A posthumously released video of the suicide bomber, who killed seven CIA employees on December 30th, reveals new details about the terrorist's intended target. Humam Khalil Abu Mulal Al-Balawi, a Jordanian physician turned double agent of Al-Qaeda and the CIA, initially planned to kill his Jordanian handler. However, as he put it, Al-Balawi "got a bigger gift, a gift from Allah, who brought us, through his accompaniment, a valuable prey: Americans, and from the C.I.A."
Al-Balawi initially told the CIA that he could gain access to top Al Qaeda leaders. However, while the CIA was exploiting what they described as 'valuable intelligence,' Al-Balawi used the time to build up his relationship with Coalition intelligence forces. Ultimately, the CIA's decision to invite Al-Balawi to meet with U.S. operatives resulted in the deadliest attack on U.S. intelligence staff in a quarter of a century.
According to the video released by As-Sahab, Al-Qaeda's media wing, Al-Balawi's intentions were far more complex than initially suspected. While cooperating with Jordanian intelligence, Al-Balawi was actually advocating more attacks on agents of that country, for their cooperation with the Americans.
This video also follows another recording, released 10 days after the attack, which states that the attack was a revenge attack for last year's killing of Hakimullah Mehsud. Mehsud was the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and the initial video featured Al-Balawi seated next to him while announcing his intentions to attack American forces.
Both videos show a sophisticated deception of American intelligence, and as New York Times reporter Scott Shane stated, "the terror network's advance planning in exploiting the attack to spread its message." According to a transcript provided to the Times by IntelCenter, a Virginia counterterrorism company, Al-Balawi mocked the CIA and President Obama. He stated that President Obama's speech in Cairo had only fooled 'simpletons' and that, "it wasn't long before these fools woke up to Obama's crimes, which are no less ugly than the crimes of his predecessor.
Another transcript is available from the NEFA Foundation, and can be found here.