Did Pakistani Intelligence Back Terrorists Against the CIA in Afghanistan?

A new document, made public this week by the nongovernmental National Security Archive at George Washington University, makes the impactful claim that an “unidentified” Pakistani intelligence officer paid $200,000 to the Haqqani network to carry out a suicide attack on a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009. The Haqqani network is a militant group active on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is closely linked with the Taliban.

The attack occurred at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan’s Khost province on December 30, 2009, and was carried out by a Jordanian double agent loyal to militants affiliated with al-Qaeda, Humam Khalil al-Balawi. Seven people working with or for the CIA died, making the attack the second-deadliest ever incident in CIA history.

According to the still heavily redacted document, marked “secret,” a certain Afghan border commander of the Khost provincial force was promised $100,000 for his assistance in enabling a suicide mission by an “unnamed Jordanian national.”

Read more at The Diplomat

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