CIA base destroyed in terror attack

A United States spy station that played a key role over many years in spying on the Russians was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, the New York Times has reported.

The Central Intelligence Agency base was located in one of the smaller towers of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed as a result of the collapse earlier that day of the twin 110-storey towers.

No staff members were killed but US intelligence operations were seriously disrupted, the newspaper reported. It described staff members hunting around in the rubble for their computers and documents.

The station was primarily a base to spy on the UN and recruit foreign diplomats working there. It was believed to be the largest base and most important CIA station outside Washington. Over the years it played an important role in tracking Russian intelligence officers, many of whom work at the UN in diplomatic posts.

With their undercover station in ruins, the New York Times said, CIA staffers in the city have had to find new accommodation at the US mission to the United Nations and in other federal offices.

The station's destruction may have deepened the agency's poor morale, the newspaper said. Critics have described the failure to anticipate the September 11 attacks as an intelligence failure on the scale of Pearl Harbour.

However job applications to join the CIA are reported to have risen sharply since the attacks, as Congress pours funds into counter-intelligence operations.

- INDEPENDENT