ZARQA, Jordan — The suspected Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan was thrown into jail by Jordanian intelligence to coerce him to track down al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Mideast counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.
The 32-year-old doctor’s allegiance was to al-Qaeda from the start, however, and not to his Jordanian recruiters or their CIA friends — and it never wavered, a Middle East counterterrorism official said.
He and two other counterterrorism officials gave identical accounts of how and when Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi was recruited.
Jordanian intelligence believed the devout young Muslim had been persuaded to support U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and wanted al-Balawi to help capture or kill Ayman al-Zawahri, a fellow doctor from Egypt who was Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, according to another counterterrorism official based in the Middle East.
All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on matters involving the CIA and Jordan’s national security.
Family and friends said al-Balawi, a father of two young daughters, had practiced medicine in a clinic at a Palestinian refugee camp. One high school classmate, Mohammed Yousef, described al-Balawi as “brilliant” and well-mannered, though he kept mostly to himself.
The doctor also spoke openly about wanting to die in a holy war, Yousef said, adding that in Internet postings he called tirelessly for jihad against Israel and the United States.
“If the love of jihad entered a man’s heart, it will not abandon him, even if he wanted so,” al-Balawi said in an interview on the Ana al-Muslim, or “I, the Muslim,” website.
Jordanian intelligence was aware of these provocative statements when they arrested al-Balawi last March after he signed up for a humanitarian mission to the Gaza Strip. Al-Balawi was jailed for three days, and shortly after that, he secretly left his native Jordan for Afghanistan, they said, suggesting he had agreed to take on the mission against al-Qaeda.
Once in Afghanistan, al-Balawi provided valuable intelligence information that helped foil al-Qaeda terror plots in Jordan, the officials said. His Jordanian recruiters then offered al-Balawi to their CIA allies as someone who would help them capture or kill al-Zawahri.
On Dec. 30, the Jordanian was invited to Camp Chapman, a tightly secured CIA forward base in Khost province, but he was not closely searched, apparently because of his perceived value as someone who could lead American forces to senior al-Qaeda leaders.
Shortly after the debriefing began, al-Balawi set off his explosive.
