Jan-01-2010
CIA Ends 2009 With Another Epic HUMIT Fail
On Wednesday December 30, 2009 an Afghan infiltrator who was being courted by the CIA as an asset detonated explosives he was wearing under his Afghan military uniform. Seven CIA officers were killed and six injured. In an epic fail scenario the bomber was able to take out the chief of station and members of her inner circle, including the head of her security detail and at least one of her advisors. What made this case even more of an epic fail was that it took place not out in the open in an insecure environment but inside the CIA's own operations center. Why the CIA was using their central base, located in a war zone nonetheless, from where drone attacks were being coordinated, to liaise with Afghan officials, intelligence assets, agents, and potential informants, is beyond my grasp. Apparently CIA has become so arrogantly sure of their own invincibility that they have forgotten elementary tradecraft. It is time for the CIA to get back to real spy work and step out from behind their monitors, computer interfaces, and killer drone joystick video game consoles, because they have obviously lost touch with reality and have once again proven in a very major public and messy way, that as far as HUMIT is concerned and human intelligence asset management, the agency has completely lost focus and desperately needs to get back to basics.
An agency run by a civilian, a video game operations center with a female station chief, I am sure plays well to the public back home but for an intelligence service bogged down by three wars and in a complete quagmire, it makes little operational sense. The US is arrogantly under the assumption that they will win in Afghanistan and this is another example of how the CIA and the US grossly and negligently underestimate the one factor that they have no real control over. The human factor.
As for those killed and their families and loved ones, they must seek answers and accountability from the pompous, arrogant, self-righteous sons of bitches sitting in their secured bunkers in McLean Virginia and Washington DC who allowed such an epic fail to occur.
This was a Pearl Harbor for the CIA the accountability for which should be sought at the highest levels.
On a personal note: it is a tragedy when any human dies and I put off publishing this until this late date out of respect for the dead, but these people were responsible for the deaths of countless civilians as they sat in their secure little rooms killing from a distance and in the great Karmatic scheme of the universe they received what the deaths of the innocent children they killed warranted.
Unfortunately rather than using peace, diplomacy and instilling mutual respect the US continues to insist on using deadly force to make the world bend to its will, and the future will hold more of the same for those on the front-lines. If you beat a dog long enough it will eventually jump up and rip your throat out, no matter how long it tries to remain docile.
Harold E. Brown Jr. Fairfax, Va and Bolton, Mass
Scott Michael Roberson 3