Suicide bombing at CIA camp in Afghanistan likely revenge attack by Taliban warlord - a former ally

[laststeamtrain]

Source: NY DAILY NEWS

Suicide bombing at CIA camp in Afghanistan likely revenge attack by Taliban warlord - a former ally

BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, January 1st 2010, 4:00 AM


WASHINGTON - The suicide-bomb slaughter at a tiny CIA Afghanistan border camp was likely vengeance from a local Taliban tribal warlord who was once the agency's ally.

Forward Operation Base Chapman in Khowst, where seven CIA officers died Wednesday, is a few miles from the ruins of Al Qaeda camps obliterated by U.S. missiles in a failed 1998 attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden.

"This will be avenged through aggressive counterterror operations," an official said Thursday as drones blew up Al Qaeda goons in warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani's territory across the border in Pakistan. "People at Langley are galvanized."

The CIA backed Haqqani in the 1980s war against Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/01/01/2010-01-01_suicide_bombing_at_cia_camp_in_afghanistan_likely_revenge_attack_by_taliban_warl.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Haqqani had a mole he found expendable.

Which implies that he has others inside our operations in Afghanistan.

"as drones blew up Al Qaeda goons" - ? Is this reporting or editorializing? Those 'al qaeda goons' are quite frequently civilian men women and children who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when some kid pulled the joystick trigger on a robo-bomber.

[CaliCompadre]

2. The Daily News has been losing money. They need to try new things

I bet children were among those "goons."

[Pavulon]

7. Take a look back at their operations in Greece

bet on it happening in pakistan. Afghanistan is worthless, pakistan is now the center of gravity in this fight. I have posted this before and stand by it. This conflict will be won in the shadows. We will kill anyone involved with this wherever they are. If they are ISI, which has factions that support the al -q people, we will capture, debrief, and kill them.

Killing meatpuppets is pointless. Killing money men, operations guys, and recruiters has impact. If that is done with a pistol in a hotel in zurich, fine. With a car bomb (the kind that blows up, not out) in islamabad, so be it.They are military targets everywhere except the ones who live here in the US.

This event will escalate the shadow war. We have guys who have done this in Europe with the best in the world during the cold war, bet on them sharpening their knives.

[Alamuti Lotus]

8. getting wood just thinking about it, eh?

[Pavulon]

9. Posting with historical context, bad eh?

just saying nothing new under the sun. Your local library has a wealth of information.

[bemildred]

10. More or less supports the point of view in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4206611&mesg_id=4206660

[Pavulon]

13. We are there to install some pipe? Right.

we are there because they are there. If they move we will follow them. The war is not against goat herd illiterate kleenex meatpuppets. We can kill them all day and another just pops right up.

Breaking logistics, money, and planning is where the war is and where it will matter. The rest is a sideshow.

[bemildred]

16. Sort of makes me wonder why we haven't done it already.

It sounds so straightforward when you explain it. Why have we waited so long to take the gloves off? What's been holding us back?

[Pavulon]

17. Last administration fucked it all up.

Invading Iraq served no American interests. So time and energy has been and still is wasted there. Changing this is like turning a ship, hopefully we are making changes. The fact CIA agents were killed means they are there. If they are there that means we are using them, not DOD for intel.

[bemildred]

18. Well apparently your view is widely shared:

CIA swears revenge for Afghan attack

WASHINGTON: The CIA has sworn to avenge the killing of seven of its operatives by a suicide bomber at a forward operating base (FOB) close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, including that of the female base chief who was a mother of three children.

Great fury and a sense of betrayal is sweeping through the US administration, the military, and the intelligence agencies as details emerge of the horrific massacre, said to be the agency’s biggest single loss after eight agents were killed in the infamous Beirut bombing in 1983.

''There are plenty of people here who are capable and willing to make sure that these people will be avenged,'' a US intelligence official told news agencies. "This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations.''

Within hours of the massacre, there were two US drone attacks inside Pakistan, killing, according to initial accounts, five suspected terrorists. The attacked FOB named Chapman, close to the Af-Pak border near Khost, was said to be a nerve centre of CIA covert ops including drone strikes and special forces infiltration.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/CIA-swears-revenge-for-Afghan-attack/articleshow/5403344.cms

[Pavulon]

19. I read history. The CIA has a long history.

as do US activity in places like Greece and Europe. There is a continual balance between the Administration of the agency that worries about exposure to political messes and the operations folks who get results. I would bet the operational folks are getting very busy now preparing a comprehensive response.

I remember when someone explained the power of the USAF to me. I always saw the planes and old footage of stuff getting blown up. Their explanation was about coordination over scale. If we want to turn all the lights out and destroy every dam, generator, air base, and military complex over a nation we can. It can all happen at 0217 local time and the impact of that is massive.

The CIA can coordinate damage against these guys and should now have the ability to run massive global operations. Incidents like the Kerfuffle in Italy will take an uptick. Again, the money is the key. Breaking money men and recruiters, wherever they live is the goal.

[pjt7]

20. Pavulon, Honestly how much increased blowback do you

think the ISI will unleash on us? It is there Country.

[scentopine]

3. CIA and Mullahs in a private war - goddamn all who cheer this on -nt

[peacetalksforall]

4. II's an insult to humanity to play war, let alone referring to their enemy as goons.

Where are the smart people who can think for peace? Who can instill the concepts and possibilities of peace?

First day of 2010 and we're still at war, talking war, suffering from war.

Perhaps we should welcome aliens from outer space, if they are there, to either show us what war is or what peace is.

I've had it with a system set up all focused on war.

Two ears, two eyes, one mouth does it.

When you keep children in mind and what the people on the earth really want. A future without war.

[bemildred]

5. Pakistan Taliban claim they carried out attack on CIA in Afghanistan using a turncoat agent

MIR ALI, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban claimed Friday that they used a turncoat CIA operative to carry out a suicide bombing that killed seven American CIA employees in Afghanistan as revenge for a top militant leader's death in a U.S. missile strike.

The announcement was nearly impossible to verify independently because it involves covert operations in a dangerous region. It is highly unusual for the Pakistani Taliban to claim credit for an attack in Afghanistan, and the proclamation followed indications the Afghan Taliban may have been involved in the attack.

---

Hussain said a "CIA agent" contacted Pakistani Taliban commanders and said he'd been trained by the agency to take on militants but that he was willing to attack the U.S. intelligence operation on the militants' behalf. He did not specify the nationality of the "agent."

"Thank God that we then trained him and sent him to the Khost air base. The one who was their own man, he succeeded in getting his target," Hussain told an AP reporter who travelled to see him in South Waziristan on Friday. The region is where Pakistan's army is waging a military offensive aimed at dismantling the Pakistani Taliban.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iF_atN8Wg-c-VeVZg249DEsY-LbA

[bemildred]

6. Attacked CIA base is key drone hub

The CIA base attacked by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan is at the heart of a covert program overseeing strikes by the agency's remote-controlled aircraft along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, officials said Thursday.

The assailant, wearing an explosive belt under his clothes, was apparently allowed to enter Forward Operating Base Chapman after offering to become an informant, according to two former agency officials briefed on the attack.

---

U.S. personnel at Forward Operating Base Chapman are heavily involved in the selection of al-Qaida and Taliban targets for drone-aircraft strikes, according to two former intelligence officials. The drones are flown from separate bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The base is also a center for recruiting and debriefing informants, the officials said, and it would not be unusual for local Afghans to be admitted to the facility for questioning.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010656876_afghancia01.html

[Flaneur]

11. Payback is a bitch.

[Pavulon]

12. Yep. That should be coming to visit soon

for the folks behind this and other operations. Their lives just got a lot cheaper and I would bet operations off the table are now front and center. If I lived anywhere but here and paid for this stuff I would start worrying.

[Flaneur]

14. The Taliban will be happy to kill Americans as long as we want to stay there.

Carry on.

[Pavulon]

15. You were doing fine with "The taliban will be happy to kill americans"

see uss cole, embassy bombings and of course 9/11. Bali was nice too. These guys were playing jihad before we stepped foot over there.

You agree? So given that FACT we should spend resources making life difficult for those who fund and supply them. Killing kleenexes is not going to do long term damage.

[Name removed]

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