Killings Rock Afghan Strategy

By SIOBHAN GORMAN and YOCHI J. DREAZEN

WASHINGTON -- The attack that killed seven Central Intelligence Agency officers on a U.S. base in Afghanistan will complicate the agency's effort to rely heavily on local Afghans, who work as intelligence operatives and informants.

In providing additional details of the Wednesday suicide bombing, the agency's worst loss of life since 1983, former and current U.S. intelligence officials painted a clearer picture of how the agency has battled Taliban and allied militants. This includes a calculated risk those at Forward Operating Base Chapman appear to have made for much of the eight-year war -- taking a less strict line on security than that at some U.S. military bases, in the hopes of establishing trust with possible informants, some U.S. officials say.

U.S. intelligence and military officials said Friday that Wednesday's attacker had been recruited as a possible informant and brought onto the base in remote Khost province, passing through at least one checkpoint. He detonated his charge shortly before being searched. It was a "high-level asset meeting gone bad," said one former intelligence official familiar with the incident.

Through its efforts in the region, the CIA has been able to create a large network of informants who operate on both sides of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, who provide extensive information about al Qaeda and other militants. Some former officers have been critical of the practice of meeting informants on bases, saying it's too risky.

One military official said Friday that the U.S. had "indications" the bombing was retaliation for a U.S. push against the Haqqani network, an extremist group that has become the Taliban's most important battlefield partner in the war against the U.S. Recently, the U.S. killed more than two dozen midlevel commanders.

The Haqqani network is the primary target of the CIA team stationed at the Chapman base, located in the violent southeastern province of Khost. A senior U.S. military official said CIA personnel believed the attacker possessed detailed information about the Haqqani network.

A U.S. intelligence official said the agency's relationship with intelligence assets such as local informants, who risk their lives to work with the CIA, is complicated. "It's a fact of espionage that you frequently have to deal with people you need but don't or can't trust," the official said. "That's one of the many hazards inherent in intelligence work, especially counterterrorism."

The risks will be amplified as the CIA ramps up its operations in Afghanistan to accompany the military surge President Barack Obama has ordered. The CIA expects to increase its own forces by 20% to 25% in the next 18 months, said one U.S. intelligence official.

The death toll is the largest suffered by the spy agency in three decades and has wiped out decades of experience in counterterrorism, current and former officials say.

The meeting included a high-level CIA officer who had traveled to the remote base from Kabul. It is unclear whether that person was among those killed.

It isn't clear how the informant, who was said to be wearing an Afghan National Army uniform, was able to get close enough to so many CIA officers without a more thorough screening. Agency officials are investigating that question, a former senior intelligence official said. The CIA has launched a review of its security procedures.

"What happened is being looked at very, very closely," said Marie Harf, a CIA spokeswoman.

U.S. intelligence and military officials said Friday that the attack had been well-planned. It took advantage of the less-stringent security arrangements at Chapman, which functions differently from most American bases there, military officials said.

The base houses the CIA detachment and a State Department-run provincial reconstruction team, so it has only a minimal military presence. It was established in the months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as the U.S. launched its CIA-led offensive against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The CIA's presence is an open secret locally, say former intelligence officials.