Sources: Bomber was invited on base

UPDATED:

The Associated Press has learned that the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and was not searched.

A former senior intelligence official said the man was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside U.S. Forward Operating Base Chapman at the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.

The official says a senior and experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose of the meeting was to gain intelligence.

The former senior intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The CIA has declined to comment on the report.

The Taliban on Thursday claimed responsibility for infiltrating the base with a suicide bomber who got into a gym and set off an explosion that killed seven Americans and an Afghan and wounded six others. The Associated Press has learned that one of the dead was the chief of the CIA’s post in southeastern Khost province.

Harold E. Brown Jr., a State Department employee of Fairfax, Va., died in the attack, his father, Harold E. Brown Sr., told the Associated Press on Thursday. The younger Mr. Brown, 37, who grew up in Bolton, Mass., served in the Army and remained a major in the reserves. He is survived by a wife and three children ages 12, 10 and 2.

Wednesday’s assault on the base was a blow to the CIA, which previously had lost only four operatives in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said Thursday in a message to agency staff that the casualties sustained in Wednesday’s strike were the result of a terrorist attack.

Initial reports indicated that eight American civilians had been killed. There was no explanation for the discrepancy in Mr. Panetta’s message, which was released by the CIA in an unusual step a day after one of the deadliest attacks on the agency in its history.

“Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism,” Mr. Panetta said. “We owe them our deepest gratitude, and we pledge to them and their families that we will never cease fighting for the cause to which they dedicated their lives — a safer America.”

“Yesterday’s tragedy reminds us that the men and women of the CIA put their lives at risk every day to protect this nation,” he said. “Throughout our history, the reality is that those who make a real difference often face real danger.”

“No further information about the victims would be released,” the CIA director said, “due to the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations.”

Separately, former CIA officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said an agent who ran the agency’s base in Khost was among those killed by the attacker, who detonated a bomb-laden vest inside the compound.

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