How the Taliban's double-agent bomber fooled the CIA

The promise of getting a bead on Zawahiri prompted one of the CIA’s top analysts to travel last week from Kabul to the remote CIA listening post at Forward Operating Base Chapman in the middle of Taliban country near the Afghan-Pakistan border. The CIA outpost at Camp Chapman is the nerve center in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Al-Balawi had been to Chapman previously and because of the information he was promising, CIA officers told Afghan guards to allow him past the first of three checkpoints without searching him. The bomber was actually escorted around the checkpoints, and the officers also told the guards to vacate the area, sources told ABC News…

The double agent doctor played his role to the hilt, telling the CIA he needed to attack the U.S. on al Qaeda websites so he could establish his credibility with other terrorists…

In reality, al-Balawi was sincere about the extreme messages he posted on al Qaeda websites. “He demanded violence against the United States in the most brutal way,” said Jarret Brachman, the author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice.” “He was rabidly pro al Qaeda.”