This terrorist was Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of Al-Qaeda killed on Saturday in a strike carried out by the CIA. Nothing in official US statements describes Zawahiri’s demise as a reward for US losses in Khost, Afghanistan some 12 years earlier. However many former and present intelligence officers say that’s precisely how they felt.
The CIA, as is customary follow, has not publicly acknowledged any half within the firing of the missile that hit Zawahiri as he stood on his balcony in an condominium constructing in Kabul, the Afghan capital. However since Monday, affirmation of the demise of the 71-year-old Egyptian has sparked an emotional response on the company’s headquarters in Langley, Va., in addition to from former colleagues, family and friends members of those that had been killed or injured in 2009.
“It is an extremely private second,” mentioned Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operations division official who served with a number of of the company’s 5 males and two ladies killed at Camp Chapman, a army base. CIA on the outskirts of Khost from the place the company carried out covert missions in opposition to al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Along with the seven CIA brokers, a senior Jordanian intelligence officer and an Afghan driver had been additionally killed.
Polymeropoulos described the deaths at Camp Chapman as “the starkest instance of the tragic prices of counterterrorism.”
Many present and former CIA officers marked the information of Zawahiri’s demise with social media posts honoring the CIA officers and safety staff officers who died within the Khost assault, the deadliest in opposition to the CIA since eight staff had been killed in a bombing on the US Embassy. in Beirut in 1983.
“Simply keep in mind. They’re heroes,” mentioned former CIA director and retired common Michael N. Hayden. wrote in a Twitter post. In an interview, Hayden recalled working with two of the slain officers, Khost base chief Jennifer Matthews and Elizabeth Hanson, and studying of their deaths at CIA headquarters on the day of the assault.
“I received out in my automobile and cried,” Hayden mentioned.
CIA Director William J. Burns, in response to a query from The Washington Put up, didn’t touch upon the main points of the operation in opposition to Zawahiri, however mentioned the occasions had been “deeply private to the CIA”.
“Within the hunt for Ayman al-Zawahiri, a brutal assault claimed the lives of seven CIA officers in Khost in 2009,” Burns mentioned. “Whereas terrorism stays a really actual problem, Zawahiri’s elimination lessens that risk and affords a measure of justice.”
Zawahiri’s position within the surprisingly complicated al-Qaeda operation in opposition to the CIA base was chronicled in a 2011 e-book and likewise described in articles and essays in regards to the assault. The important thing determine was a Jordanian nationwide, Humam al-Balawi, a health care provider who received into hassle in his residence nation for posting pro-al-Qaeda messages on social media. After being interrogated by Jordanian intelligence providers, he was persuaded to develop into a counter-terrorism informant. In the end, Balawi agreed to journey to Pakistan to assemble data that would assist the CIA observe down Osama bin Laden and different senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
After disappearing for months, Balawi resurfaced in late 2009 with a startling declare that he had made high-level contacts throughout the neighborhood of al-Qaeda militants hiding within the lawless tribal area alongside the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As proof, Balawi started offering proof of his interactions – together with cellphone movies of senior al-Qaeda leaders – to his Jordanian handlers, who handed the knowledge on to the CIA. Jordan’s Normal Intelligence Directorate repeatedly works with its American counterparts to trace and thwart terrorist operations all over the world, and the 2 nations have spoken intently on the Balawi case.
In late December 2009, the CIA was keen to fulfill the Jordanian spy, sensing a possible breakthrough within the company’s long-dormant seek for bin Laden and different terrorist leaders behind the September 11, 2001, assaults. With obvious reluctance, Balawi agreed to a gathering on the CIA base in Khost. Then, in a gesture that assures him of an enthusiastic welcome from the Individuals, he dangles a brand new notably attractive element: the physician treats Zawahiri, then No. 2 in al-Qaeda.
Balawi shared murky particulars about Zawahiri’s bodily situation, together with his numerous power sicknesses and his scars from years of torture in Egyptian prisons. The main points matched what the CIA already knew about Zawahiri and appeared to substantiate that Balawi was certainly in shut contact with the al-Qaeda deputy.
The assembly was scheduled for December 30, 2009, and lots of CIA counterterrorism consultants deliberate to attend. Balawi arrived by automobile and, as a result of excessive sensitivity surrounding the assembly, the CIA postponed any bodily search of the informant till he was effectively contained in the company compound. .
Balawi had certainly been on a mission, however his allegiance was to al-Qaeda, not Jordan or the CIA. Underneath his cloak, he hid a bomb composed of highly effective C4 explosives. After approaching a couple of meters from the CIA staff, he detonated the machine.
The assault led to an intensive investigation and led to quite a few operational adjustments, together with stronger counterintelligence safeguards. Company officers had been unable to find out the extent of Zawahiri’s involvement within the planning of the 2009 assault, however on the very least he was lured into a complicated operation. that allowed a suicide bomber to interrupt into an ultra-secure and top-secret CIA facility, present and former officers mentioned.
That is why many within the CIA noticed Zawahiri’s demise as justice served, after years of ready. On Tuesday, a printed copy of a Washington Put up article was positioned on the grave of Matthews, the Khost base chief killed in 2009. “US kills al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in of a drone strike in Kabul,” learn the headline.
The photograph was featured in a Twitter post on Tuesday by Kristin Wooda former CIA officer who labored with Matthews.
“Relaxation in peace sister,” the tweet learn.
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