Human bomb wearing Afghan officer uniform kills CIA officers

NY Times:

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest and an Afghan National Army uniform killed at least eight American civilians, most of them C.I.A. officers, at a remote base in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to NATO officials and former American intelligence officials.

The bomber who struck the base in Khost Province was wearing an Afghan National Army uniform, two NATO sources, both of whom asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject, said Thursday. Earlier, a Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.

The use of an official army uniform could mean any one of three things: that the raid was carried out by the Taliban and he was using a stolen uniform; that he was an army officer assigned to the base who became mentally unstable and decided to turn on those he was supposed to protect; or that the Afghan National Army ranks are infiltrated by insurgents. The latter would be the most serious concern because it indicates a potentially more pervasive problem.

The attack happened close to dusk, when some people on the base are finishing their daily work and relaxing or taking a break before dinner before returning to their offices for the evening.

...

One former C.I.A. official said that eight agency employees had been killed but cautioned that early reports from the field were often incorrect. The official, who spoke anonymously because the agency had not commented publicly on the attack, said the final number of dead could be higher because at least six American civilians were wounded. It was unclear how many of the dead were full-time C.I.A. officers and how many were contract employees.

...

Khost Province, bordering Pakistan, has been a prime area for militants with links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda who use Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas as a base to stage their insurgency.

Bases on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan gather intelligence in both countries and generally have ready access to local operatives who can move seamlessly across the border. The Khost area has been one of several throughways that Al Qaeda has used since the 1990s to move back and forth between the two countries.

...

A NATO official said the bomber managed to elude security and reach an area near the base’s gym. It was not clear whether the bomber, who apparently died in the blast, entered the gym. Among other questions raised was whether the bomber worked at the base and had clearance, or if a security slip allowed him to gain entry, and whether other operatives had access to the base.

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The last quoted paragraph is I think the most important question to come out of the attack. The answer to the issues raised will tell what action needs to be taken to prevent such attacks.

I suspect the human bomb was an outsider who was allowed to slip through the gate because of collusion or because the guards were fooled. He was someone who knew where the CIA team would gather at that hour so he probably had good intelligence on how things worked on the base.

If he were a real Afghan officer who decided to explode around CIA officers he probably would have done so at a formal meeting. The knowledge of where to find the CIA officers at the given time suggest to me that his entry was probably through collusion.

A Reuters report quotes the Taliban as claiming the bombers was an Afghan officer. The Taliban statement indicates that the attack occurred at the fitness club which indicates some inside knowledge of operations within the base.