Forced to be a spy

Jordanian boys play on January 5, 2010 outside the gate of an UNRWA clinic, where Jordanian Al-Qaeda triple agent Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi used to work as a doctor, in a refugee camp in the impoverished Amman satellite city of Zarqa, east of the Jordanian capital. -- PHOTO: AFP

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 counter-terrorism officials said on 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 counter-terrorism official told The Associated Press. He and two other counter-terrorism 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 US efforts against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and wanted al-Balawi to help capture or kill Ayman al-Zawahri, a fellow doctor from Egypt who is Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, according to another counter-terrorism official based in the Middle East.

All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised 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 near Zarqa, the hometown of slain al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. One high school classmate, Mohammed Yousef, described al-Balawi as 'brilliant,' well-spoken and well-mannered, though he kept mostly to himself and did not mingle much with relatives or friends. The doctor also spoke openly about wanting to die in a holy war, Mr Yousef said, adding that in Internet postings he called tirelessly for jihad against Israel and the United States.

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 with a Jordanian field hospital in the wake of Israel's offensive there, the counter-terrorism officials said. -- AP