Ramanisblog

Tag: CIA

  • How CIA Was Fatally Duped by Jordanian Double Agent

    The doctor-turned-bomber who was recruited by Americans to hunt down Bin Laden’s right-hand man was in fact working for al-Qa’ida.
    The Central Intelligence Agency was bracing yesterday for a fresh barrage of questions about its competence following reports that the man who blew himself up at its main operating base in Afghanistan on 30 December, killing seven of its employees, had been recruited by the US but had, in fact, been a double agent for al-Qa’ida all along.

    It was the deadliest attack suffered by the CIA against its own for more than 25 years. The suicide bomber, at first thought to have been a disgruntled Afghan soldier, has now been identified as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a 32-year-old doctor from Jordan.

    Also killed by the blast at the CIA’s Forward Operation Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan, was his Jordanian handler, Ali bin Zaid, a senior intelligence officer of Jordan and a cousin of King Abdullah. The CIA has not identified the victims from its ranks, some of whom were agents while others may have been contractors.

    Nor was the CIA making any on-the-record comment about the attack, details of which were still surfacing last night. But one top US intelligence official told The Washington Post anonymously that it would not go unanswered. “The agency is determined to continue pursuing aggressive counter-terrorism operations,” the official said. “Last week’s attack will be avenged. Some very bad people will eventually have a very bad day.”

    Family members yesterday said that al-Balawi had been working as a doctor in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan near Zarqa, which happens also to be the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qa’ida leader who was killed in Iraq in 2006. They said he had told friends months ago that he was going away to study in Turkey.

    But family and friends, it seems, were not the only people that al-Balawi duped. First arrested over a year ago by Jordan as a suspected al-Qa’ida sympathizer and operative, al-Balawi subsequently convinced the Jordanian intelligence agency that he was ready to switch sides and infiltrate the terror group. In time, the Americans were apparently also convinced that he had been successfully turned.

    To cement the deception, al-Balawi reportedly supplied the Jordanians and the CIA with what officials have called “actionable intelligence” on al-Qa’ida on more than one occasion.

    That he continued to pen pro-jihad messages on websites associated with al-Qa’ida, and to speak publicly of his support for armed jihad, seemingly did not give Western agents pause, perhaps because they assumed he was doing so to build up his own cover as a double agent. Al-Balawi’s specific mission was to help the Americans track down down al-Qa’ida’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Minimal precautions were apparently taken when al-Balawi, accompanied by Jordan’s Bin Zaid, travelled to the CIA facility in Khost province last week, apparently after indicating that he had important information to share.

    It was as he approached one of the main buildings at the complex that al-Balawi detonated a powerful bomb concealed in his vest. Among the immediate concerns being raised are why he had not been thoroughly searched on entering the compound, and why there were so many CIA people with him at the moment he set off the explosives he carried. American intelligence officials are working to identify the masterminds of the attack.

    According to at least one report, US military officials believe it may have been orchestrated by the Haqqani network, an al-Qa’ida-linked militant group that operates out of north-west Pakistan and has launched many attacks in Khost in the past. Ironically, the network’s ageing leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was formerly a close US ally in the covert Afghan war against the Soviets. He visited the Reagan White House and was described by Texas politician Charlie Wilson as “goodness personified”.

    Meanwhile, the bombing has highlighted both the shortcomings of both Jordanian and US intelligence operations, and the increasing sophistication and reach of their enemies.

    “Double-agent operations are really complex. The fact that they can pull this off shows that they [al-Qa’ida] are not really on the run,” one former CIA official commented. “They have the ability to kick back and to think about these things.”

    The evidence that al-Balawi may have been fatally mishandled comes even as a top American military intelligence officer in Afghanistan, Major-General Michael Flynn, suggested in an article published by a Washington think-tank that the US intelligence community is only “marginally relevant” to the West’s efforts to confront the Taliban and al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan.

    The debacle may also add strains to the relationship between the US and Jordanian intelligence agencies, which have hitherto been very close.

    Bin Zaid, whose body was met by the king when it was returned to Jordan, seems to have been the first to be convinced that al-Balawi had genuinely changed sides.

    Yet al-Balawi’s jihadist writings had the ring of conviction. He reportedly told one magazine he had had a “predisposition for love of jihad and martyrdom ever since I was little.”
    http://www.alternet.org/story/144976/how_cia_was_fatally_duped_by_jordanian_double_agent?page=entire

  • Video: Family of alleged CIA bomber speaks

    http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/07/video-family-of-alleged-cia-bomber-speaks/

  • Obama presses security overhaul, Nigerian indicted

    One must remember the enormous odds the intel.Agencies face when fighting a faceless enemy.While there face is unknown to the Agencies, terrorists know all the moves of the Establishment, thanks to media.However, ego clashes of Heads of Agencies and mis/non communication could have been avoided.Central Nodal Agency,Homeland Security should have coordinated better.
    Obama need not have lowered their morale in public for political expediency.

    U.S. President Barack Obama is “not patient” and is demanding immediate changes in airline security, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday, as a grand jury indicted a Nigerian man for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day.

    Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was concern that potential extremists could be inspired by the bombing attempt blamed on 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempt, one of the most serious U.S. security breaches and intelligence breakdowns since the September 11 attacks.

    “Certainly there is the concern that this would bring more, generate more support from young males who might be on the fence about what to do with their lives,” Mullen said.

    A grand jury in Michigan indicted Abdulmutallab on six counts, including attempted murder of the other 289 passengers and crew on board the plane, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faces life in prison, if convicted.

    The bomb, which Abdulmutallab has told investigators was given to him by al Qaeda in Yemen, contained the highly explosive ingredients Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, or PETN, and Triacetone Triperoxide, or TATP, the indictment said.

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder held out the possibility of others being charged, saying, “Anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool — military or judicial — available to our government.”

    Jitters have gripped the U.S. travel industry in the aftermath of the bombing attempt. In the latest security scare, an unruly passenger on a Hawaii-bound airliner on Wednesday prompted the pilot to return the plane to Portland, Oregon, escorted by two military fighter jets.

    Obama called the Detroit incident a potentially disastrous “screw-up” by the intelligence community during a two-hour meeting with his national security team on Tuesday.

    “The president — he’s not patient about this at all. These changes have to be made immediately,” Mullen told university students at a seminar in Washington.

    Obama will address the issue again in a public statement on Thursday, when the White House will release a review that will make recommendations on plugging holes in security, including changes in passenger screening and terrorism watch lists.

    “The review will simply identify and make recommendations as to what was lacking and what needs to be strengthened,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, adding it would be “comprehensive.”

    INTELLIGENCE SHARING

    U.S. spy agencies and the State Department had information about Abdulmutallab but they never pieced it together to put him on a no-fly list. Instead, passengers and crew subdued the Nigerian bomb suspect as he tried to detonate the device.

    Mullen said part of the problem was intelligence sharing and filtering through the extraordinary amount of data collected by U.S. spy agencies.

    “It does have to do with sharing information and it does have to do with huge bureaucracies. And we collect an extraordinary amount of data,” Mullen said.

    Obama has been lambasted by Republicans who accuse his Democratic administration of being weak on terrorism and unable to fix intelligence gaps that have lingered since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States involving hijacked planes.

    Senior Republican lawmakers on Wednesday called on Obama to take more concrete steps to improve security and challenged the decision to try Abdulmutallab in federal court.

    “All jihadist attackers should be charged as enemy combatants, taken into military custody, interrogated for vital intelligence, and tried in military courts under the laws of armed conflict,” they said in a letter to Obama.

    Since the Christmas bombing attempt, there has been finger- pointing within the U.S. intelligence community, including at the National Counterterrorism Center, created in 2004 to serve as the main repository for counterterrorism intelligence.

    Asked whether people might lose their jobs over the incident, Gibbs said, “I don’t know what the final outcome in terms of hiring and firing will be.”

    “This is a failure that touches across the full waterfront of our intelligence agencies,” he said.

    Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell did not rule out the possibility the review could affect the Defense Department, but added he did not see any readily apparent failings “within this department as to how we should have responded.”

    “As for what this department in particular will do differently, I think that is something that is yet to be determined,” Morrell told reporters.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60342S20100106?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest

  • Who are the Taliban?-BBC.

    Who are the Taliban?

    The Taliban are active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan

    Recent years have seen the re-emergence of the hardline Islamic Taliban movement as a fighting force in Afghanistan and a major threat to its government.
    They are also threatening to destabilise Pakistan, where they control areas in the north-west and are blamed for a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks.
    The Taliban emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
    A predominantly Pashtun movement, the Taliban came to prominence in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1994.
    It is commonly believed that they first appeared in religious seminaries – mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia – which preached a hard line form of Sunni Islam.
    The Taliban’s promise – in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan – was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power.
    In both countries they introduced or supported Islamic punishments – such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers and amputations of those found guilty of theft.
    Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.
    Madrassas
    The Taliban showed a similar disdain for television, music and cinema and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over from going to school.

    The Taliban first came to prominence in Afghanistan in 1994
    Pakistan has repeatedly denied that it is the architect of the Taliban enterprise.
    But there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.
    Pakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until 2001.
    It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the Taliban.
    But Pakistan has since adopted a harder line against Taliban militants carrying out attacks on its soil.
    The attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001.

    Mullah Omar’s precise whereabouts are still unknown
    The Taliban in Afghanistan were accused of providing a sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda movement who were blamed for the attacks.
    Soon after 9/11 the Taliban were driven from power in Afghanistan by a US-led coalition, although their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was not captured – and neither was Osama Bin Laden.
    In recent years the Taliban have re-emerged in Afghanistan and grown far stronger in Pakistan, where observers say there is loose co-ordination between different Taliban factions and militant groups.
    The main Pakistani faction is led by Hakimullah Mehsud, whose Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is blamed for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks.
    Observers warn against over-stating the existence of one unified insurgency against the Pakistani state, however.
    The Taliban in Afghanistan are still believed to be led by Mullah Omar, a village clergyman who lost his right eye fighting the occupying forces of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
    Afghans, weary of the mujahideen’s excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene.

    THE TALIBAN
    Emerged in Afghanistan in 1994
    Mainly supported by ethnic Pashtuns
    Toppled after US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001
    Fugitive leader Mullah Omar wanted, whereabouts unknown
    Their early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.
    From south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence.
    They captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran, in September 1995.
    Exactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, after overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defence minister, Ahmed Shah Masood.
    By 1998, they were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.
    They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.
    US onslaught
    On October 7, 2001, a US-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan and by the first week of December the Taliban regime had collapsed.

    Mullah Omar and his comrades have evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world
    Mullah Omar and most of the other senior Taliban leaders, along with Bin Laden and some of his senior al-Qaeda associates, survived the American onslaught.
    Mullah Omar and most of his comrades have evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world and are believed to be guiding the resurgent Taliban.
    Since then they have re-grouped in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, but are now under pressure in both countries, from the Pakistani army and Nato respectively.
    Despite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban have steadily extended their influence, rendering vast tracts of Afghanistan insecure, and violence in the country has returned to levels not seen since 2001.
    Their retreat earlier this decade enabled them to limit their human and material losses and return with a vengeance.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1549285.stm

  • Who’s more intelligent, the intelligence services or the terrorists?

    I would say that terrorists are more lucky than intelligence services-definitely not more intelligent.
    Consider the facts.Agencies do not know the terrorists, but they do know about the agencies,in fact their day to day operations thanks to media.
    Terrorists are mingled with the law abiding citizens; you just can’t go and arrest somebody till a terrorist act is committed or you prove the intentions.
    Even if arrested terrorists do have Rights!
    Fact is Agencies have to be lucky at all times while terrorists need to be lucky only once.
    In yesterday’s programme many listeners commented that profiling at airports would not work because the people who resort to terror would simply change their profile and stay one step ahead.

    The calls for these extra security measures at airports came afterUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the US. The American intelligence and the British intelligence services are blaming each other for the blunder.

    Bernard Harcourt on our show yesterday had the following to say about terrorist organisations: These are organised groups, these are forward-thinking, extremely rational in terms of activity planning strategy and figuring out where the weaknesses are.

    Bernadette Atuahene says, I have been scratching my head trying to figure out how in the world Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian student, outsmarted homeland security and its Transportation Security Administration… he was just some punk kid who was brainwashed in Yemen and sent to do a job. This terrorist should have been no match for us!

    This blogger, has questions the CIA tactics after it emeged that the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officials and a Jordanian military officer last week in Afghanistan was a Jordanian double-agent, recruited by the U.S. intelligence. He asks wheather the CIA was caught in an al-Qaeda trap?

    There is general feeling of a loss of faith in the intellegence services this blogger says, In the last decade, the ability of US intelligence services to distinguish between good intelligence and bad intelligence, to actually know when a threat was coming and counter it, have not been very good.

    And Ralph Peters writes, Our terrorist enemies are out-thinking us. It’s not only embarrassing, but deadly.

    Are terrorists one step ahead of the security services? Do you feel protected by the intelligence services?
    http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/whos-more-intelligent-the-intelligence-service-or-the-terrorists/#comment-193416