Terrorist who killed CIA officers was “double-agent”

BEIJING, The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officials and a Jordanian military officer last week in Afghanistan was a Jordanian double-agent, the news channel CNN reported Monday.

A former U.S. intelligence official told CNN the bomber was a source who came to the base camp in Khost near the Pakistan border for a meeting on Dec. 30.

According to the report the man had been used by both countries’ intelligence services in the past, and had provided information about high-value targets.

“It was a joint U.S.-Jordanian source who had provided over the period of his cooperation a lot of very detailed good information that was of high interest at the most senior levels of the U.S government,” the former U.S. intelligence official told CNN.

The security breach occurred because U.S. intelligence officials failed to search the bomber before they put him in a car and drove him onto Forward Operating Base Chapman, the former intelligence official said. Both the Jordanian and U.S. intelligence services believed the man was loyal but there is now “a lot of soul searching” at CIA headquarters in Virginia, according to the former intelligence official.

The bomber has been identified as Human Khalil Abu-Mulal al Balawi, from the Jordanian town of Zarqa, also home to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the one-time leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The CIA refused to comment Monday, saying the matter was under investigation. Meanwhile the bodies of the seven CIA employees have been flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a private ceremony attended by CIA Director Leon Panetta, other agency and national security officials, friends and family.

Source: Xinhua