Obama's 'timetable' endangers Americans?

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson

TEL AVIV – A suicide-bomb attack targeting a CIA base in southeastern Afghanistan last week apparently was aided by a double agent who was working with the U.S., according to an American security official with specific knowledge of the attack.

Experts, meanwhile, expressed concern that President Obama's recently announced timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could prompt locals working with the U.S. to change allegiances out of fear of retaliation.

The Dec. 30 blast rocked a CIA base in a Taliban stronghold in the remote outpost in Khost province, close to the border with Pakistan. Investigators are trying to determine how the bomber knew of the base and how the attacker was able to get inside armed with explosives.

According to the American security official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, initial information pointed to a local working with the CIA who may have allegedly aided those who planned and carried out the attack. The official would not discuss specific details, citing the sensitivity of an ongoing investigation.

Earlier today, NBC News quoted Western intelligence officials stating the bombing was carried out by a Jordanian doctor who was an al-Qaida double agent. The doctor, identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, 36, was an al-Qaida sympathizer arrested by Jordanian intelligence more than a year ago, the Western intelligence officials said.

Balawi was thought to have been successfully reformed and was brought to the U.S. to work as an agent to infiltrate al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the intelligence officials said.

His specific mission, according to officials, was to find and meet Ayman al Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, also a physician.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for last week's bombing.

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, quoted a Taliban spokesman claiming Balawi misled Jordanian and U.S. intelligence services for a year. The spokesman, Al-Hajj Ya'qub, promised to release a video confirming his account of the attack.

In a speech a West Point last month, Obama announced a troop surge in Afghanistan that will eventually see about 30,000 more soldiers deployed to the country. Obama, however, also announced he would begin bringing units home in 18 months.

While Balawi apparently had been planning his deception before Obama's announced timetable, some analysts and security experts fear the president's publicized troop withdrawal could jeopardize the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

"No strategist advises to announce to the enemy the end date of one's war effort," Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, told WND today.

"It's a foolish approach at best, a disastrous one at worst. I cannot imagine how, with such a limitation, developments in Afghanistan will evolve in a direction favorable to U.S. interests," said Pipes.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and former deputy director at the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism, told WND "countries in the region are worried more about their own security and will be self-reliant rather than depend on the U.S."

Criticism of Obama's timetable began just after he announced the phased withdrawal. Last month, Sen. John McCain commented to reporters Obama's timetable "gives the wrong impression to our friends; it's the wrong impression to give our enemies."