CIA's Dirty Business

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Jan.. 5, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                    

              Al-Qaida, once again, outfoxed the Central Intelligence Agency, inserting one of its own at Forward Operating Base Chapman near the Southeastern province of Khost along the Afghan-Pakistan border, blowing himself up, killing seven CIA officers and one Jordanian intelligence official.  Detonating a suicide vest, the programmed assassin was  36-year-old doctor Humam Khalil Mohammed working as double-agent for the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate, a close ally to the CIA in the U.S. war on terror.  With Sept. 11 proving the CIA had two few ears on the ground in the Middle East, the CIA compensated by working with Israel’s Mossad and Jordan’s GID.  Before blowing himself up, Mohammed entered Base Chapman without being searched, calling a meeting with key CIA officials to report on progress hunting Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor second only to Osama bin Laden.

            Advanced medical training doesn’t immunize physicians from al-Qaida or Taliban brainwashing, where martyrdom is considered more important than individual survival.  Mohammed was recruited by the GID while in Jordanian prison to infiltrate Bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror organization.  Since Sept. 11, the U.S. has been desperate for actionable intelligence, especially developed from key areas on the ground.  Interrogating battlefield detainees in theater or at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba hasn’t yielded the high value targets needed to prosecute the war on terror.  Working with GID, enabled the CIA to get a leg up on spying, until the recent experiment backfired.  Simple security procedures, like those practiced as most commercial airports around the globe, would have prevented the incident.  While it’s difficult to ferret out double-agents, bomb detectors could have uncovered the plot.

               Coordinating with other intelligence agencies got the Bush administration into hot water, misreading German intelligence that insisted Saddam Hussein had active biological and nuclear weapons programs.  While Mohammed’s suicide bombing was the worst attack on the CIA since the 1983 Beirut U.S. Marine Base bombing, it was strangely parallel to the Nov. 6, 2009 massacre by U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, possibly a double-agent working for Yemen-based al-Qaida-affilitated radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, confirmed Hasan’s connection to al-Qaida through al-Awlaki.  Since Mohammed’s recent CIA suicide bombing, it’s going to be more difficult for the CIA to rely on foreign intelligence.  Jordan’s GID knew Mohammed as Capt. Zeid, barely mentioning his death.

            Jordan’s official news agency indicated that Capt. Zeid was killed in Afghanistan, Dec. 30 “as he performed his humanitarian duty with the Jordanian contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping forces,” covering up his true identity.  Just like Maj.. Hasan, before the Fort Hood massacre, spoke publicly about his sympathies to radical Islam, Mohammed, too, shared his loyalty to radical Islam on al-Qaida’s Web site.  “When a fighter for God kills a U.S. Soldier on the corner of a tank, the supporters of Jihad have killed tens of thousands of Americans through their connection,” Mohammed wrote on Jihadist forum.  Why the CIA was not paying attention to Capt. Zeid’s rantings is anyone’s guess.  “He’s in the top five jihadists.  He’s one of the biggest guns out there,” said Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism:  Theory and Practice,” stunned that Zeid slipped under the CIA’s radar.

            Since Mohammed’s suicide bombing, it exposed the close connection between the GID and CIA.  Capt. Zeid was originally recruited to help track down Zawahiri.  He hailed from the same Jordanian town as al-Qaida’s chief Iraq operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed by June 8, 2006 by a CIA predator drone attack.  While not confirmed, Capt. Zeid might have helped the GID track down al-Zarqawi.  His defection to al-Qaida and suicide bombing of CIA officials might have avenged the death of al-Zarqawi.  While that’s speculation, security officials dropped the ball allowing Capt. Zeid to enter Base Chapman without going through bomb or metal detectors.  “If the Jordanian intelligence officer had been vouching for this guy, the CIA would definitely him on the base,” said a former CIA officer, explaining how it was possible for Capt. Zeid to slip through Base security without getting checked.

            CIA officials must take an urgent inventory of security procedures at its extensive network of forward operating bases.  No one, including CIA and U.S. military personnel, should go through security without extensive checking.  Had Capt. Zeid been run through  bomb or metal detectors, seven CIA officers and a GID agent would still be alive.  CIA officials must redouble efforts to profile the type of personalities prone toward undue influence and brainwashing, excluding them from high security-clearance assignments.  Since the Fort Hood massacre, physicians should be carefully screened, especially now that they’ve been actively recruited into Bin Laden’s suicide corps.  No matter how inconvenient, no personnel—whatever nationality—should be immune to rigorous security checks.  No military or security force, either foreign or domestic, can rule out enemy infiltration.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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