MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
New information is surfacing on the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers last week in Afghanistan.
Several news organizations are reporting that the bomber was a Jordanian intelligence asset and a double agent of al-Qaida. His handler, a Jordanian intelligence officer, was also killed in the attack.
The bomber struck a base used by the CIA in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. The attack dealt the single most deadly blow to the intelligence agency since the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983.
New York Times reporter Richard Oppel Jr. is following the story from Islamabad, Pakistan.
And Richard, what more are you hearing about the identity of the suicide bomber?
Mr. RICHARD OPPEL JR. (Reporter, The New York Times): Well, he was someone who had been arrested in Jordan and then recruited to work for Jordanian intelligence and then brought to the frontier region to pursue top al-Qaida targets. And he was viewed as very valuable, and as someone who was a credible asset. And our understanding, from our source, is that's why he was allowed onto the base without being more thoroughly searched.
BLOCK: This is quite different, Richard, from the initial reports about this attack, which were that somebody posing as an Afghan national army officer had somehow infiltrated the base. This is a very different story now.
Mr. OPPEL JR.: Yes, what we've been told is that the initial information about someone being brought on - brought into the base as a - as an Afghan national army officer is not correct.
BLOCK: What was the role of this - now, what turns out to be Jordanian double agent, what was his role supposed to be working with U.S. and Jordanian intelligence in Afghanistan?
Mr. OPPEL JR.: Well, as it's been described to us, he was someone who was seen as someone who could penetrate and infiltrate al-Qaida at high levels and provide intelligence, very hard to get intelligence on operatives at the highest levels of the terror organization.
BLOCK: And as we mentioned, one of those killed was apparently the Jordanian intelligence officer who was his handler, who had apparently brought him to the base, to the Americans.
Mr. OPPEL JR.: That's correct. And the handler was someone of high status in Jordan. The king of Jordan and his family turned out to meet his casket when he was flown back, and to attend his funeral as well.
BLOCK: Richard, how do you think this suicide bombing, and this new knowledge about the identity of the suicide bomber as a Jordanian and a Jordanian intelligence asset, how will that affect U.S. cooperation with the Jordanian intelligence services?
Mr. OPPEL JR.: Well, certainly, it's embarrassing for the Jordanians, but it also may not play that well with people in Jordan. But the Jordanians and the American intelligence services have had a close relationship for a long time.
BLOCK: And describe just a bit, if you would, the role that this forward operating base where the attack took place, the role that that plays in operations right now in Afghanistan.
Mr. OPPEL JR.: Well, it's a very sensitive base because it's where a lot of intelligence is gathered on the Taliban networks in the frontier along the border. And a lot of that intelligence is fed into the targeting of suspected militants by CIA drones. So it's a place that has a very big role in the, you know, the CIA drone campaign that has been ongoing for some time.
BLOCK: OK, Richard, thank you very much.
Mr. OPPEL JR.: Well, thank you, Melissa.
BLOCK: That's New York Times reporter Richard Oppel Jr., speaking to us from Islamabad about the news today that the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers last week in Afghanistan was, in fact, a Jordanian intelligence asset and a double agent of al-Qaida.