Worse and worse: CIA base hit by suicide bomber was key in drone operations

U.S. intelligence officials vowed that the Wednesday attack would only increase the agency’s resolve. “This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations,” said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity…

U.S. personnel at the site of the attack, Forward Operating Base Chapman, are heavily involved in the selection of al-Qaeda and Taliban targets for drone aircraft strikes, according to two former intelligence officials who have visited the facility. The drones themselves are flown from separate bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Because of its location near a hotbed of insurgent activity, the base is also a center for recruiting and debriefing informants, the officials said, and it would not be unusual for local Afghans to be admitted to the facility for questioning…

Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said that this week’s attack once again shows that there “needs to be much better screening of people joining the Afghan security forces. . . . I know from visits in Afghan provinces this is done in a very sloppy way.”