WASHINGTON (AP) — The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Thursday.
A former senior intelligence official said that the bomber was being courted as an informant and that he hadn’t been brought inside the camp before.
An experienced CIA debriefer had come from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said.
The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity. CIA officials would not confirm details, saying that the agency was still gathering evidence.
A third U.S. official suggested that the bomber may have set off the explosives as he was about to be searched.
The bombing Wednesday dealt a blow to the spy agency.
Among those killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. Six other agency personnel were wounded in what was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
The CIA did not release information about the victims, citing the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations.
President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta on Thursday praised agency employees for their work.
“Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism,” Panetta said. “We owe them our deepest gratitude, and we pledge to them and their families that we will never cease fighting for the cause to which they dedicated their lives — a safer America.”
In a letter to CIA employees, Obama said their fallen colleagues came from a “long line of patriots” who have helped to keep the nation safe despite grave risks.
Obama acknowledged that the spy agency has been tested “as never before” since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
According to one former agency employee, the death toll represents a significant portion of the CIA’s clandestine force in the region but is unlikely to cripple the agency because so many of its employees have experience in Afghanistan.
“The bench is deeper in Afghanistan than it is anywhere in the world,” the former employee said.
The bigger question for CIA operations will probably be whether the agency moves to tighten safety rules for its employees, the former employee said.
The incident occurred at a former military base on the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province. The province borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base and blew himself up inside the gym. A U.S. official briefed on the blast also said it took place in the gym.
Forward Operating Base Chapman is a former military facility that has been turned into a CIA base, according to another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Only four known CIA operatives have been killed in Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
CIA officer Micheal “Mike” Spann was killed in a prison uprising in November 2001. In 2003, an agency officer died in a training exercise, and two contractors operating out of a CIA base in Shkin district of Paktika province were killed the same year.
