The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers at a US base in Afghanistan had been invited into the high-security post by the agency — which was courting him to be an informer.
Apparently unwilling to hurt the feelings of their potential recruit, agents did not search him before he detonated his explosive-packed vest, two former senior intelligence officers disclosed yesterday.
The astonishing blunder — the latest embarrassment for American intelligence — was revealed as the CIA launched an intense internal probe of the disaster, which also left six staffers wounded.
RED-FACED KELLY ADMITS COPS NYPD-BLEW IT ON VAN
FT. HOOD LINK IN ‘CROTCH’ CASE
A senior and highly experienced CIA debriefer had come from Kabul to meet with the Afghan at Camp Chapman, near the Pakistan border. It wasn’t known if he was among the casualties.
It was the first time the Afghan double agent had been brought inside the camp, deep within an area known as a hotbed of Taliban operations.
One official said the bomber may have set off the explosives when he was finally about to be searched.
But a CIA spokesman said, “It’s far too early to draw conclusions about something that happened just yesterday.”
The agency acknowledged that among the victims was the chief of CIA operations at the base, who was a mother of three.
The Taliban boasted of its responsibility and gave a sharply different account, claiming 20 CIA officers were killed and 25 other people wounded.
It said a “well-dressed” Afghan army officer named Samiullah, who had turned against the US-led NATO mission, walked past security checkpoints and set off his bomb at a meeting of CIA officers.
NATO officials acknowledged the bomber was wearing an Afghan army uniform but did not support the other Taliban claims.
The mood at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Va., was described by an insider as “determined” and committed to obtaining vengeance by rooting out Afghan terrorists.
Following tradition, the CIA refused to identify the names of the dead.
But one of the victims, Harold E. Brown Jr., 37, of Fairfax, Va., was identified by his father, Harold E. Brown Sr. He said his son is survived by a wife and three children, ages 12, 10 and 2.
President Obama sent a letter to the CIA staff, saying they are being tested “as never before” since 9/11.
He said the dead officers come from a “long line of patriots” whose courageous service has helped thwart terrorist plots and save lives.
Only four CIA employees have died in Afghanistan since 9/11. Each has a star on the agency’s memorial wall at Langley. The most recent were two CIA contractors who were killed in October 2003.
An honors and awards board would consider the latest deaths for inclusion on the wall, and their recommendation would have to be approved by the CIA director before their stars are added.
The Chapman death toll was the highest for the CIA since eight employees were killed in a bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.
“We fully expected to lose agents, but to lose so many all at once is a huge shock to the system and is very troubling,” a former intelligence official said. With AP