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Intel Officer: CIA Officers' Deaths Will Be 'Avenged'
KABUL, Afghanistan -- An American intelligence official vowed Thursday that the United States would avenge a suspected terrorist attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of seven CIA officers.
US VOWS TO 'AVENGE' CIA DEATHS -- A US soldier patrols in Nuristan province in December 2009. Afghan authorities were distancing themselves from investigations into a suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA agents, the US spy agency's biggest single loss of life in almost 30 years.
(AFP/Tauseef Mustafa) Two of those killed were contractors with private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, a former intelligence official told CNN. The CIA considers contractors to be officers.
A current intelligence official confirmed that the casualties included a mix of people -- CIA staff and contractors. Six others were wounded.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on Wednesday.
A senior U.S. official said information suggested a bomber walked into a gym facility at Forward Operating Base Chapman -- located in the Khost Province near the border of Pakistan -- and detonated bombs in a suicide vest.
It was not known how the bomber got past security. In a posting on its Web site Thursday, the Taliban claimed the bomber was an Afghan National Army soldier.
"This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations," the intelligence official vowed.
Former CIA official Robert Richer called it "the greatest loss of life for the Central Intelligence Agency since the Beirut Embassy bombing" in 1983, which killed eight agents.
Flags at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, flew at half-staff Thursday.
"These brave Americans were part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens, and for our way of life," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a written statement Thursday.
"The United States would not be able to maintain the freedom and security that we cherish without decades of service from the dedicated men and women of the CIA."
Richer, who retired from the agency in 2005 as the associate deputy director for operations, knew many of Wednesday's victims personally. In a written statement Thursday, he called on the public to "remain mindful that our great country is served well by those in and out of uniform. That officers like those lost in this attack placed themselves in harm's way, at a critical and dangerous crossroads in the war on terror.
"We should be thankful for the service and sacrifice of these fine Americans. They and their colleagues, who compose the very thin line of Agency officers working in the shadows at the very tip of the war on terror, are a national asset; an asset often misunderstood and under appreciated."
CIA Director Leon Panetta said in a separate statement Thursday that "those who fell ... were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism."
A U.S. intelligence official would not discuss the specific mission of the base, but did acknowledge that it was a crucial CIA post and a "hub of activity."
The Khost Provincial Construction Team has been located at Chapman for about eight years, focusing on government, communication, security, agriculture and development in 13 districts, according to Capt. Michael R. Andrews, a U.S. Air Force spokesman.
Another U.S. military source had said earlier that the Khost Provincial Construction Team had left Chapman some time ago.
The U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of Agriculture also have personnel at Chapman, Andrews said.
CNN's Barbara Starr, Pam Benson, Atia Abawi, Suzanne Simons and journalist Matiullah Mati contributed to this report.
139 Comments so far
Show AllIntel Officer: CIA Officers' Deaths Will Be 'Avenged'
Obama will launch Operation Lieberman, the invasion and occupation of Yemen.
Mordchai Shiblikov: Operation Lieberman will probably suffice for those miscreants in whatever "nest" of al Queda terrorists in Yemen the CIA decides is the point for the arming and dispatching of the Underpants Bomber. It will probably require a second operation to "avenge" the C.I.A. in Afghanistan, since the two countries are like 3,000 miles apart. Again, though, they will have to determine an appropriate target for an infinitely mobile resistance. And what to call the operation? Any candidates? You posters are usually pretty creative. And remember, without a code name, the C.I.A. can't mount an operation.
Operation Increase Terrorism Resistance
(Maintain the Pentagon system so that the key statement in the 911 Commission Report can be fulfilled: ". . . the American homeland is the planet." p. 362)
Jerry D Rose;"Operation Collateral Damage".Tony
Operation Empire Saving
Oh Good...We have gone from vengance, to nation building, and now back to vengance.
Face it, we are LOSING. The only way to control Afganistan is to sterilize it...and then you would make enemies of the rest of the planet.
mujeriego
The only way to control Afghanistan is to withdraw our forces, contractors, all Americans and let the Afghans control their own country. Only the citizens of a country will ever control it and even then the government needs the consent of its people.
Especially when its an armed populace and I'd say between the Russians, Chinese, Iran and us, these folks are fairly well armed.
We lost the moment we didn't withdraw after sending the Taliban running.
What gives you the right to think Afghani people are to be "controlled." Who are you the maker of thunder?
"Sterilize it?" What do you mean by that?
It is the American who is out of control. Perhaps the program which would be of better use and would make friends to the rest of the world would be one where The Homelanders would be sterilized. Most of the world's peoples would rather that.
Your comments are disgusting.
No, you misunderstand the comment. It is NOT advocating control, but criticizing it.
Criticism by way of sarcasm gets misunderstood by many here. i myself have felt the desire to taunt a US President with talk of the need for a "final solution".
There's no humor in suggesting the sterlization of an innocent almost defenseless nation.
For godess's sake they are fighting the most powerful military in history with exploding bodies,trucks,cans and assault rifles in their pajamas
"These brave Americans were part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens, and for our way of life,"
And how exactly are the CIA doing anything for the American way of life in Afghanistan?
Clean up your own house first. Give your people proper universal health care and education to start. By what I see the American education system leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe by educating the majority of the American public they will come to realize that they do not live in a democracy and that their government is not doing anything to benefit them. The only benefactors are the huge MIC corporations who are the only ones to gain in America's endless wars. My country, Canada, isn't much better as our idiot savant Prime Minister Stephen Harper obediently does as he is told by the US.
cedross
"Give your people proper universal health care and education to start. By what I see the American education system leaves a lot to be desired."
Health Care has been scuttled by this Congress and this President. We will get nada when the great charade is over.
Our educational system is in shambles producing half literate students, the ones that actually graduate. Its not a lack of money in any district thats at fault and only the grasping educational community still suggest it.
The fault can be shared by all, parents that don't care, tax payers that don't demand competence, unskilled teachers, textbooks focused more on ideology than education, teaching methods focused on feeling good rather than providing skills for learning, government focus on useless testing and their interference alomg with well meaning people in school descipline. But this we can fix and will.
We do live in a Democracy, thats why you will see another change in 2010. I think most Americans are more than aware that our government has been working and continues working...to our detriment.
Give it a break, be realistic. What do you expect Obama to say?
"These CIA employees and there mercenary aids were doing what you, my fellow Americans, are unwilling to do; torchering the bad guys. Let's honor them for doing the dirty work".
He can't say that. He wouldn't. That's why he's POTUS and you're commenting blogs here on CD.
Sorry no break.
Obama's statements are part and parcel of his Bush-like support for an unjust war in Afghanistan.
It is important to point out the moral emptiness of Obama's statements.
Obama's statement that the CIA is defending "our way of life" is right up there with Bush's "they hate us because of our freedoms."
There is nothing realistic about your cynical putdowns, richsmith2. You are echoing the cynical dishonesty that pervades both rotten political parties.
On matters of war and peace, Obama is as bad or worse than Bush ever was.
I think what the CIA just learned is they are guinea pigs to see how far the war machine can go before the world realizes that this whole fucking war is a racket.
Here is what they learned but will be paid to forget from this latest suicide attack.
WAR = Terror and Future Terrorism
and soon: Avenging = More Terror and Future Terrorism
Which they will also be paid to forget.
They don't seem so worried when it is Afgan children dieing.
"Agency officers working in the shadows at the very tip of the war on terror, are a national asset"
These assets should be converted into people
and brought into the light.
These Blackwater/CIA sweethearts were running a covert Assassination Bureau inflicting sudden death from the skies upon men, women and children. The Afghans got tired of having their families murdered and maimed.
The UN Charter forbids the "threat or use of force" against other member states. The current violence by the US against Afghanistan is to install a puppet government via an illegal occupation which began by an illegal invasion. Big surprise: the locals are resisting. See the film Avatar for plot, and the end result.
Title of feature article in upcoming issue of Duh Magazine:
"US needs to stop doing its part of this cycle of illegal violence in Afghanistan"
This a war of Religous fundamentalists against what can only be described as Fascists.
I find it interesting that Zbigniew Brezenski felt that it was "worth it" to arm religous fundamentalists to fight against the old USSR because it helped hasten the end of Communism.
Using that world view. Is it in a given countries "best Interests" to side with Fascists (and with XE now seen as no different then the Government Agency called the CIA this indeed meets Mussollinis description of Fascism) or with those Religous Fundamentalists?
What is in the "best Interests" of the Citizen at home, be it in the UK, In Canada or In the USA?
The Taliban ruling over Afghanistan, or a Fascist Government running their own country?
"This a war of Religous fundamentalists"
Damned right it is. Those born again evangelists, the christian zionists along with the zionists proper that prop up the fascists and militarists.... Hey they are all on the same side.
What you call the Taliban, want their country back and their religion is frankly their own business, it certainly is nothing for you or your CIA to kill their women and children for.
If the Afghan people don't want the Taliban it is up to them to change things. If we don't want fascists we must change things!
Lenin would have sided with the Taliban. Perhaps he would have been right?
Grover Norquist used to call for "drowning the Federal government in a bathtub." Perhaps he was right, too?
"Contractors are considered officers".What have we been saying here about contractors doing murder in the name of empire everywhere they have been?We have become the jack bauer generation.What is the kill ratio now;non-combatants to all these macho jacks?There is no pretence anymore that there is the rule of law in domestic or international relations and bush was right about one thing;the constitution is nothing but a goddamn piece of paper.Tony
It's more American arrogance that we're "going to avenge" an attack by the Resistance Movement. We seem to forget that we invaded Afghanistan, but who needs facts anymore?
Imperial hubris will sink the U.S. like it does all empires. Unfortunately, many innocent people suffer and die until then.
We are living with Orwellian doublespeak and the public gobbles it up, word for word.
What is a "contractor," anyway? A respectable term for "mercenary?"
I read Orwell's 1984 in 1981. And it seems to me that every year since then this country gets closer and closer to that reality.
We're already there. The reality is more banal and not as dramatic as Orwell's novel. But we're there.
And with TV, the Internet, movies and other distractions as our soma, we're also closer to Huxley's Brave New World.
I have read that some of those killed were Blackwater. I don't want a penny or a moment of time spent "avenging" the death of a mercenary. What the intel community ought to be doing is working to understand the mind set, the motivation, the socio-religious context. Intel ought to be short for "intelligence" -- not a synonym for vengeance. Vengeance is what terrorism springs from. Blood lust and greed is what mercenaries spring from.
"This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations," the intelligence official vowed.
--------------
I'm embarrassed to be the same species as these people.
By the way "avenged" means lots of innocent people will be killed and terrorized.
The last time they avenged the killing of Blackwater Contracters was at Fallujah.
GwNorth: Thanks (?) for the grim reminder.
Live by sword, die by sword.
Remember what was done to Fallujah after the loss of four contractors.
I remember. And I remember thinking, "Contractors? Why doesnt the media call them what they are - mercenaries?!" Well, we know why dont we.
This story is an unfortunate one to start the new year off with. The idea of revenge is so foolish it begs belief. Why do you think someone wanted to kill these CIA agents in the first place? If anything this attack could have been revenge for the terrorist activities of the CIA, you know the covert destabilization of regions and the terrorizing of the local population. There is no question in my mind that the CIA engages in these kinds of activities on a regular basis. So here we have an endless never ending circle of death and destruction, revenge killings that never end. My question to both the American and Canadian governments (4 Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist were killed yesterday) is why are we over there? What in Heaven's name did the poor people of Afghanistan ever do to us to warrant an invasion and the many deaths of innocent people that we have visited upon them? The original goal, phony as it was never had a chance of realization and Osama bin Laden is still free. I personally don't believe that the American government of the time really wanted to find him. He has too much information that could tell the true story of 911 and that is something the government wants to keep secret!
"What in Heaven's name did the poor people of Afghanistan ever do to us..."
Nothing, except being on the route of the TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) pipeline.
"Flags at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, flew at half-staff Thursday."
------------------------------------
Were flags flying half-mast at Xeville, NC?
Unbelievable!:
"Two of those killed were contractors with private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, a former intelligence official told CNN. The CIA considers contractors to be officers."
Xe/Blackwater, and other mercenary outfits (and let's please call them what they are - mercenaries) are considered to be no different than CIA officiers or military officers (as in Abu Ghraib).
This is sick. Vengeance and profit have been at the heart of both wars brought to us by the freakin psychopathic elites who own this country. How dare you ask us to honor mercenaries who are killing innocent people in wars not supported by we, the people, of the United States, or at least we, the sane people of the U.S. I cannot speak for the regressives lunatics who actually believe what they are told by the elites and their media whores.
The CIA Deliberately Kills and Tortures, and if they were not in the Middle East to do so, would still be alive. The CIA are considered the Terroristic Invaders by the Middle East.
I was duped again. Repubs. and Dems., are the same party. The Multinationals have it covered with only two choices. We need a third and forth party,but thier not allowed to get started. Both parties are funded by corporations,who want the wars to last forever.
Revenge foments revenge. I thought that the USA stood for more than that. I thought that the CIA was just supposed to be gathering intelligence.
Naive me.
Iraq 600,000 sanctions 250,000
Vietnam 5.4 million
Cambodia 600,000
Laos 350,000
etc.
The people of the world have a lot of Blackwater to drain before they are even.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
Switch your registation to third party January 13 th
This dreadful decade because with the USA disastrously choosing vengeance over justice. It ends the same way - nothing has been learned and the mistakes will be repeated all over again.
This would appear to be a bad time for Afghans to schedule any weddings.
We armed the Mujadeen ,we trained them how to fire rockets at the Russian Helicopters. Now the have become the Taliban,and are firing at us.It;s impossible to beat an army out of uniform.The English against us,Japan against the fillipino,Viet cong anainst French and US.It's aboon for arms dealers like the Carlyle Group. Kissinger,Bush 1 and John Major. Three of the owners.
Revenge. Sounds like Beverly Hillbillies on steroids. Once you leave all law behind, it's dangerous ground out there. Washpost asks us to feel sorry for the CIA/mercenary who has three little children at home. What kind of person goes off on a murderous adventure leaving three small children behind? What kind of society allows this? How can we possibly think Afghans would have any reason to fully turn on their own people to join a band of foreign thugs? The responses here provide the closest thing to community that I've seen for a long time.
Yeah, the ten innocent teenagers who were mercilessly cut down by US drones before this attack on CIA operatives. Afghanis who are killed by US never seem to bother anybody.
Perhaps we should change our strategy and first identify the source of the anger that these terrorist have and then secondly address and apply appropriate solutions. For example, it has often been pointed out that the reason Osama Bin Laden has declared war on us (the U.S.) is because we will not remove our military bases from his country (Saudi Arabia). So, why haven't we done that (As well as hundreds of other bases all over the world.)?
Many of the other terrorist attackers come from areas of countries that are deprived of some of the essentials of life -- food, water, clothing,education, respect, etc. What is being done to address these issues (Which, BTW, are MUCH cheaper to solve than wars.)? Why did we not take note when -- after directly rectifying some of these critical issues to the people of Palestine -- the people of that country voted Hamas into power ... and why wouldn't they?
When are we going to pull our war-torn head out of our war-torn ass and permanently learn that people will respond more favorably to love and construction than hate and destruction? If we stop bombing them, over there -- they will stop bombing us, over here. DUH!
http://www.sonic.net/~taryfast/us.html
We are protecting the corrupt royal family.
Tarry_Faster sez: "...it has often been pointed out that the reason Osama Bin Laden has declared war on us (the U.S.) is because we will not remove our military bases from his country (Saudi Arabia). So, why haven't we done that?"
***
Actually, Bush (through Rumsfeld) quietly announced the handover to the Saudis of Bin Sultan AFB in 2003, before his 'Mission Accomplished' landing on the USS Lincoln. All U.S. forces were out by August of that year. (The operations were moved to a shiny new base in Qatar)