December 30, 2009: Suicide Bomber Kills Several CIA Officers and Others at Agency Base in Afghanistan

A Jordanian suicide bomber named Humam Khalil al-Balawi kills five CIA officers and some other personnel at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan. The CIA officers killed are Jennifer Lynne Matthews, the agency’s base chief, Darren LaBonte, Elizabeth Hanson, Harold Brown Jr., and Scott Michael Roberson. Security contractors Jeremy Wise and Dane Clark Paresi are also killed in the attack, as is Jordanian intelligence officer Sharif Ali bin Zeid. Al-Balawi was a Jordanian physician and double agent who had been providing US intelligence officials with information about Taliban and al-Qaeda operations in the border region. Agency officials had arranged a meeting with al-Balawi at the base after he claimed to have new information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. [Washington Post, 6/8/2010]