WASHINGTON, USA - FBI counter-intelligence agents
are investigating a veteran US diplomat suspected of taking classified
information from the State Department home, and have searched her house
and office for evidence, government officials said Friday.
The diplomat, Robin L.
Raphel, is a retired ambassador and an expert on Pakistan who until
recently was an adviser to the State Department’s special representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The officials said that after the FBI searches, Raphel was put on leave and her contract was allowed to expire.
The nature of the
investigation is unclear, but officials said the FBI was trying to
determine why Raphel appears to have brought classified information
home, and whether she had passed, or was planning to pass, the
information to a foreign government.FBI counterintelligence agents have a broad mandate — including tracking foreign spies inside the United States, investigating US citizens suspected of spying for other nations, and examining the mishandling of classified information.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not give details about why they were examining Raphel’s activities.
- Nor did they say whether she was officially a target of the investigation.
- It is extremely rare for the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into such a prominent Washington figure.
Any decision by the Justice Department to open the
inquiry would have had to take into account that an investigation -
whatever its outcome — will have a lasting impact on Raphel’s ability in
the future to operate within US diplomatic circles. One official said Friday that Raphel had been stripped of her security clearances as part of the investigation.
Source: NyTimes...More,,,
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