos_Retsos]

According to updated news, the bomber was a CIA informer, and the CIA agents were waiting for him to go to the meeting loaded with information. But, unfortunately, he was loaded with explosives. And since he was expected to arrive as a friend, he went through the security guards without being searched. And when he arrived at the CIA agents group location, he unleashed not the information about the Taliban whereabouts, but the the Taliban's revenge.

The undisputed fact in the Afghan war is that the Afghans hate the Americans, but they love the hefty U.S. bribes to snitch on their
own - especially Afghans of another unfriendly or antagonistic tribe.
But, when hatred for the U.S. occupation; love for big sums of U.S. money floating around just for the taking; patriotism among abject poverty, and shame for committing treason against your own people are
mixed together, the outcome may not go according to plans. And that
explains what has happened in Khost.

Let's face it. The Afghans hate us for what we are doing in their country. And the incident in Khost proves that they become versatile in playing the Afghan traitor con game with the U.S., but when they come in to collect their bribes, they don't bring in information for it. They bring death! And after 9 years of a U.S. quagmire in the Afghan war, the U.S. is till learning that the enemy's ingenuity and warfare tricks are as good as the U.S.'s panoply and weapon superiority! And, it seems to me, that in our effort to procure the best weapons hardware, and train with it for their best effectiveness, we have become featherbrained in the art of cunning warfare! Nikos Retsos, retire professor

[wyodutch]

Well said... Well said.

[wyodutch]

"..... According to former CIA Counterterrorism Chief Bob Grenier it was the Taliban equivalent of a precision guided weapon."
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That says it all. They've learned from us, the fine art of assassination.