1 Boring Old Man

Humam al-Balawi, Double Agent Who Killed Seven CIA Operatives in Afghanistan
ABC News
By BRIAN ROSS and NASSER ATTA
Jan. 6, 2010

Al-Balawi, a 32-year-old Jordanian doctor, had convinced the Americans that his jihadist postings on the web were only part of his cover identity. He lured 13 CIA operatives and his handler to a meeting at Camp Chapman, an American forward operating base in Afghanistan, by saying he had just met with al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and had information to share.

The photo comes from a Jordanian identification card… Al Balawi was born in Kuwait in 1977, raised in Jordan and attended medical school in Turkey. He had been arrested by Jordan’s intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, more than a year ago. Believing they had flipped al Balawi and made him a double agent, the Jordanians released him from prison and sent him to Afghanistan to penetrate al Qaeda by pretending to be an aspiring foreign jihadi.

In his early life al-Balawi lived in a refugee camp near Zarqa, Jordan, the same town that spawned infamous insurgent leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Al-Balawi studied medicine in Turkey at the expense of the Jordanian government and was a straight-A student, sources said. Al-Balawi, who worked at a clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp near Zarqa, was extremely active online and in jihadist chat rooms and was arrested several times by the Jordanian authorities.

The Jordanian intelligence officer who handled al-Balawi, Sharif Ali bin Zeid, was a member of the royal family. He was buried with a royal funeral that was attended by the king and queen of Jordan. While the U.S. and Jordan mourned their deaths, a Web site from al-Balawi’s tribe described him today as a hero and said it was the most devastating attack against the CIA in the last 30 years.

The religion is simple enough. There is one God, Allah. Mohamed was his last Prophet. Since the word of God is infallible, the message of God given to Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Jesus must’ve been the same as that given to Mohamed. The reason to have another Prophet was that the message given to the others was distorted by translation. There are two books – the Quran and the Haddith – the word of God revealed to Mohamed and the sayings and stories of Mohamed respectively. Islamic scholarship and jurisprudence are involved in making sure that the words of Mohamed are undistorted – in a direct line to Mohamed.

Historically, Islam arose to unite the Arabs who at the time had many gods – so a lot of the religion is about this uniting. There are three groups of people – other Muslims [A+], "people of the book" [Jews and Christians][C+], and everyone else[F]. That brings us to the question of Jihad – what does it mean? The people we talked to about this went out of their way to tell us that Jihad means "striving in the way of Allah" and that it refers to a personal spiritual struggle. They go on to say that the references in the Quran to armed struggles with Infidels meant the enemies of Islam in Mohamed’s time, not now. They uniformly referred to Terrorists as "Extremists." I think they believed what they said to us, often quoting lines from the Haddith where Mohamed is preaching kindness and non-violence.

For the Muslims we know as jihadists [jihadi, mujahid, mujahideen], it’s an entirely different story. They read the writings of the Prophet as jihad of the sword. In their understanding, they are told by the Prophet to protect the Muslim Arab lands from the Infidels who defile their holy places by their presence. The Quran mentions that such jihadi are beloved by Allah. It would be presumptuous and foolhardy of me to enter the controversy about what Mohamed really meant in verses like this: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. Suffice it to say that to the jihadi, this kind of holy war is the highest good, and martyrdom is the highest homage to Allah.

So here’s Humam al-Balawi – a young doctor who grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan, arrested for his passionate involvement with the jihadi. The Jordanians think he has "turned" and the C.I.A. thinks they have developed a "mole." Balawi subsequently assembles the Infidel C.I.A. types and blows them  [and himself] to smitherines. That’s jihad of the sword, repeated every time some kid straps on explosives and becomes a human bomb. It’s Islam, it’s Arab, it’s done by people who have committed themselves to a higher calling. They’re fighting for a Muslim Arab land, a Caliphate. That’s what Mohamed wanted, and that’s what actually existed at other times in history.

^{He was a proud man, humble in the Muslim way, but very sure of himself. Somehow, he got to talking about the Crusades and pointed out that the Christian Crusaders were ingenuous. "It wasn’t about religion. It was greed and conquest." He went on. "On the first day, the Crusaders killed 70,000 in Jerusalem. The streets ran with blood up to the horses knees." Well, I sure didn’t know that. Later he was talking about the  wonders of the Quran. "There’s a chapter that tells of the moon being two pieces that came together. Recently, scientists have confirmed that there’s a rift on the moon where the pieces joined." Later "There’s a chapter in the Quran that tells us that iron comes to earth in the rain. Recently, scientists have confirmed that rainwater contains traces of iron, just as the Prophet said." His knowing smile was a bit hard to return…}