The news that the suicide bomber who killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees in Afghanistan last week was a Jordanian double-agent who swore allegiance to al-Qaida is another reminder of just how foolish it is to underestimate al-Qaida.

It also raises the troubling question of just how CIA operatives will, going forward, ever be able to fully reassure themselves that someone they're recruiting to infiltrate al-Qaida won't be like the Jordanian suicide bomber, masking his true intent until it's too late.

NPR's Tom Gjelten reported for the network's newscast:

Al Jazeera, the Arabic language Television network, first identified the suicide bomber as Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. The network says al Balawi was sent to Afghanistan by Jordanian intelligence to help the CIA and U.S. forces track down Ayman al Zawahiri, al-Qaida's number two. He reportedly worked with U.S. and Jordanian intelligence officials for several months, but in fact was a double agent loyal to al-Qaida. The New York Times and The Washington Post are reporting that al Balawi's so-called handler at the U.S. base, a senior Jordanian intelligence official by the name of Sharif Ali bin Zeid, was also killed in last week's attack. Bin Zeid's body was flown back to Jordan over the weekend, and met personally by King Abdullah. The Jordanian government said only that Bin Zeid was killed while doing quote humanitarian work unquote in Afghanistan.