This is building #1 at Khobar Towers. Then there is Beirut. There have been attacks on soft targets as well all the time in Saudi Arab and throughout the Middle East including 'so called secured residential areas,' but, the Saudis have 'mastered' the threat and over came it.
Those are all MODELS for the Taliban. With the latest loss of CIA it is safe to say the Taliban's intelligence network is extensive ENOUGH. The point is the Taliban, even in a small number of militants compared to the populous numbers are going to cause issues and there are nations that have gone through this before that conquered the problem to save the sovereignty of their country.
Saudi Arabia DID NOT need an invading army to conquer their enemies either. Appeasing Karzai is "W"rong, Winning over the Taliban is never going to work and if it were possible it would have occurred under Bush/Cheney Regime when Afghanistan was abandoned to allow eight years of corruption and infiltration.
A sovereign nation does not surrender, 'It digs in.' Ask Pakistan.
...Though the CIA station is based at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, (click title to entry - thank you) the bulk of its workforce is scattered among secret bases and military outposts dotting the country. Most CIA personnel in Afghanistan are involved in support functions such as providing security or managing computer systems, rather than in gathering and analyzing intelligence.
But some of the work civilians perform, particularly that involving law enforcement and intelligence gathering, is considered as dangerous as military duty. Three civilian Drug Enforcement Administration agents were killed in a helicopter crash in October in western Afghanistan. They were accompanying troops on a counternarcotics mission.
Khowst province has been a prime target of militants operating in eastern Afghanistan and just across the border in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The Chapman base is part of NATO's Regional Command East, which is supervised by the U.S. military. It also houses Western civilians working on reconstruction projects.
The main U.S. base in the province, known as Camp Salerno, has been the target of numerous attacks. Bombers have blown themselves up just outside its gates while trying to penetrate the fortified installation. Afghan civilians usually bear the brunt of such attacks...
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 14, 2003
Shock And Fear In Riyadh (click here)
Residents Pick Up The Pieces After Saudi Bombings
By Bootie Cosgrove-MatherTeenagers walked around picking thru sharp pieces of metal which once were parts of a car. Toys, computers, mattresses and kitchen appliances were everywhere in haphazard piles of cinder-block debris.
“They say we support terrorism," a Saudi civil defense official told me today standing in the rubble of the al-Hamra residential compound. “We are victims like everyone else.”
Spending a couple of hours walking through the area, which was one of three neighborhoods attacked by terrorists Monday night, you could see what he meant. As police and rescue personnel sifted through personal belongings and ordinary household items, residents of the area stood around and talked to their neighbors or tried to find a child’s favorite stuffed animal, a family photo album or personal papers....
If journalists are seeking their living by accompanying soldiers, they are going to die. Does that have to be said? You know, there are veterans in the business that have lived through nightmares and have gone into places I shutter to think about. One of those is Nic Robertson and the list goes on, they know what they are doing. There should be a network of 'intelligence' among journalists to facilitate a knowledge base. Pay the 'senior' journalists in the business to mentor the journalists seeking to achieve a goal no one else can. There is a 'right way' and a 'wrong way.'
A road side bomb is hard to predict and the loss of these people is a sincere tragedy, but, there are members of the journalist community that defy odds against any 'rational' reason to be alive. I mean, Nic Robertson, has been under cars when rockets were being launched in Israel and on and on and purposely have gone into neighborhoods where missiles were expected to land. Boggles the mind. The military can probably learn a few things from him.
Routine mission turns deadly for Canadians in Afghanistan (click here)
First Canadian journalist killed in Afghanistan remembered as 'tenacious, brilliant'
Published On Thu Dec 31 2009...Calgary-based reporter Michelle Lang, 34, was accompanying the soldiers on a routine afternoon patrol near Kandahar's District 2 and was in the back of an armoured vehicle when it hit the improvised explosive device, setting off a huge blast. Lang had been in the country just 19 days, on assignment for Canwest news service.
"Yesterday, Canada lost five citizens," Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard, commander of coalition forces in Kandahar, said early Thursday. He said the attack came during a community patrol meant to gather information on the pattern of life and to maintain security in the area...
The bottom line in any terrorist/extremist/militant region of the world is that the more control the government/military obtains; the more resistance that can be expected and the more LIKELY there will be such attacks.The mission is probably working in Afghanistan. The militants can only have control of the general populous by instilling fear to their prowess to kill. While the CIA agents are valuable beyond any ability to measure in 'worth' their mission to bring about change in Afghanistan is probably working all to well, otherwise, there would be no incentive to carry out such an attack.
Sympathy for the loss to family and friends of these very brave people and make no mistake it took a great deal of bravery to 'sign on' for such a mission. Those 'left behind' should realize the intregal part these people were playing in achieving success to even be perceived as such a threat. That is little consolation for their loss, but, does validate their dedication and purpose.
The truth is a weapon as well. In Al Jazeera:
...The Afghan defence ministry denied that the bomber was an Afghan army officer.
The suicide bomber reportedly evaded security at the base and detonated an explosive belt in a room used as a fitness centre on Wednesday.
A former senior CIA officer who was stationed at the base said a combination of agency officers and contractors operated out of the remote outpost with the military and other agencies.
Initial reports suggested the men killed had been soldiers.
'Reconstruction staff' (click here)"There has been a great deal of confusion when the reports emerged yesterday," Hashem Ahelbarra, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from the Afghan capital, Kabul, said.
"Then he came back to us in half an hour and said there had been a great deal of confusion and actually 'no, these are not US soldiers but civilians'. They are members of the PRT, which is the provincial reconstruction team."
The PRT was established in Afghanistan in 2002 by the US to assist in reconstruction efforts at district and provincial levels.
US media reports said the Americans killed were employed by the CIA....
