A newly declassified U.S. document claims that a Pakistani intelligence officer paid $200,000 to a militant network to carry out a suicide attack on a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009.
The attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province was one of the most serious attacks in the CIA's history, killing seven people and wounding six others. A Jordanian doctor who was working as a double agent for al-Qaida and the Taliban was blamed, but Thursday's disclosure suggests Pakistan's spy agency and the Haqqani militant network also played key roles in the plot.
The document obtained by the nongovernmental National Security Archive at George Washington University through a Freedom of Information Act request was published online with many redactions.
The portions that remain allege that an unidentified Pakistan intelligence officer provided funds to the Haqqani network and another man "to enable the attack on Chapman." The plan was for an Afghan border commander to be given $100,000 for his assistance in the suicide mission. But that commander, named Arghawan in the document, ended up dying in the attack.
The United States has long accused Pakistan of maintaining ties with the Haqqani network, which has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks against Afghan and foreign troops. In 2011, the top U.S. military officer called the network "a veritable arm" of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service.
In 2012, the United States designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organization.
Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.
