Some payback for CIA casualties of terror

WASHINGTON -- For a small cadre of CIA veterans, the death of Osama bin Laden was more than just a national moment of relief and closure. It was also a measure of payback, a settling of a score for a pair of deaths, the details of which remained a secret for 13 years.

Tom Shah and Molly Huckaby Hardy were among the 44 U.S. Embassy employees killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy compound in Kenya in 1998.

It has never been publicly acknowledged, but the two were working undercover for the CIA. In al-Qaida's war on the United States, they are believed to be the first CIA casualties.

As for many CIA officers, their service remained a secret in life and death, marked only by anonymous stars on the wall at CIA headquarters and blank entries in its book of honor.

Their CIA ties were described to The Associated Press by a half-dozen current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because Shah's and Hardy's jobs are still secret, even now.

The deaths weighed heavily on many at the CIA, particularly the two senior officers who were running operations in Africa during the attack. Both were deeply involved in hunting down bin Laden and planning the raid on the terrorist who killed their colleagues.

"History has shown that tyrants who threaten global peace and freedom must eventually face their natural enemies: America's war fighters, and the silent warriors of our Intelligence Community," Director Leon Panetta wrote in a Memorial Day message to CIA staff.

These silent warriors took different paths to Nairobi.

Two lives, one missionHardy was a divorced mom from Valdosta, Ga., who raised a daughter as she traveled to Asia, South America and Africa over a lengthy career. At the CIA station in Kenya, she handled the finances, including the stash of money used to pay sources and carry out spying operations. A new grandmother, she was eager to get back home when al-Qaida struck.

Shah took an unpredictable route to the clandestine service. He was a musician from the Midwest.

"He was a vivacious, upbeat guy who had a very poignant, self-deprecating sense of humor," said Dan McDevitt, a classmate from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, where Shah was a standout trumpeter.

Shah -- his given name was Uttamlal -- was the only child of an Indian immigrant father and an American mother, McDevitt said. He participated in the school's model UN and, in the midst of the Cold War, was one of the school's first students to learn Russian.

Shah graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and Ball State University's music school. He taught music and occasionally played in backup bands for Red Skelton, Perry Como and Jim Nabors. His doctoral thesis at Ball State in Indiana offered no hints about the career he would pursue: "The Solo Songs of Edward MacDowell: An Examination of Style and Literary Influence."

Shah and his wife, Linda, were married in 1983, the year he received his master's degree. In 1987, after earning his doctorate, he joined the U.S. government and was sent to the Farm, the CIA's spy school in Virginia.

Linguist's key roleHe received the usual battery of training and the art of building sources, particularly hard to teach, came naturally to Shah, former officials said. When he was assigned to the Near East Division, he quickly showed a knack for languages, learning Arabic.

In 1997, he was dispatched to headquarters as part of the Iraq Operations Group, the CIA team that ran spying campaigns against Saddam Hussein's regime. Shah, the linguist, was assigned to meet a senior Iraqi official who was willing to provide intelligence in exchange for a new life in the United States.

The meetings were set up in Kenya. After Shah's death, the Africa Division pressed on and confirmed the source was legitimate. The Iraqi defected and relocated to the United States with a new identity.

Shah, who was 38, and Hardy, 51, were both killed in the blast.