Afghanistan Base Bombing Carried Out by Double Agent
PHILLIPS: It was a bold and daring attack against the CIA in one of the deadliest of the agency's history. The suicide bombing on a U.S. base in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA officers last week. And now a stunning development. The bomber was a double agent. People actually trusted him. CNN's Chris Lawrence is at the Pentagon with the latest. Chris, what can you tell us about the bomber and how he got on the base?</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: A lot. Well, first of all his name is a mouthful. Hammam Khalil Abu Mallal al-Balawi. He was a Jordanian doctor who the Jordanian authorities picked up more than a year ago on suspicion of certain activities. They investigated him and they didn't find enough to keep his, so they let him go At that point, he moved to Pakistan, ostensibly to study. And at that point shortly thereafter that he started sending e-mails to the Jordanian government, tipping them off to potential plots against both Jordan and targets in the West. Jordan started to share the e-mails and the information with the allies and in fact, one former U.S. intelligence official told us that this is a man who was giving very good intelligence about some very high-value targets over a period of time. At one point last week, they finally were able to bring him in, to be debriefed in person by some CIA intelligence officers. So they got to Afghanistan, and they met him outside of this forward operating base, put him in the car without ever searching him, and then they drove him right on to the base themselves. When they got on the base, he was in the middle of his debriefing, and that is when he set off his explosive vest killing seven CIA officers as well as a Jordanian military officer working with them.</s>PHILLIPS: Wow. It seems like they disregarded protocol, Chris. I mean, any reason that they would not search him?</s>LAWRENCE: Well, this was obviously a man who, you know, authorities are telling us that they thought he had left his extremist views behind, and they thought that they had converted him, and they were using him to go after a high-value target. They were trying to get at Iman Al-Zarquari, al Qaeda's number two man, Osama bin Laden's right-hand man. But he was not secretly no on board with the CIA's plan. I was talking to a former intelligence official who spent 30 years in the intel community who said the problem here is that CIA officer - these people are dealing with some of the most dangerous and surly people around. That's who they have to deal with to get good intelligence. And he talked about possibly the challenges of establishing trust as one possible way why you would not want to do an invasive search of someone.</s>KEN ROBINSON, FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER: This is not a normal job. This is not people who are flipping hamburgers at Wendy's, this is someone trying to convince someone to betray a tribal interest or an interest of a group, and they know that that betrayal could cost them the death of their entire family. There are very, very, very, very brave Afghanis who have supported and helped the United States government and enabled them to find the people who are killing Americans.</s>LAWRENCE: So, obviously, it does not account for the lapse in security that obviously went against the grain, but again, it just shows you that delicate balance you have of both protecting people on the base and at the same time trying to build trust with these people to bring them in.</s>PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence, thanks. Other top stories now. Word of a possible motive in yesterday's deadly shooting at the federal courthouse in Vegas. Investigators now say the gunman had recently lost a Social Security claim and was mad. He killed a security officer and wounded a deputy U.S. marshal before he was shot and killed. Also, word today of a terror threat against President Obama the day he was sworn in. "The New York Times" says that security chiefs worried extremists from Somalia would try to attack the inauguration, but the information turned out to be wrong, fueled by a false report from a rival terror group. How did a man almost bring down a U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day? Well, President Obama is demanding answers to that question. He has called in his security experts to explain why and how it happened. They are meeting right now at the White House. Meantime, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs says the FBI has gotten, quote, "actionable intelligence from the suspect." Get ready for your close-up. We're talking so close even your doctor might squirm, all in the name of protecting you, planes and the less-than friendly skies.