A suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents at a meeting at a remote base in eastern Afghanistan in January had not been properly vetted. The CIA said, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian al-Qaeda sympathiser, blew himself up after promising to give crucial intelligence on top US targets. In a letter to employees, CIA director Leon Panetta cited a range of failures that gave him proximity to the agents. These included a CIA officer failing to pass on warnings about the bomber. The attack was the worst against US intelligence officials since 1983.