Could the CIA have achieved what Al Qaeda did?

The Khost attack showed that al-Qaeda was capable of mounting a sophisticated deception operation that required months of planning – across borders and among multiple adversaries of the West, judging by the newly-released video of al-Balawi with the Taliban’s leader in Pakistan.

As bait, al-Balawi provided genuine intelligence, perhaps even to the extent of sacrificing al-Qaeda operatives in the process.

It was exactly the kind of operation to infiltrate the enemy that the CIA should be conducting against al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, with the Agency risk-averse, choked up with bureaucracy and demoralised, there is precious little indication that the CIA would even attempt it, let alone pull it off.