Obama to honor 7 CIA officers killed in Afghanistan blast

February 5, 2010 1:45 a.m. EST

President Obama is seen on a previous visit to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on April 20, 2009.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Service is to be held Friday morning at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia
• 7 CIA officers were killed December 30 in suicide bombing in Afghanistan
• Intelligence analyst says suicide bombing was "a huge blow, symbolically and tactically"

RELATED TOPICS

• Central Intelligence Agency
• Afghanistan
• Barack Obama

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama is scheduled to attend a Friday memorial service for seven CIA officers and contractors killed in Afghanistan in December.

The service is to be held Friday morning at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

A suicide bomber killed the CIA officers and contractors, as well as a Jordanian intelligence official, on December 30 at a U.S. base in Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan.

The bomber was within seconds of being searched by security contractors when he detonated his explosives, a former intelligence official with knowledge of the incident told CNN in January.

Two of those killed were contractors with private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, a former intelligence official told CNN. The CIA considers contractors to be officers.

U.S. and Jordanian officials say the bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, had been recruited as a counterterrorism intelligence agent, despite concerns over his extremist views. He was being used in the hunt for a senior al Qaeda figure.

Reva Bhalla, director of analysis for the international intelligence company STRATFOR, said in January that the suicide bombing was "a huge blow, symbolically and tactically." The bombing eliminated so many CIA officers, who can take years to become ingrained in the region.

In addition, the attack showed the ability of the Taliban to penetrate perhaps the most difficult of targets -- a CIA base, she said.

Former CIA official Robert Richer called the bombing the greatest loss of life for the agency since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed eight agents.

from: CNN