CIA bomber calls for attacks on U.S. in video

UPDATED:

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan said in video clips broadcast posthumously Saturday that all jihadists must attack U.S. targets to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Footage showed Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi — whom the CIA had cultivated as an asset against al-Qaida — sitting with Mehsud’s successor in an undisclosed location. It essentially confirmed the Pakistani Taliban’s claim of responsibility for one of the worst attacks in CIA history, though a senior militant told The Associated Press that al-Qaida and Afghan insurgents played roles, too.

The development may lead the U.S. to further push Pakistan to crack down on Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militants who use its tribal regions along the Afghan border as safe havens. It also could prompt even more U.S. missile strikes in the country — already on the upswing — something a Pakistani intelligence official urged the Americans to avoid.

Speaking in Arabic in the video shown on the al-Jazeera network, al-Balawi noted the Pakistani Taliban had given shelter to “emigrants” — Muslim fighters from abroad. Mehsud, the group’s longtime leader, was killed in August by a CIA missile strike.

“We will never forget the blood of our emir Baitullah Mehsud,” said al-Balawi, who wore an Afghan hat and a camouflage jacket on a 1 1/2 minute video clip. “We will always demand revenge for him inside America and outside. It is an obligation of the emigrants who were welcomed by the emir.”

A similar clip appeared on the Pakistani channel Aaj, though in it al-Balawi read haltingly from a piece of paper in English, a language Pakistanis are more familiar with than Arabic.

The 32-year-old al-Balawi was apparently a double agent — perhaps even a triple-agent — with links to al-Qaida, the CIA and Jordanian intelligence. He was invited inside the CIA facility in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province bearing a promise of information about Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida’s second-in-command. Instead, he blew himself up in a Dec. 30 meeting, killing seven including the CIA’s base chief.

In a Washington Post op-ed piece posted online Saturday, CIA Director Leon Panetta added more details about the attack while defending his agents.

“This was not a question of trusting a potential intelligence asset, even one who had provided information that we could verify independently. It is never that simple, and no one ignored the hazards,” Panetta said. “The individual was about to be searched by our security officers — a distance away from other intelligence personnel — when he set off his explosives.”

In the Arabic clip, al-Balawi appeared to mock assertions that U.S. or Jordanian intelligence had employed him. In the English version, he said he had given up millions of dollars offered by the agencies to join the militants.

“The emigrant for the sake of God will not put his religion on the bargaining table and will not sell his religion even if they put the sun in his right hand and the moon in his left,” he said in Arabic, referring to a verse in the Quran.

Al-Balawi ended by saying the Pakistani Taliban under the leadership of the new chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, would fight till victory.

In Jordan, al-Balawi’s father confirmed the man on the clip was his son.

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