This doesn’t seem like the best way to win hearts and minds…
ABC News reports:
The CIA’s station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.
The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials.
The details of the alleged rapes:
One of the alleged victims reportedly said she met the CIA officer at a bar in the U.S. embassy and then was taken to his official station chief residence where she said the sexual assault took place.
The second alleged victim reportedly told U.S. prosecutors that, in a separate incident, she also was drugged at the American’s official residence before being sexually assaulted.
Investigators searched the station chief’s residence and found videotapes of him engaged in sex acts, including with a woman “in a semi-conscious state.”
The two women have both given sworn statements to federal prosecutors working on a possible criminal case against the agent.
This station chief appears to have a crucial intel task:
The officer in charge of the CIA station in Algiers plays an important role in working with the Algerian intelligence services to combat an active al Qaeda wing responsible for a wave of bombings in Algeria.
And the case may suggest a serious failure by CIA brass. Bob Baer, a prominent former agency operative, told ABC News that the alleged rapes could open the station chief up to blackmail charges, potentially compromising his mission.
“That’s something the CIA should have picked up on,” said Baer. “This is indicative of personnel problems of all sorts that run through the agency.”
Late Update: ABC News updates its report, naming the suspect:
“[T]he suspect in the case is identified as Andrew Warren in an affidavit for a search warrant filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. by an investigator for the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
