Word: baseness
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...killing eight members of the Beirut station, among many others. But this suicide bomber, a Jordanian doctor named Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, was the CIA's worst ever security breach. In an era when grandmothers are routinely screened at airports, al-Balawi was whisked into Forward Operating Base Chapman, the CIA headquarters for the drone war against al-Qaeda, without so much as a pat-down. He was then ushered into a meeting with 13 CIA operatives and his Jordanian handler...
Both of these facts are crucial. The CIA clearly considered this guy a hot ticket, the path--finally--to the al-Qaeda leadership. The idea that so many CIA personnel would attend the meeting, and that it would be held on base, is attributable not only to al-Balawi's perceived importance but also to the CIA's bureaucratic caution: in the past, such a meeting would be held off base, with fewer handlers. But everyone wanted to evaluate this guy in the flesh. The fact that al-Balawi wasn't given even a rudimentary security screening speaks...
...joking aside, the senior voiced tremendous appreciation for his growing fan base...
...there's no hiding the latest tragedy: the seven killed on Wednesday in Khost, near the border with Pakistan, were victims of a suicide bombing at a forward operating base. The bomber seems to have targeted a gym at the base and appears to have simply walked in. Says Bruce Reidel, a former CIA officer and author of President Obama's first Afghanistan-Pakistan review: "This underscores the Afghan war is going to be long and costly. The enemy has come to know us better than we know them. Reversing that intelligence gap is imperative and hard...
...unclear how the bomber gained access to the base, but reports say the CIA has used it to recruit Afghans. "It is important to remember that the mission of the CIA in Afghanistan is to work closely with Afghans," says Robert Grenier, a former CIA stationchief in Pakistan. "That mission necessarily carries a high degree of risk, especially given the prevalence of suicide bombers...