Balawi might have supplied CIA with "false information about US successes" ....

Eli Lake in the Washington Times/ here

"U.S. agencies are conducting a review of intelligence supplied by an al Qaeda double agent, including a list of senior al Qaeda and Taliban operatives reported killed in the drone strikes since January 2009.

The review is examining whether the double agent, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, supplied false information about U.S. successes amid valid data used to establish his credibility, U.S. officials said.

Al-Balawi was a key source on whether targets of the CIA-operated drone strike program were indeed killed as well as what U.S. spies thought was inside information on the effect of these targeted killings on al Qaeda's leadership. Until now, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the drone strikes had eroded al Qaeda's senior leadership.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials have stated in speeches, interviews and congressional testimony that U.S. attacks on al Qaeda leaders had severely damaged the group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. .....

This official added, "Various agencies — primarily the CIA and the FBI — are in the process of doing precisely that. The asset had provided information that was independently confirmed through other means. And certainly no one relied exclusively on what he provided to reach any conclusions about the fate of senior terrorists who have recently died." ..."

(read more/ here)