CIA Ignored Warning of Bomber at Base

Another case of ignored intelligence, this time with deadly consequences for seven CIA employees. Weeks before a supposed al-Qaeda informant detonated a suicide vest inside an American base in Khost, Afghanistan, the agency had been tipped off that he was a double agent plotting a trap, reports the New York Times. A Jordanian intelligence official told a CIA officer of the plot, but the officer dismissed the claim.

Part of the problem, said CIA chief Leon Panetta—briefing reporters on the outcome of an internal inquiry—is that those working with the informant were blinded by the potential rewards of the information he could provide. “The mission itself may have clouded some of the judgments made here," said Panetta, who blamed "systemic failures" that are now being addressed rather than any individual.