Posted on 01/29/2012 12:49:58 AM PST by No One Special
The call from the Central Intelligence Agency came on a December afternoon in 2009 while Gary Anderson was skiing with his three children. It’s about your wife, the agency man said.
Standing inside Eagle Rock ski lodge in Pennsylvania, Anderson pleaded for details. The CIA official said simply: Where are you? We’ll meet you.
Anderson suspected dreadful news about Jennifer Matthews, his college sweetheart, his wife of 22 years and a CIA operative on assignment almost 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. With several hours until the CIA meeting, Anderson and his three children — then 12, 9 and 6 — hit the slopes for one more hour. The father wanted to cling a little longer to normalcy, to a life between before and after.
Finally, the Fredericksburg family got into their silver minivan and headed to a nearby motel. There, in a sterile conference room, CIA officials told Anderson the news: His wife, one of the CIA’s top al-Qaeda experts, had just been killed in an explosion at a base in Khost province, in eastern Afghanistan. There was no mention of a double agent, no indication that six other CIA operatives had died in the deadliest attack on agency personnel in decades.
Anderson, who is commenting publicly on the loss of his wife for the first time, was so stunned that he couldn’t formulate questions, except: Are you sure she’s dead?
Then he summoned his children, who were waiting outside.
“I just said to them, ‘Your mom has died.’ The two oldest fell apart. They started crying,” he remembered. “One of them asked, ‘Is this really true?’ I just kind of hugged them. And then the craziness started after that.”
A Jordanian double agent’s suicide bombing of the CIA base received days of media coverage.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The regular page is listed above.
Yes, you are some one special and thank you for posting this thread.
In case anyone wonders whether we are in a fight to the death, just read. Christianity survives, or Islam does. Western civilization is Christianity. All our conceptions of right and wrong, of compassion and mercy, all of our ideas of tolerance are the enemies of Islam. We cannot pretend that reason will protect us. We die or they do. Look at your sleeping children and decide if they should fight because you did not.
Good post. I remember that tragedy. The CIA answered with a devastating volley of drones and killed a lot of cockroaches.
They were pissed.
So true and with a proper education all Americans would realize it, even those who do not believe in God.
Best compliment I received today. :-)
Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t think it’s a concidence this happened on Obama’s watch. Is watch the proper term for how Obama handles his Presidency?
“His wife, one of the CIA’s top al-Qaeda experts”
A statement that might cause one to pause.
Group assassination is certainly a tactic used previously.
The comments mean no disrespect only respect for the fact that it is extremely difficult if not impossible for a westerner to place him or herself in the mind of whom we are discussing.
The "it" in the above is "the earth," not "the salt."
Very powerful story. We are constantly being lulled into forgetting the stakes in this poker game. Very expensive ante to get into this wrestling match, and it's a fight to the death.
That is an amazingly well written and objective article - and from the Washington Post no less!
Thanks for posting.
That is an amazingly well written and objective article - and from the Washington Post no less!
Thanks for posting.
“They thought God would protect her.” That quote is from her uncle an ex-CIA operative who urged her not to go because she was a white Christian mother. Both sides are thinking the same thing: that they’re doing God’s will. This kind of fight can have only one winner and defeat will be horrible for the losing side.
Matthews blew it and it cost her and six other agents their lives because of her sloppiness and desire to prove and expiate herself. Had she followed long standing procedures none of this would have happened. It’s obvious the guy wasn’t trustworthy and should have been thoroughly vetted, including a physical search before coming onto the base. I’m sorry to see these deaths and even more sorry that three great kids are without a mom (six other families are without as well), but the harsh lesson needs to be learned. She didn’t belong there and neither does any white woman. It’s a horrible affront to Islam and Muslims understand this and we’d better too.
What you say is probably true but I would not blame her. There is a reason that women should be kept out of war zones and no it is not chauvinistic to have that attitude. Women should be kept out because of our respect for them. It is natural in our society to desire to protect them. When it becomes unnatural that is when our society falls apart. The fault for the tragedy lies with feminism which put her there in the first place.
Um, Ive read the end of the story... we win.
“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” ― Marilyn Monroe
“I said, ‘These people over there are ruthless. Here you are, a Christian woman, killing their heroes. Everything’s wrong about it, Jenny,’ ” the uncle recalled. “She took offense at any suggestion that a female can’t do what a male can do.”
Anderson also thought that the arguments were sexist and that his wife would be safe.
Reality doesn't care what you think is "sexist." That's a hard lesson to learn, and I'm sorry that people have to lose their lives to learn it. But it seems some don't, even after lives have been lost.
Second: I find it interesting that the one person with experience in this article is the uncle, whose opinion everyone rejects, and yet who is ultimately proven right. Sadly, this is the way of the world today. Thirty-somethings from Harvard are given positions of power based on their "education," and they have wrecked our government and economy. And yet there are still many who would continue to do so...
“In case anyone wonders whether we are in a fight to the death, just read Christianity survives, or Islam does”. Yes! The Crusaders knew it - why is it so hard for us to get this? Hillaire Belloc in The Great Heresies book predicted that Islam would rise again.
“All our conceptions of right and wrong ... are the enemies of Islam...”
So true!! Christianity elevated women to the status of equals - look what Islam does to them - they are oppressed - have their genitals mutilated, etc. and this is just one area. Islam is famous for bribes, therefor those with money reign, we could go on and on ...
Needs to be repeated.
No matter how much we want the world to be as we desire, it just won't obey.
It appears the husband is totally lost. It is a terrible situation. He probably has repressed guilt. Could be why he won't speak to the uncle anymore.
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