Bring the pane (II): The sequel

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, January 4, 2010 - 6:00 PM Share

Today my friend and former cubicle-mate Joby Warrick reports that the killing of a Jordanian intelligence official in last week's Khost bombing is "offering a rare window" (on page one!) into the assistance the government of Jordan provides the U.S. government in the Middle East.

We are offering Joby Wan Kanobi a free "get out of cliché jail" card because it must be hard to write a story about intelligence in the Middle East while suffering a screaming hangover.   

(HT to Father Andrew Sullivan for weird Star Wars stuff)  

Flickr user dbking

EXPLORE:MEDIA, TERRORISM
 

TYRTAIOS

7:13 PM ET

January 4, 2010

The article mentioned the

The article mentioned the Jordanian Royal family showed close interest in the death of Captain Ali bin Zeid. I either missed it, or it failed to connect him as first cousin to King Abdullah.

Why I find this interesting is that the suicide bomber, al-Balawi, now known to be a double agent, had been arrested for militant views previously, but the Jordanian's had vouched for him being reformed ( I would also point out, there has been a growth in Islamic fundamentalism in the Jordanian Kingdom as well).

I wonder if we would have fully trusted al-Balawi if he hadn't been handled by someone so close to the Jordanian royal family? Though I understand the grasp for HUMINT, especially where our own expertise is lacking, I further wonder if we should ever assume any Islamic militant can ever be reformed - we lost a lot of experience with this penetration.

 

CHARLIEFORD

1:41 AM ET

January 5, 2010

Hey,

... I like my windows rare.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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