* CIA base attack shows Taliban have developed capacity to disrupt US intelligence efforts
* Qaeda keener to kill Western spies than infiltrate them
* In need of sources, West to retain spy link with Jordan

LONDON: The killing of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber lauded online as a militant James Bond suggests Al Qaeda’s south Asian allies have developed an unprecedented capacity to disrupt the West’s spy efforts.

The attack by a Jordanian double agent also shows militants are keener on killing Western spies than infiltrating them, underlining the daunting challenge for Western services seeking to plant an informant among Al Qaeda’s senior ranks.

The agent, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, blew himself up on December 30 inside Forward Operating Base Chapman, a well-fortified US compound in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, killing seven CIA officers and a Jordanian officer.

The attack, the second-most deadly in CIA history, pleased a global community of Al Qaeda propagandists thrilled to discover Balawi was the author under a pen name of some of the most celebrated anti-Western commentaries on the Internet.

“Our James Bond — who is he? He is Abu Dujana! His motto: Let me die or live free!” Qaeda supporter Asadullah Alshishani wrote in one posting, referring to Balawi’s online pen name..

The attack followed the failed December 25 downing of a US airliner over Detroit, the November 5 killing of 13 at a US army base by a gunman linked to a Yemen-based preacher and a string of arrests of suspected militants in the US in 2009.

Counter-terrorism experts said the incidents showed the resilience of the globally-scattered hubs of sympathisers, financiers and supporters that Osama Bin Laden had fostered as he had come under increasing pressure from US drone attacks in South Asia, where he is believed to be hiding.

Investigators are studying possible links between the December 30 attack and at least two local Al Qaeda allies – the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Haqqani network associated with the Afghan Taliban group fighting US troops in Afghanistan.

A spate of militant propaganda about the attack has only intensified this focus.

Al-Jazeera television reported that shortly before his suicide attack, Balawi had made a video urging revenge for the death of the TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud, killed by a US drone last year.

A private TV channel showed what it said was a video of Balawi sitting with Baitullah’s successor, Hakeemullah Mehsud, and reported he shared US and Jordanian state secrets with terrorists.

“The attack and the statements being made about it show that links to local partners are at the very core of Al Qaeda’s mission,” said Brynjar Lia, a research professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.

Former intelligence officials have said Balawi was recruited by Jordanian intelligence to infiltrate Al Qaeda and the Taliban and give Washington an intelligence advantage it had sought with special urgency since the 9/11 attacks.

Retain: The West’s need for sources is likely to ensure that Western intelligence maintains its ties to Jordan, analysts said.

“If the Jordanians are as good as we think they are, the US would be mad to sever the relationship,” former US intelligence officer Robert Ayers told Reuters. reuters