CAPTION CORRECTION - CORRECTING TRANSLATION OF PLACARD. Afghan protesters hold a picture of a boy, who they claim was killed by foreign forces during military operations in Afghanistan, in Kabul December 30, 2009. Hundreds of Afghans joined street rallies on Wednesday to protest the killing of 10 civilians, most of them teenage students, in a military raid by foreign forces over the weekend. Placard reads " What did I do to be killed?" . REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS)
Israeli crimes caused Ballawi and Nidal reactions!
American support for Israeli crimes caused Ballawi and Nidal reactions!
Despite being ruled by successive King traitors, Jordan is portrayed as one of America staunchest allies in the area. Its intelligence agents have been rendering their services and coordinating efforts with MOSSAD, MI-6 and the CIA in supporting the war on Iraq and in Afghanistan. Furthermore there is a monthly meeting with MOSSAD to share information on Palestinian activities. During summer of 2006, the Jordanian King openly supported the Israelis in their violent attacks on Lebanon and blamed Hezbullah for starting the war, at the time when Israeli warplanes were merciless in bombarding civilian targets and cluster- bombing Palestinian camps. The policies of the Jordanian kings have helped to create a fertile environment for extremists. It was no wonder that the first action of Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was to blow up the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad that is after killing the CIA station chief in Amman.
The common denominator for the massacre at Forthood by Dr Nidal Hassan and the attack on the CIA cell near the Pakistani border by Dr Homam Al-Balwi was no other than the American support for Israeli crimes*. No Arab or Muslim can possibly remain silent after what has happened in Gaza and what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories with the support of successive American Presidents. The Americans are a party to all Israeli crimes.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
* A cousin of King Abdullah II, Major Al-Shareef Ali Bin Zeid, an intelligence officer, was aslo killed while supporting CIA activities.
Amman - The Jordanian Army announced Wednesday that one of its ranking officers was killed earlier in the day in Afghanistan. "Captain Ali bin Zeid was martyred this evening as he performed his humanitarian duty along with other Jordanian troops operating in Afghanistan," the official Petra news agency quoted an army spokesman as saying.
The statement gave no details as to the circumstances of bin Zeid's death, but said that he held the title of "Sherif," an indication that he was close to the ruling family. He is the first Jordanian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.
Jordan is the only Arab country that has publicly contributed forces to the US-led military alliance in Afghanistan, but authorities have so far refrained from disclosing the number of troops.
NATO's website listed 90 Jordanian soldiers alongside other contributions to the multinational force.
CIA probes how bomber penetrated Afghan base
31 Dec 2009 18:14:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with details)
WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The CIA has launched an internal review of how a suicide bomber penetrated its base in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven of its officers, the second-highest death toll in the agency's history, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The CIA officers died in an attack on Wednesday at the base near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the agency said in a statement earlier on Thursday. It added that six other employees were injured in the bombing, the deadliest since a 1983 bombing in Beirut, which killed eight.
The security breach was a setback to the CIA, which has been expanding its presence in Afghanistan to counter the resurgent Taliban militants.
CIA Director Leon Panetta said the deaths would not deter the agency.
"There are plenty of people here who are capable and willing to make sure that these people will be avenged," a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
"This incident is being looked at very, very carefully, and what there is to be learned will be learned," the official added.
The CIA said it would not release the names of those killed or provide details about the work they were doing for the agency, citing "the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations."
CIA agents oversee strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda targets along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Paul Simao)
REFILE - UPDATING CAPTION Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang is seen in a handout photo released to Reuters on December 30, 2009. According to local media reports, Lang and four Canadian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan on Wednesday. She was covering the war for the Canwest News Service. REUTERS/Calgary Herald//CANWEST NEWS SERVICE/ Handout (CANADA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY OBITUARY)
Afghan insurgents kill CIA agents, Canadians
31 Dec 2009 02:39:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Repeats to fix format)
* Insurgents target CIA agents, Canadian soldiers
* Agents were at base engaged in reconstruction
* Canadian journalist killed in south
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Insurgents intensified their campaign against military targets and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. CIA agents at a base and four Canadian servicemen on patrol
U.S. officials said the dead Americans -- killed in a suicide bombing on a military base in southeastern Khost province on Wednesday -- were CIA agents.and a journalist accompanying them.
It was one of the highest foreign non-military death tolls in the eight-year war against the Islamist Taliban.
The four Canadians and the journalist from the Calgary Herald were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, the Canadian Defence Ministry said.
The base in Khost province, Forward Operating Base Chapman, was engaged in reconstruction projects, a key part of U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilise the country.
Some people were wounded in the explosion, defence officials said, but no U.S. or NATO troops were among them.
Asked whether the suicide blast occurred inside the base, one official said: "That's my understanding." Another senior official confirmed the attack involved an explosive vest.
U.S. President Barack Obama is sending 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem the violence, with NATO allies also contributing thousands more.
Washington has pledged a "civilian surge", adding hundreds of U.S. experts to support work on development projects that aim to undermine support for the Taliban and other insurgents.
An Afghan army official on Wednesday said the United States had pledged $16 billion to spend on training and equipping Afghanistan's army and air force. [ID:n30220143]
The blast in Kandahar, about four km (2.5 miles) outside the city, struck the Canadian patrol as it was visiting community reconstruction projects, officials said.
The journalist killed was Michelle Lang, 34, on assignment for the Canwest News Service. She was on on her fist assignment in Afghanistan and had been in the country since Dec. 11.
The attack brought Canada's military deaths in Afghanistan to 138. Canada has a 2,800-strong military mission in Afghanistan, but the mission has become increasingly unpopular at home and it is scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of 2011.
UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE
The Taliban's armed campaign is at its bloodiest level since the militants, in power from the mid-1990s, were overthrown by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
Civilian and military casualty tolls have reached record levels. Suicide attackers even targetted United Nations employees at a guesthouse in Kabul, killing five.
Many civilians working outside Kabul have retreated into army bases as the security situation has deteriorated. Bases are heavily fortified and require extensive security checks to enter.
Foreign aid agencies warned earlier this year that the shift into the military bases, and the use of military personnel to carry out development projects, risked a dangerous blurring of the boundaries between troops and civilians.
But intensified activity by the U.S.-led force has also bred resentment among Afghans, particularly as local civilians have been killed in several attacks.
Hundreds protested on Wednesday against the killing of 10 civilians, mostly teenagers, in a raid by foreign forces that NATO forces said occurred in a battle in which nine insurgents were killed.
That attack heightened tensions between President Hamid Karzai's government, under pressure since his disputed re-election last August and NATO. Karzai condemned this week's civilian deaths and ordered an investigation.
Khost is one of the areas of Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, and most foreigners there are troops or working under military protection.
In September, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a military convoy of foreign forces there, killing one American. (Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer – 9 mins ago
KABUL – The Taliban claimed responsibility Thursday for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American civilians and one Afghan, the worst loss of life for the U.S. in the country since October. A U.S. congressional official said CIA employees are believed to be among the victims.
Separately, four Canadian soldiers and a journalist imbedded in their unit were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's south, the bloodiest single incident suffered by that country's military in 2009.
Michelle Lang, a 34-year-old health reporter with the Calgary Herald, was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan. She arrived in the country just two weeks ago.
Also Thursday, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province in the south said an airstrike by international forces killed and wounded civilians. Dawud Ahmadi said he did not have immediate information on how many died in the attack Wednesday in Babajid district, which he said occurred after an international forces patrol came under fire.
NATO said it was aware of the reports and was investigating. Claims of civilians killed by foreign forces are a highly emotional issue among Afghans and feed strong resentment of international soldiers.
It was not immediately clear how the suicide bomber at the base at the edge of Khost city was able to circumvent security.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base Wednesday and blew himself up inside the gym. A U.S. official who was briefed on the blast also said it took place in the gym.
Khost is the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.
The U.S. official said eight American civilians and one Afghan were killed; it was not clear if the Afghan victim was military or civilian. Six Americans were wounded, the official said.
The CIA has not yet commented on or confirmed the deaths.
There was no independent confirmation that the bomber was a member of the Afghan military. Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said no Afghan National Army soldiers are at the base, named FOB Chapman.
But an Afghan official in Khost said about 200 Afghans have been contracted by the U.S. to take care of security at the base. They are usually deployed on the outer ring of its walls, although some work inside, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"It's not the first time that Afghan forces have conducted such an attack to kill Americans or foreigners," the Taliban statement said, citing the killing of an American soldier and the wounding of two Italians this week in Badghis province. NATO has provided no details of that incident, but Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said an Afghan soldier opened fire on a base in the province's Bala Murghab district.
The congressional official in Washington said it was not clear how many of the victims in Khost were assigned to the CIA.
A senior State Department official said all of the victims were civilians. A former senior CIA officer who was stationed at the base said a combination of agency officers and contractors operated out of the remote outpost with the military and other agencies.
All the U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
NATO said only that the base is used by provincial reconstruction teams, which consist of both soldiers and civilians, and other personnel.
A spokesman in Kabul for the international coalition force said no U.S. or NATO troops were killed in the explosion. The attack was the bloodiest for Americans since eight soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack on a base in eastern Afghanistan on Oct. 3.
In the south, NATO said the four Canadian troops and the reporter died when their armored vehicle hit a bomb while on an afternoon patrol south of Kandahar city. It was the third-deadliest day for Canadians in Afghanistan since the war began.
Lang "was one of those journalists who always wanted to get to the bottom of every story so this was an important trip for her," said a Calgary Herald colleague, Colette Derworiz.
The military has not disclosed the names of the Canadian troops because relatives have not all been notified.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, commander of coalition forces in Kandahar, said the soldiers were conducting a community security patrol.
Wednesday's attack was the second lethal strike against Canadian forces in a week. One Canadian soldier and an Afghan soldier were killed Dec. 23 during a foot patrol in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, the latest casualties bring to 32 the number of Canadian forces killed in Afghanistan this year; in all, 138 have died in the war.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement of condolence to Americans and Canadians, saying "your children sacrificed their lives for the people of Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism. The Afghans will not forget your sacrifice."
Separately Wednesday, NATO questioned Afghan reports that international troops killed 10 civilians, including children, in a weekend attack that prompted hundreds of angry Afghan protesters to burn an effigy of President Barack Obama and chant "death" to America.
The head of an investigative team appointed by Karzai told AP that eight students between the ages of 12 and 14 were among the dead discovered in a village house in a remote section of Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan. NATO said late Wednesday that there was no direct evidence to substantiate the claims, but requested a joint investigation.
Although insurgents are responsible for the deaths of far more civilians, those blamed on coalition forces spark the most resentment and undermine the fight against militants. With 37,000 more U.S. and NATO troops being deployed to the battle zone, concern over civilian casualties is unlikely to ease anytime soon.
Several hundred Afghans demonstrated in Kabul and in the eastern city of Jalalabad in the wake of the reported deaths.
___
Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Jim Heintz in Kabul; Matthew Lee, Pam Hess and Pauline Jelinek in Washington, and Adam Goldman in New York City contributed to this report.
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Bomber who killed CIA operatives in Afghanistan was triple agent
Ex-Jordanian militant had agreed to help CIA find al-Qaida chief before turning against US spy agency
The suicide bomber who killed eight people at a US base in eastern Afghanistan last week was a triple agent brought to the outpost after offering information to catch a leading al-Qaida aide.
The attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer said to have brought the bomber, a Jordanian doctor, to the spy agency outpost.
US news agencies, citing intelligence sources, identified the attacker as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year-old doctor from the town of Zarqa, Jordan.
Balawi was arrested by Jordanian intelligence more than a year ago on suspicion of extremist sympathies, then apparently agreed to support the US in its fight against al-Qaida.
Jordanian authorities believed Balawi had reformed and handed him over to the CIA so that he could infiltrate al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
He was invited to the remote base on the restive border with Pakistan after offering urgent information to help locate Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Associated Press reported. Officials said he was not searched for bombs when he entered the base. A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment.
The latest account of the attack contradicted a statement by the Taliban soon after the blast, which was said to have occurred as CIA officers began questioning Balawi at the base. A Taliban spokesman initially said the attacker was a sympathiser in the Afghan national army.
The CIA has vowed to avenge the attack, which killed four CIA officers, including the base's female chief, and three contract security guards.
Shortly after the attack, Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence to CIA employees, saying the spy agency has been tested "as never before" since the September 11 attacks. The letter, which was released to the White House press corps, was criticised for its open acknowledgement of the secretive CIA's role in the Afghanistan war.
The attack was the biggest loss of life for the CIA since the 1983 bombing of the agency's Beirut station, which killed 17 officers.
Zarqa, a bleak industrial town north-east of the Jordanian capital Amman, has spawned other killers. In 2006, a man from the town killed a British tourist and wounded five others when he opened fire on a tour group in Amman. Zarqa was also the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the self-styled leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed by a US air strike in 2006.
The attack has occurred as the US is sending 30,000 more troops to the country, bringing the total number of its forces to about 100,000. Last year was the deadliest for US and Nato forces since the Taliban were overthrown by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. Bin Laden and Zawahiri, also a doctor, are said to have taken refuge in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan after the US invasion.
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CIA attack a blow but won't stop anti-terror hunt
By ANNE GEARAN and PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan And Pamela Hess, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 31 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The use of pilotless drones was supposed to minimize U.S. casualties in the campaign to hunt and kill militants. But the deaths of seven CIA employees along the Pakistan-Afghan border has exposed an unfortunate truth: Drone strikes depend in part on good tips gathered through old-fashioned spycraft that sometimes goes terribly awry.
The deaths in Afghanistan last week were a severe blow to the expertise and talent pool of the CIA in a little-understood country where its spies are now most at risk. But the U.S. isn't pulling back on covert operations to hunt terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and will go on taking chances on human tipsters.
The United States struck back at militant targets in Pakistan on Wednesday with explosives apparently launched from an airborne drone — the latest of five such responses since the bombing that killed several top CIA operatives at a secretive eastern Afghan base reportedly used as a key outpost in the effort to identify and target terror leaders.
The past week's drone attacks were a lethal message that the Obama administration views its airstrikes as too effective to abandon, even though they are unpopular with civilians and the U.S.-backed governments in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The apparent strikes killed at least 13 people in an area of Pakistan's volatile northwest teeming with militants, who are suspected of directing the suicide attack last week across the border in Afghanistan.
The bomber, a Jordanian doctor identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, apparently was a double agent — perhaps even a triple agent — who had been considered a key asset. Al-Balawi was invited inside the outpost facility bearing a promise of information about al-Qaida's second-in-command, presumed to be hiding in Pakistan.
Charles Faddis, a former agency case officer, said it was a major strike to agency operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"CIA is a small outfit," said Faddis, who recently published "Beyond Repair," a scathing assessment of the agency.
"You don't lose this many people in one strike and not feel it acutely."
A message posted by a top al-Qaida leader Wednesday on jihadist Internet forums praised the bombing and said it was to avenge the deaths of a Pakistani Taliban leader and two al-Qaida figures: Baitullah Mehsud, Abu Saleh al-Somali and Abdullah Saeed al-Liby, respectively. Terrorist watchdog groups disagreed over whether the message, signed by al-Qaida's No. 3, Sheikh Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was claiming responsibility for the attack.
Al-Somali was a senior al-Qaida operations planner who was killed in an American missile strike last month in western Pakistan, a U.S. counterterrorism official said. Mehsud was a Pakistani Taliban leader killed Aug. 5 in a CIA missile strike in northwest Pakistan. He was suspected of being involved in plotting attacks against the United States and Europe, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss covert operations.
The role of al-Liby could not be immediately determined.
There are no immediate plans to close the once-secret military base where the bomber killed the CIA post chief and wounded the Kabul deputy station chief, and the CIA is expected to quickly rebuild its operations there. The base chief, a woman, was a member of a small unit known as Alec Station created before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to track down Osama bin Laden, according to several former intelligence officials.
A U.S. intelligence official said the agency has increased the size and scope of its operations in Afghanistan and is continuing its counterterrorism mission as before.
Military officials said there may be additional security precautions for people entering the kind of forward operating base that houses the CIA operation. But the CIA controls many of the decisions about whom to meet and where, and how thoroughly to search a presumed informant.
Informants are sometimes invited to secure bases because of the security risk involved in sending undercover employees or other operatives outside the base, current and former intelligence and military officials said.
A federal law enforcement official said the bomber entered the base by car and detonated a powerful explosive just outside the base's gym, where CIA operatives and others had gathered. It was unclear whether the explosives were hidden in a suicide vest or belt, but they set off a "significant blast," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
A small team of FBI agents, including bomb and evidence technicians, flew to the remote Afghan base soon after the blast, the official said. The team, which is working closely with the CIA, has since returned and is still trying to identify the components of the explosives.
Several current and former intelligence and defense officials said the deaths of the CIA agents and the others were a foreseeable cost of doing business with unsavory people in dangerous places.
"The attacks confirm what has been the CIA's view all along, that undertaking intelligence operations requires taking risks, and while those risks can be diminished by excellent tradecraft, hard work and smart people, they can never be eliminated," former CIA officer Steven Cashsaid.
The CIA is taking heat from some of its own former employees, however, for apparently taking unnecessary risks in this case by failing to search the bomber before he entered the base. They also raised questions about why more than a dozen U.S. personnel were close by when al-Balawi detonated explosives.
Two CIA operatives might have been plenty, former CIA officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency procedures.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, said the agency now would probably be looking carefully at its other sources in the region to ensure they are legitimate.
"If the other side was running this one person against us, how confident are we of everyone else?" Riedel said. "You have to take a period to assess where you are."
___
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this report.
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Bomber's wife says husband did not work for CIA
07 Jan 2010 10:08:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
ANKARA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The wife of a double agent who killed seven CIA officers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan said she thought her husband was in Afghanistan to pursue his medical studies and that she was shocked at news of his death.
Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, told Turkish media she learned that her husband had blown himself up at a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30 after receiving a phone call from one of his friends in Pakistan.
Bayrak, who lives in Istanbul, said her husband had told her 10 days ago that he planned to return to Turkey. She doubted he was working for the CIA or that he was a member of al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda's Afghan wing has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing -- the second-most deadly attack in CIA history -- saying it was revenge for the deaths of their leaders.
Bayrak, a journalist who has written books including one entitled "Osama bin Laden: Che Guevara of the East", told Sabah daily.
"He's a very strong character. If he did it, he must have done it on his own will. Nobody can make him do things,"
"One of his friends in Pakistan called and informed me about the bombing incident. I don't believe he is linked to CIA and al Qaeda. Why would he attack CIA if he was working for them?"
Former intelligence officials have said Balawi, a doctor, was recruited by Jordanian intelligence to try to infiltrate al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Balawi had associated with Islamists in the past, but U.S. and Jordanian spy agencies thought that Balawi had been successfully "de-radicalised".
Bayrak said she met her husband, a Jordanian, while he was studying medicine at Istanbul University. They lived in Jordan, where they had two daughters, before moving back to Turkey in October 2009.
"We had a happy marriage," she told Aksam daily.
"My husband went to Afghanistan to register for a university in order to receive specialty education in medicine. He would come back when his work there was finished. I saw him in March for the last time, and we spoke on the phone 10 days ago. He told me he had changed his mind and would come back to Turkey for his studies. I am very sorry."(Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
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Bomber's wife "proud" husband killed CIA officers
07 Jan 2010 16:52:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Says she was shocked at news of husband's death
* Learned of bombing in call from friend in Pakistan
(Recasts with new quotes)
ANKARA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The wife of a double agent who killed seven CIA officers in a suicide attack in Afghanistan said on Thursday her husband regarded the United States as an enemy and she was proud of his mission.
Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said she doubted he was working for the CIA.
"I am proud of my husband. He has carried out a very important mission in such a war," Bayrak, who now lives in Istanbul, told reporters.
"I think it's impossible that he was an American agent. He was too adversary to work for America. He only could have used America and Jordan to reach his goals."
Bayrak, a journalist who has written books including one entitled "Osama bin Laden: Che Guevara of the East", earlier told the newspaper Sabah she believed her husband was in Afghanistan to pursue his medical studies and she was shocked at news of his death.
Wearing a black chador, she said she learned in a phone call from one of her Jordanian husband's friends in Pakistan that he had blown himself up at a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30. The friend also told her he would send her her husband's will and last letter, she said.
"Our last phone call took place about four to six weeks ago and we made contact through the Internet 10 days ago. He told me he would come back to Turkey and would even apply for Turkish citizenship. He would continue his medical studies here."
Balawi blew himself up inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well-fortified compound in Khost province near the southeastern border with Pakistan.
Al Qaeda's Afghan wing has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, the second-most deadly attack in CIA history, saying it was revenge for the deaths of their leaders.
"He's a very strong character. If he did it, he must have done it on his own will. Nobody can make him do things," Bayrak told Sabah.
Former intelligence officials have said Balawi, a doctor, was recruited by Jordanian intelligence to try to infiltrate al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Balawi had associated with Islamists in the past, but U.S. and Jordanian spy agencies believed he had been successfully "de-radicalised".
Bayrak said she met her husband while he was studying medicine at Istanbul University. They lived in Jordan, where they had two daughters, before moving back to Turkey in October 2009.
"I am not the one to decide whether he is a martyr or not. I pray to Allah to accept his martyrdom." (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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BOMBER WHO KILLED CIA AGENTS IN AFGHANISTAN SAID HE SHARED ALL US,JORDANIAN SECRETS WITH FELLOW MILITANTS-PAKISTAN TV
TV shows CIA bomber with Pakistani Taliban leader
09 Jan 2010 07:52:23 GMT
Source: Reuters
ISLAMABAD, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A Pakistani television station showed on Saturday what it says was the double agent who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan with Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
Private television station AAJ showed a video of the bomber speaking in English with Mehsud sitting beside him.
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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Cairo - The death of a Pakistani Taliban chief would be avenged both "inside and outside the United States," according to the al-Qaeda bomber who killed seven officers of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a December 30 attack in Afghanistan. In an alleged video message aired Saturday on the Doha-based al- Jazeera news channel, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi said:
"We will never forget the blood of our Emir Baitullah Mehsud."he added.
"To retaliate for his death in and outside the United States will remain an obligation on all exiles who were harboured by Baitullah Mehsud,"
Baitullah Mehsud, the highest ranking leader of al-Qaeda ally the Taliban in Pakistan, was killed in August in a US missile attack in South Waziristan, a Pakistani area bordering Afghanistan.
The attack against a US intelligence base in Afghanistan left seven US CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence officer dead. Al-Balawi was a "double agent" recruited by Jordanian intelligence services to act as an informant on the activities of the international terrorist network al-Qaeda.
"This is a message to the enemies of the Umma (Islamic nation), to the Jordanian intelligence and the CIA," al-Balawi said in the video.
The attacker's father, Khalil al-Balawi, confirmed on a report by the British broadcaster BBC in Jordan that the person speaking in the video was definitely his son.
The US IntelCenter, which specializes in analyzing Islamist websites, reported that the new Taliban chief in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, can be seen next to al-Balawi in the video.
Khalil al-Balawi held the "American oppression of Muslims in the world" responsible for the radicalization of his son. The attacker's wife speaking to US broadcaster CNN stated that she was proud of her husband deed.
The attacker, a 36-year-old Jordanian doctor, arrested more than a year ago by Jordanian intelligence, was believed to have been reformed, and sent off to Afghanistan and Pakistan to infiltrate al- Qaeda.
Western officials said he contacted his Jordanian handler and said he needed to meet urgently with the CIA team at the base in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, where he detonated an explosive- laden vest.
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FACTBOX-Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah in CIA bomber video
09 Jan 2010 11:54:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
Jan 9 (Reuters) - A Pakistan television station showed on Saturday what it said was the suicide bomber who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan sitting with Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, and reported he shared U.S. and Jordanian state secrets with militants.
Here are some facts about Hakimullah Mehsud:
- Hakimullah became overall head of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) in August 2009 after the death of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a missile strike by a CIA-operated drone.
- Before his elevation as Taliban head, Hakimullah was commander of about 8,000 militants in the Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber ethnic Pashtun tribal regions.
- Believed to be in his 30s, he is considered more violent than his predecessor, but also quite media savvy. He has vowed to take revenge for Mehsud's killing.
- Hakimullah claimed responsibility for a daring suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental hotel last year that killed seven people, including two U.N. workers. His fighters regularly ambush trucks taking supplies through the Khyber Pass to Afghan government and Western forces across the border.
- He works closely with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group linked to al Qaeda that has its roots in central Punjab province.
- Hakimullah lost all his main bases in his South Waziristan bastion in a Pakistani offensive in mid-October. His whereabouts are not known but he is believed to have fled South Waziristan to seek shelter with allies, possibly in North Waziristan.
(For main story please click on [ID:SGE60802E])
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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The economics of suicide attacks
This is not to discuss the social, educational or economic background of those carrying out daring and suicidal attacks on enemy positions, since Dr Nidal and Dr Homam attacks have answered many relevant questions. It is about the most efficient way of inflicting heavy losses when outnumbered by a highly-trained and heavily-armed barbaric enemy.
In 2004 91 US marines were killed in the battle of Fallujah in Iraq to the cost of 2400 dead to Iraqi resistance fighters, for a ratio of approximately 26 fighters were needed to kill one US marine. What an inefficient way of utilising human resources in comparison with Hezbullah record of one suicidal fighter to kill 241 US marines in Beirut in 1983, during the US-supported Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
The second best record is 158 killed to one suicidal person recorded on 911, 2001 when 19 Al-Qaeda followers killed close to 3016 people at the NY WTC and at the pentagon.
In another suicidal attack, in April 18 1983, Hezbullah destroyed a section of the US embassy in Beirut killing 60 people including the entire Middle East CIA experts (N0.17) which included top M.E. expert Robert C. Ames and CIA Station Chief Kenneth Haas. The attack was to avenge the massacres at Sabra and Shatilla by Israeli trained and armed, a 150-man unit of Christian Falange that killed between 800-3000 innocent Palestinian refugees.
Following Fallujah, the Iraqi resistance fighters changed tactics avoiding frontal attacks and intensifying the use of suicidal attacks that started to kill hundreds in one day. The same is being adopted by the Afghani and Pakistani Taliban with devastating results in Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad, Kabul, Kandahar and Khost. The attack in Khost on December 30, 2009, by Dr Humam Al-Balawi was highly significant since it has directly eliminated CIA agents responsible for killing hundreds of civilians using unmanned drones. Some may criticise my article since it deals with the most efficient way of killing people. But the on-going USraeli anti-Islamic crusade is barbaric. From above presentation, the resistance to USraeli atrocities doesn’t need a greedy Jewish broker to calculate the dividends gained when investing in one single suicidal attack.
Recently, Jewish experts in charge of right-wing Zionist institutes in the US have indicated that most suicide attackers are being seduced by money, hence improving the economic well being of people will prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban from recruiting young people. That is why I wrote that Dr Nidal and Dr Al-Balwi attacks haved answered such speculations. I have always preached that the USraeli atrocities are the cause of all the violence today. If the US continues its support for Israeli Nazi style crimes there is no hope and the current tit for tat will continue. Obama is depending on Jewish advisors in going to no-where.
People started to realise that wrapping up a dynamite belt or driving a car bomb will do the most damage to the enemy and to his agents. Why be so naive and die carrying a small arm fightinhg the heavily-armed US marines? It is a a matter of simple common sense. By the way, Mr Faroug Abdul Mutalab, Dr Nidal and Dr Humam were not poor or un-educated. Each in his own way found out about the most effective method of hurting the USareli enemies. Thousands are on the way.
One can't help but expect that Jewish businesses around the world to be attacked soon in retaliation for Israeli Nazi-style crimes. It is rather unfortunate as there are so many good and educated Jews who are opposed to Israeli atrocities.
There is no power on earth to put USraeli crinials on trial. That is why effective suicidal attacks are highly justified. One must take the law in his own hands when there is no law.
George W. Bush ordered his CIA to carry out dirty works in Iraq to blame the resistance for the violence. In Vietnam, the Americans carried out Phoenix operation which was killing over 1500 Vietnamese a week. Naturally they blamed the Vietcong for bombarding restaurants, cafes and hotels. The operator in Charge of Phoenix operation, John McCone, went to become CIA director. In Tehran, US ambassador to the Shah was nother than James Helms, a former CIA director, who personally supervised the tortutre and killing of anti-Shah elements. In Both Vietnam and Iran the Americans have lost. Iraq will follow soon.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
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FACTBOX-Double agents: The peril and the promise
10 Jan 2010 13:24:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - A Jordanian double agent's killing of CIA employees in Afghanistan shows the complex espionage challenge posed by Islamist militants for the West.
Following are some of the risks and rewards double agents and defectors pose for spy services, an aspect of espionage that former CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton once called a "wilderness of mirrors".
DOUBLE AGENTS
Recruitment
An intelligence officer recruiting a double agent is starting a relationship with someone risking at least a long prison term and probably execution for betraying their own organisation.
The first questions the officer must answer include, "Is this betrayal real?" and "If so, how do I protect this person from being discovered?"
The first question is especially problematic as the officer will have no standard means of verification -- a check can hardly be run with the agent's parent organisation, be that a conventional intelligence service or a militant group.
Psychology will play a role in assessing the double agent and their motivations, which may include money, ideology, coercion or personality quirks such as ego or self-importance.
If the officer is blackmailing the agent, it may not be clear if the target is succumbing genuinely to the pressure.
Trust
When an officer is cultivating a double agent the supreme challenge is to win their trust: The agent is putting his or her life in the officer's hands.
But communicating a convivial message of welcome may be difficult if personal contact is intermittent, indirect or impossible due to the absolute need for discretion and secrecy.
Even if personal contact is possible, trust can be destroyed if the potential double agent, often suffering high stress, are given even a faint impression that they are under suspicion.
The value of double agents
Double agents are valuable because they can shed light on the opposition's strengths, weaknesses and intentions. He or she may be in a position to neutralise these ambitions.
The double agent can be used to confuse the enemy or manipulate it.
Career motivations
The intelligence officer's success is advanced by the success of his or her agent. This reality entails a danger. Seeking yet further success, the officer may overlook suspect behaviour by the agent for fear of driving the agent away or ending the run of achievement.
"Recruiting an agent from another service, whether a rival service or a so-called friendly one is the acme(The highest point, as of achievement or development:) of every intelligence officer's career. He or she will do anything to achieve that," wrote espionage expert Phillip Knightley.
DEFECTORS
Value of defectors
Defectors have been described as the lifeblood of Western intelligence services.
The defector brings up to date knowledge of the opposition. If the defector is well placed, he or she may bring clues to the identity of opposition agents or "moles" in the organisation to which he is defecting. The defector can bring an assessment of what the opposition knows about the intelligence service.
In the Cold War, Western intelligence spent time money and energy trying to identity possible defectors and then trying to persuade or blackmail agents into coming over.
Dangers of defectors
Defectors are dangerous because of the need to decide whether they are genuine or acting under orders as part of a plan to plant a mole or propagate disinformation.
A lesson from the Cold War?
A defector who arrives unexpectedly, who "walks in", is often regarded with suspicion.
In the Cold War Western spies preferred a defector they had "targeted themselves, worked on for a long time and who comes reluctantly, preferably kicking and screaming," wrote Knightley.
"The rationale is simple and cynical: If he can be "turned" once, he can be "turned" again."
(Sources: Former U.S. intelligence officer Robert Ayers, Phillip Knightley's The Second Oldest Pofession, Chris Early interview with former KGB spy Boris Solomatin at www.trutv.com/library/crime/)
For main analysis click on [nLDE60802U]
For analysts' view click on [nLDE6061Q5]
For quotes on the bomber click on [nLDE609099]
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan) (Reporting by William Maclean, editing by Dominic Evans)
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The following are excerpts from a video message by triple agent suicide bomber Hamam Al-Bluwi (a.k.a. Abu Dijana), which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 9, 2010.
Reporter: Al-Balawi said that he would carry out his operation in defiance of Jordanian intelligence and the CIA. In the film, Al-Balawi is shown firing a gun several days before his attack. Al-Balawi said, in his [recorded] will, which was obtained by Al-Jazeera, that he refused to bargain, and that he was carrying out the operation to avenge the killing of Baitullah Mahsoud, former leader of the Taliban Pakistan movement.
Hamam Al-Balawi: This is a message to the enemies of the nation, from among the Jordanian intelligence and the CIA: someone who emigrates for the sake of Allah does not offer up his religion for bargaining in the market. Someone who wages Jihad for the sake of Allah will never sell out his religion, even if he is offered the sun and the moon.
We will never forget the blood of our Emir, Baitullah Mahsoud. We will continue to avenge his blood in America and elsewhere. This is a pledge taken by all the muhajireen, who were hosted by Baitullah Mahsoud. By Allah, we shall never forget our Emir, Baitullah Mahsoud, who used to kiss the hands of the muhajireen, out of the love he had for them in his heart. We shall never forget our Emir, Baitullah Mahsoud.
We shall never forget that he said that Sheik Osama Bin Laden was not on [Pakistani] soil, but if he were to come, we would protect him. He was true to his word, and he paid the price for these words in his blood. Allah willing, his successor, the Emir of Taliban Pakistan, Hakimullah, will follow the same path, until we are victorious or taste [martyrdom], like Hamza ibn Abd Al-Mutallib.
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