In an interview with Turkish television, the widow of Humam al-Balawi, who killed seven CIA operatives in a Dec. 30 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, said she was “proud of her husband.”
Balawi’s Wife (shown left) Says “I Am Proud of My Husband.” Balawi’s widow Defne Bayrak told Turkey’s Kanal 6 TV that she hoped that God would accept her husband as a martyr, and that “he conducted a very big operation in a kind of war.” She said that she learned of her husband’s death when a man called her from Pakistan at 7 a.m. the morning after the attack on her husband’s cell phone. She also discussed rumors that her husband’s parents had been told 10 days in advance what Balawi would do.
A portion of the interview follows:
Did you expect that your husband would conduct a kind of attack?
I am a person who knows her husband’s point of view. But honestly, I didn’t know that he would conduct an attack. When I learned the news, I was really surprised. Because he was always saying that he would come back. But he did this because he was a person who believed this. I don’t know how he decided this.
As far as I know you have two children, right? And how old are they?
They are 5 and 7 years old.
They don’t know that he conducted an attack, right?
They don’t know.
When are you planning to tell them?
Right now I am not planning to tell them. I will wait for them to grow up. If they don’t learn this from anywhere, like the media, I would like to wait for them to grow up a bit.
Don’t they feel that their father is absent? Did they already see him rarely?
No, my husband left in March. Before that, we were living together. We were staying in the same house. He was not always leaving us here. They definitely feel his absence.
Are they asking you where their father is?
Sure, they are asking.
Did you face any kind of pressure on yourself?
No, I didn’t.
It is said that CIA agents are here in Istanbul.
Yes, I have heard that, but they haven’t reached me in anyway.
Have they come to your home?
No
( What was not asked was, do you care about the people that died or how their families must feel right now? Guess that would be too much compassion for Turkish journalists to show. )
ABC News has obtained an exclusive photo of suicide bomber Humam Muhammed al-Balawi, the Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA operatives and his Jordanian handler in Afghanistan on December 30.
An exclusive photo obtained by ABC News shows Humam Khalil Muhammed al Balawi, identified as suicide bomber who killed seven C.I.A. agents and his handler at Forward Operating Base Chapman near Khost city, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2009.(ABC News)
Al-Balawi, a 32-year-old Jordanian doctor, had convinced the Americans that his jihadist postings on the web were only part of his cover identity. He lured 13 CIA operatives and his handler to a meeting at Camp Chapman, an American forward operating base in Afghanistan, by saying he had just met with al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and had information to share.
The photo comes from a Jordanian identification card, seen below. Al Balawi was born in Kuwait in 1977, raised in Jordan and attended medical school in Turkey. He had been arrested by Jordan’s intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, more than a year ago. Believing they had flipped al Balawi and made him a double agent, the Jordanians released him from prison and sent him to Afghanistan to penetrate al Qaeda by pretending to be an aspiring foreign jihadi.