CIA killings in Afghanistan spotlight Jordan as key US intelligence partner

Jordanian intelligence officials recruited Mr. Balawi as an informant when they thought he’d forgone his jihadi beliefs. But Balawi was allegedly a double agent and is suspected to have entered Forward Operating Base Chapman for a meeting with his handlers where he detonated a suicide bomb in front of the CIA building. The blast caused the most devastating loss of life for the CIA since the Beirut Embassy bombing in 1983.

“This is a tragedy, no question about it, but it’s part and parcel of the business of espionage. If you’re in the business looking out, you’re saying its kind of surprising that we haven’t been attacked like this sooner,” says Richard Russell, a former CIA analyst and professor of national security affairs at the National Defense University in Washington. “You’re dealing with a lot of nefarious people of questionable backgrounds. It’s always difficult to assess human motivations, psychology, emotions, and ideology.”

It is highly unlikely that the attack will lead the US to change its reliance on foreign intelligence services, says Dr. Russell. But he adds that it raises the concern that the CIA could push away from vital but extremely dangerous human intelligence operations.

Jordan: a crossroads for militants

Meanwhile, in Jordan, the attacks are also expected to have little affect on the country’s relationship with the American intelligence agencies. Militants have commonly used the relatively stable country, located between Iraq and Israel, as a portal of entry into the two conflicts. In 2005, an Al Qaeda bombing rocked the capital city of Amman, reminding residents that they were not immune to the problems of their neighbors.

"Jordan has no choice but to act to protect its national interest by all means necessary. That’s the duty and obligation of each and every state in the world,” says Ihmod Abu Salim, a professor of political science at Mu’tah University in Karak, Jordan.

Additionally, US aid to Jordan plays a critical role here. Presently, the country is one of the largest per capita aid recipients in the world, and over the past decade the US has steadily been increasing its financial support to the pro-Western monarchy.

“From Jordan’s perspective, it has to earn that money, so to speak, by proving its value as a strategic partner in order to justify increasing levels of assistance to Jordan,” says Mouin Rabbani, a contributing editor to Middle East Report who is based in Amman, Jordan.

Aside from intelligence partnerships with the US, Jordan has played a critical role as a staging area for the US throughout the Iraq war. Given this long-term relationship, Hasan Al-Momani, director of the Regional Centre on Conflict Prevention at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, says it is unlikely Jordanians will react as more news unfolds about their government’s involvement in Afghanistan.

“I don’t think this is the first time people have talked about the role of Jordanian security forces [outside Jordan]. It is clear that we have a role in Iraq, for instance,” says Dr. Momani. “At the end of the day Jordan is trying to protect itself. … When we speak of Afghanistan, of course we speak of Al Qaeda, and those people who conducted the Amman bombings [in 2005], they were Al Qaeda.”

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