Darren James LaBonte (October 10, 1974 – December 30, 2009) was an American officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, former U.S. Army Ranger, and agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[2] He later left the Army to pursue higher education, attending Columbia College of Missouri and obtaining a master's degree in criminal justice from Boston University in 2006.
[4] On December 30, 2009, LaBonte was among seven CIA officers and contractors killed in a suicide bombing at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan.
[5] The bombing, carried out by a Jordanian double agent, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, targeted CIA personnel involved in efforts to track down Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command.
[5] In a Washington Post interview, the widower of Jennifer Matthews said LaBonte had raised concerns about al-Balawi's trustworthiness before the Khost meeting but couldn't convince others to stop him from entering the base without being searched.
[6] As told in Joby Warrick's book The Triple Agent, LaBonte expressed deep skepticism about Balawi, saying, "This guy is too good to be true."