Just Great - A Rapist At The CIA

ABC News reports that the CIA station chief in Algeria is being investigated for drugging and raping two Muslim women.  Captain Ed has thoughts.

In subsequent reporting ABC News tells us that, based on an affidavit for a search warrant, the alleged rapist is Andrew Warren.

Barring a stunning coincidence, this Andrew Warren must be the author of "The People of the Veil", a spy thriller set in, well, Algeria.

Here is the author's bio as of Sept 2002:

Andrew M. Warren grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Mr. Warren served as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. State Department (1997-2001); during his tenure, he spent two years in Kuwait at the American Embassy in addition to traveling extensively throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to his service at the State Department, he worked with the National Security Agency. Mr. Warren obtained a Masters Degree in Middle East History and Arabic from Indiana University; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Norfolk State University.

Mr. Warren's career in the Foreign Service, and now as an author, has allowed him to fulfill his lifelong dream of combining his myriad of experiences and his love of writing into one career. Mr. Warren injects a cultural, intellectual, psychological realism into his writing that could only have come about by his many years of living and working abroad. He currently resides in New York City.

And a bit more here:

Middle East Expert Weaves An Electrifying Story Line Ripped From Today's Headline
Book Signing at Justin's Attracts Nearly 300 people
The New York Amsterdam News, May 2- May 8 2002

(April 18, 2002, New York, NY) The future of Black suspense writers is in good hands. Reminiscent of Tom Clancy, Nelson Demille and Robert Ludlum, first-time African American author, Andrew M. Warren, recently held a book signing for The People of the Veil. The author and theme struck a cord with New Yorkers, as nearly 300 supporters turned out in full force, Wednesday, April 10, at the trendy Justin's Restaurant & Bar to meet the author and buy his book.

The full text of this article may be found at The New York Amsterdam News.

At the end of the night, Mr. Warren took some time to express his gratitude to everyone who came out and a special thanks to his family and friends who supported him along the way. "I am extremely overwhelmed by the number of people who have come out today," said Warren. "I wrote the book to explore my love of literature and to write a suspenseful thriller, that portrayed the Middle East in a more accurate light. Through this book, I hope to teach people about the true meaning of Islam."

Warren added that he hope readers will learn a great deal about Algeria and the Middle East from reading his book.

[Click for end of thread]

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

I blame Bush.

[clarice]

I am really delighted that we have a convert to Islam working for the agency ain Egypt and Algeria and writing a book hoping as he says to teach us about his adopted religion. Peculiar on many fronts? You bet.
Now who leaked this to the press now and why>

[clarice]

As for Capt Ed--yes, this story could prove disastrous. OTOH, it might have occurred to him as it certainly does to me, that the story reported by Ross is somewhat suspicious..I am more concerned by the leak at this point..than he is.

[Dan Collins]

Interestingly, the ABC piece didn't give his name although it said that they'd tried to contact his parents and sister about the story.

I imagine that Scooter Libby must have leaked it, clarice, to deprive Fitzgerald of publicity.

[clarice]

Or the bald man.

[Extraneus]

Hey, the teeth-whitening ad has finally been replaced! With one from the Muslim Matrimonials Site, with a cute veiled girl and a button asking us to "Browse Photos Now!"

Is there anything we can do to affect these things, either by clicking or not clicking? I couldn't see clicking on the last couple.

[Elliott]

Jones says in his book there were multiple converts working in the region.

[Jane]

"I blame Bush."

No no no. We have a new administration, Obama caused this, in fact I'm sure he ordered this, in fact I'm sure he is also a rapist. This is O's Abu Gahraib and he needs to apologize now.

[narciso]

Doesn't seem very discreet he even mentione he worked for "No Such Agency", in his bio, maybe he was doing research for another book. Great does this duffus realize what he's done ont just to every intelligence officer, but every American around the world. Maybe they deserve Leon Pannetta
as their boss. I realize it could be a setup,

[bgates]

The word "alleged" should be in the headline here. Leaving it out is a bit lax, or LAX, for long-time blog readers.

[clarice]

Jones repeated that to me in an email todya when I sent him this story.

Why did the agency let him handle "sensitive" stuff if he'd written a spy book in his onw name and in publicizing it included a bio noting he worked for NSA?

Makes no sense.
OR--the agency has a different idea about discretion and secretion than I do.

[clarice]

**discretion and secretive***

[Dan Collins]

I'm sure your secretion is much more private, clarice.

[clarice]

THWACK

[Ranger]

This should be interesting. I have a feeling "the company" will be out for blood over this one. Nobody makes them look bad and gets away with it (except for themselves of course).

[Dan Collins]

Personally, I think that this behavior must have been approved at the top echelon.

By which I mean Dick Cheney.

[liinda]

I smell a rat.

[Dan Collins]

Dig deep enough, and you'll probably find an Alberto Gonzalez memo approving rohypnol date rape, but only when it's kosher.

[SunnyDay]

Oopsie! liinda is me. Changing back. poof!

[Rick Ballard]

Muslim CIA agent spikes muslim women's alcoholic beverages as part of undercover effort....

Maybe they all had a dispensation fatwa from Khameini.

[clarice]

His bio telegraphs he's a spy and yet they send him to Egypt and then to Algeria with that information public. Wait a minute--I just got it..the agency plays a clever game here--covert means overt and vice versa.

[Jane]

"covert means overt and vice versa."

Gee, where have I heard that before?

Sunny Day, I sent you an email today. Did you get it?

[clarice]

If the Agerian govt is cooperating with us, it's unlikely the leak is from official sources there. It's possible oppo forces there learned of it and leaked to embarrass their govt but I expect that is not what happened..and it is from govt sources here.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I don't believe it. No one at CIA could manage an operation that complicated.

[narciso]

This is a very strange situation, since when does the DSS (that's State's security
division) have an open investigation like that; why was it leaked to Ross and why now. Like I've said before, I don't trust Ross as far as I can throw him, if KSM or Zubeydah are freed and return to their career path, I will blame him for revealing
the secret prison, forcing the Gitmo transfers and the Military Commissions Act.

[clarice]

HEH--That's why we love you, Chaco..

[mel]

I smell a Russian "honey trap". Same day as the announcement of Continental missile "happiness",

How conveeenient.

[PD]

Muslim CIA agent spikes muslim women's alcoholic beverages

I thought alcohol was forbidden in Islam.

[mel]

And since when are Algerian Muslims allowed to drink alcohol, female or otherwise, unaccompanied by a male relative?

As we say her in Chicago, dis stinks.

[Sun'sreflectionlost,not sun]

That's an old set up. Spies drug the person, blame the agent and, kill them, I mean just scare 'em. It works better on DEA agents, especially when it's regualar drugs. If you want to kill them, you then set up the agent by letting the killer 'escape' and blame the agent for arranging and using the death to gather.

Repeat in different countries, especially the US if you can swing it.

If you work for the NSA you can tell people that. The rules must have change when all the CIA moved there. I guess DIA and CIA figured out their operations stuff in the US.

[mel]

here in Chicago,

[mel]

PD-

Beat me! Rats.

[verner]

Mr. Warren served as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. State Department (1997-2001)

And that would make him a Clinton hire. Maybe he knew Joe and Val!

It sounds like somebody who is about ready to retire left a little smelly pile for the Obama administration. Maybe they thought Mr. Warren was in line for bigger and better things, and they didn't want that to happen. Who knows?

Anyhow, any news on how the rank and file at the agency are reacting to Panetta?

[Dan Collins]

If someone wants to discomfit the narrative that O!s different because he's black, this might be one way to try--especially if you believe the leftie press enough to think that Americans are fundamentally racists.

[Sue]

The CIA guy is black? Why then did ABC have a picture of white man with his face obscured?

[PD]

mel, only by a few seconds.

It's the confluence of great minds, kinda like when Leibniz and Newton both invented calculus at the same time.

[verner]

A little OT, but if anybody is on facebook, the have a "Free Gov. Blagojevitch" group.

It's great.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Re Alcohol, I suppose you'd be surprised that you can get a BLT in Tel Aviv too. Or shrimp in lobster sauce.

A lot of muslims take the prohibition on alcohol about as seriously.

[Ralph L]

Why is it that muslims are only identified as such when they're the victims?

[Rick Ballard]

PD,

From The Baroque Cycle or just very good memory-knowledge base?

[clarice]

I don't see any connection with the missile business in Europe.

It's either some internecine carp here again or an effort to drive a wedge between us and the Algerians or a provocation to test The One..Well, it could be other things, of course, but these strike me as among the most likely.

[Dan Collins]

Yes, clarice. Occam's razor, and all. But mustn't it somehow encompass Obama's auntie, who's recently moved to Cleveland?

[clarice]

Oh, yeah, Dan and the alien hobos. Mustn't forget them.

[Bill in AZ]

Is this another "Guess that party game"? OK, I'll guess lib.

[Sue]

Okay, after seeing the uncovered picture of Andrew Warren, it is the same picture they used earlier with his face obscured.

[verner]

Once again I ask, where in the hell do they drag up these people!? I thought they were suppose to get routine lie detector tests and psych evaluations and all that stuff.

the CIA Worst.Agency.Ever.

[Ralph L]

Other NSU graduates include Randall Robinson and Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler. Oh, and Vincent Brothers, a mass murderer.

[mel]

clarice-

The globe is a chessboard. Felix Dzerzhinsky and his trailing brood have taught us that, if anything.

I can't rule out unrelated things.

[Dan Collins]

It's not the space hobos that bother me; it's the time ones.

[mel]

Dan, I prefer your cousin, Tom.

Alarm calls.

[narciso]

I don't think Russians are really that active in Algeria, there Mel, besides when they show up in an Arab country (well technically Berber) like the folk in Qatar,
it was to kill Zandarbichev, the exiled Checheb leader. It could be he was set up,
or maybe considering some of his comments, maybe he was sufficiently alienated enough
from American society (well that will be his lawyer's excuse)Seems pretty self inflicted in any case, and a disaster all around; consider Haditha and the NCIS investigation.

[PD]

Re Alcohol, I suppose you'd be surprised that you can get a BLT in Tel Aviv too.

The analogy would be that a Rabbi who was was eating one was seducing a jewess, also eating one.

[verner]

Clarice, we know that the hard left hates the CIA. Maybe someone in the Obama administration did it to soften them up before Panetta executes the death blow.

Hey, and why not! Obama can just become pen pals with everybody, send Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen out to sing "we are the world"

We'll have global peace and serenity. We won't need the CIA.

[clarice]

Actually, we don't need the CIA we've got. Moynihan said it a long time ago and everyone's been afraid to shut the monstrosity down. We need a small operationsal counter-espionage and counter terrorism force working with special forces. All the stupid analysts there could be set out to pasture with only positive results IMO.

[Dan Collins]

I'm sure it was just research, like that human rights worker or Pete Townshend.

[MarkJ]

I don't know why everybody is upset about having a rapist in the CIA. Hell, we had a probable rapist sitting in the Oval Orifice between 1993-2001 and the Donks didn't have a problem with that.

[Dan Collins]

I was thinking maybe this guy could apologize for 500 years of teh stupid.

[clarice]

Nite all..

[verner]

We've got, key words there Clarice. I think there must be a few brave souls who are doing something right, or else we would have very likely gotten hit again.

But it is also, as we all know, rank with dead weight and incompetence--just look at Valerie, to name one glaring example. And those are just the types Panetta will reward--the "analysts."

If they want to close the doors and contract it out to Blackwater--fine by me. They'd probably do a better job for a fraction of the cost.

[SB3580]

Hailing?

The alien space time hobos are lucifierians, created by lucifer and sent here to see if we've become like them and need to be ruled by Satan like they are; perversions of God's creation. The POWER of ONE HOBO.

What everyone missed was Putin asserting he stole all his computer hardware technology from the Arrow, but the CIA bought it too.

[narciso]

Of course, Verner, that's the last thing he wants to do. Not so much Blackwater, but Aegis, Dyncorp, operate with fewer restrictive
rules of engagement; that's why they're doing
that show trial of the contractors in Baghdad,
Now it occurs to me, that Warren was likely
involved in the pre 9/11 rendition effort, although he may have changed his mind about
the experience after September 11th; just because he could.

[SunnyDay]

Jane, I answered your email. :)

[Neo]

Sounds like a job for ... Jason Bourne

[Topsecretk9]

although it said that they'd tried to contact his parents and sister about the story.

Which reveal that someone revealed his covert identity and position.

Who's gonna be frog-marched?

[Neo]

This is going to leave a mark ... Obama lawyers set to defend Yoo

The irony is so thick that you can build a battleship.

[The jewelery buyer]

http://www.tampapublicmoodring.com/

[Topsecretk9]

Actually, we don't need the CIA we've got. Moynihan said it a long time ago and everyone's been afraid to shut the monstrosity down.

Someone commented that Gonzalez opinions tried to shut it down but Specter didn't like it cuz it would have affected the behemoth NSA and shut down a lot of workers in PA, something about the switches go through PA

[Baba Tim]

What's the big deal? When Clinton was in the White House he would routinely assault any woman foolish enough to be a room alone with him. Remember the Air Force SSGT who, against standing orders specifically enacted to prevent being assaulted by the President, went back into the Presidents bed chambers aboard Air Force One alone? Clinton being Clinton he immediately tried to force his penis into her mouth because that is what he does anytime an unescorted female is alone with him. He had to issue a public apology which was printed on page A 18 of the Washington Post if memory serves. At least the CIA agent used knock out drugs which is a step above outright physical assault. If people like Clinton are above the law why not a CIA agent? At what point do the laws which the unwashed public masses are forced to follow apply to government officials who spout the correct liberal orthodoxy? When men from the proper party get caught buggering a 16 y/o male pages (Gerry Studds) or running "Call Boy" services out of their congressional offices (Barney Frank) we are told by our betters and the drive by media that it is no concern of ours. Why should it be any different for an agent of the vaunted CIA? It is not like the agency has ever, once, in its history been able to successfully run a covert op or provide accurate intelligence to our "leaders" so who cares if their agents engage in a little "Clinton love" on the side? What the hell else is he supposed to do collect and synthesize strategic intelligence?

[Jane]

Let's all call our representatives and tell them to vote for the Rangel Rule:

(Via Glenn)

LEGISLATING A NEW “RANGEL RULE:”

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

[Captain Hate]

Obama's auntie, who's recently moved to Cleveland?

This is just wonderful; I thought we'd maxed out on deadbeats in the area, including the mayor who looks and sounds like a homeless person dressed up in a suit.

[clarice]

The WaPo has a more detailed article today and as TM noted originally, the agent's name is revealed in a DoS affidavit filed with the Ct in DC in support of a motion for a search warrant. Whoever filed that should have done so under seal and failed to. Still, I doubt the press reads all the papers filed in the federal court here. Perhaps someone at the courthouse tipped the press off, but I am not sure.
I suppose the next step is for Fitz to prosecute whoever at DoJ revealed the super duper top secret agent's name by not filing the affidavit under seal.

[Dan Collins]

I would think that that's the more interesting angle, clarice.

[Danube of Thought]

Mornin', all. God, I just read the ABC News writeup. I'd like to see this guy's case disposed of by the Algerian Ministry of Justice.

[clarice]

DoT, Don't you f ind it astonishing that the affidavit wasn't filed under seal?

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not sure, Clarice. If he's the CIA station chief, isn't that fact known to all and sundry, both good guys and bad? Or is it a covert position? I really don't know...

[Danube of Thought]

Well, I just did a cursory bit of Googling, and found a derogatory article about the Baghdad station chied, in which the author says "by law, I cannot tell you his name..."

So yeah, what the hell were they doing filing that thing publicly?

[clarice]

Again (as with Plame) they outed their own guy. Assuming he is covert under the meaning of the law, a whole lot of our agents will now be pulled from the field and given pointless jobs at Langley in which they will no doubt succumb to the usual pasttime of making trouble and producing nitwit analyses.

[Amused bystander]

Clarice: Now, now.

[Sue]

I asked the question at another site if station chief's were covert and someone responded yes they are. I have no idea if the person responding knows what they are talking about.

[Tom Maguire]

FWIW, the original ABC story said that the position was covert and that government officials could be prosecuted for divulging the name. Since we are all experts in the IIPA here, we know that that is arguably correct.

I have no idea whether Warren was covert as a practical matter, i.e., whether news of his status will come as a surprise to Algerians or others, both good and bad.

But if it *is* a surprise, this is a real screw-up.

[clarice]

It could be a *surprise* only if their intel agenies are idiots. Given the bio released when his book was published (former work for NSA) anyone would have pegged him as a likely spy.

But technically, it was an outing and another apparent screw-up I think.

[narciso]

One is reminded in this piece, by Ken Silverstein of Harper's who promised some huge scandal with Dusty Foggo and co, that
they lie, about the names and even the background of the people they say they write about. He calls the first Baghdad chief "Gerry Meyer" when it was certainly John MaGuire, who Tom had some fun with, during that thread. One wonders if he was listed as DCM or Pol Officer or what.

[Dean Narciso]

The station chief is pretty important and highly valued. The set ups are pretty big and they were doing this across countries, so it was a matter of time before they started killing or brought it home to the US.

The name below is from the article LU*

Someone highly valued?

[Danube of Thought]

One jewel to emerge from this is that his book publicist actually used the phrase "ripped from today's headlines." I thought that cliche had been relegated to satire only.

[Danube of Thought]

In the current piece being run on the web by ABC News, I found no mention of his having been covert, but it does say that the CIA wouldn't disclose his name.

[MayBee]

Poor Andrew Sullivan is going to be gobsmacked that this man's black face didn't change *everything* in the Muslim world for us.

[Dan Collins]

MayBee! LTNS!

[MayBee]

Hey Dan Collins!!

[cathyf]

Wait a minute -- I thought that was what the Islamists were selling here. Rape with impunity -- the most that will happen is that the woman's brothers will kill her for bringing dishonor upon the family by being raped. (Unless it's Saudi Arabia, where she'll be tried, convicted and lashed for getting raped.)

[Enlightened]

Morning!

Hey guys/gals - I'm having my dinner tonight and I am thinking I will add a meat entree to go along with the salmon risotto, wine braised seafood, salad and french bread....

Any sugestions (6 persons at dinner)??? I'm thinking a tri-tip roast or london broil?

[Captain Hate]

Yeah since Islam is such a misogynistic cult, I'd think this guy's genitals might be regarded as a holy site. Although looking at his picture at the ABC site, he kind of resembles one of the eunuchs that caused numerous quandries for the Byzantine Empire so maybe history is repeating itself.

[Topsecretk9]

Drudge brings the funny:

URGENT: TIME MAGAZINE DOES NOT FEATURE OBAMA ON COVER IN NEXT WEEK'S ISSUE [OH WAIT, IT DOES]... DEVELOPING...

[Jane]

Enlightened,

With all that food, I'd have something light, like carparccio.

[MayBee]

Tops- more funny from TIME.

The cast of the scandal in Portland, Ore., has a certain ring to it: Sam Adams. Bob Ball. Beau Breedlove and his dog Lolita ... "Everyone has porn names!" says Mark Wiener with a laugh. "Until yesterday, it had never occurred to me that the worst offending name was mine." Wiener (pronounced Wee-ner) is one of Oregon's most influential political consultants and a former — and now disheartened — campaign adviser to the protagonist in this political soap opera. That would be Sam Adams, the new mayor of Portland and the first openly gay man to lead a major American city. Then there's Bob Ball, an openly gay local real estate developer who once had mayoral ambitions himself. In 2007, Ball hinted that Adams' mentoring relationship with a former legislative intern, Beau Breedlove (now 21), was, in fact, a sexual one that had begun when the young man was just 17.

The difference between a predator like Mark Foley and a madcap political situation is the names of the people involved, apparently.

[Dan Collins]

Can't wait for the HBO series, MayBee.

[chad]

Rape?

I thought under Sharia that was the woman's fault for not being sufficiently discrete. And since a woman's testimony anly counts half as much as a mans under Sharia I would think our buddy Warren has nothing to worry about.

Of course if he is convicted I think the bury him to his neck and stone him to death so that's a happy thought.

[Topsecretk9]

This is very interesting:

Harold J. Nicholson, who more than 10 years ago became the highest ranking CIA officer to plead guilty to espionage

engineered a brazen scheme from behind bars in which he enlisted his youngest son to travel the world collecting more than $35,000 from Russian agents as payment for past services, federal officials said today.

Nicholson has been serving a prison term of more than 23 years at the federal correctional institution in Sheridan, Ore. The former CIA agent and instructor admitted to sharing photos, documents and the names of some of his CIA students to the Russian Federation in the mid-1990s.

...Among the information that Nathaniel shared with Russian intelligence figures were detailed family histories and clues that helped the FBI catch his father in 1996, the indictment said.

The indictment describes the information they wanted and then paid for by the RFed.

" At that meeting defendant NATHANIEL JAMES NICHOLSON delivered the six-page letter dated August 3 1,2008, written by defendant HAROLD JAMES NICHOLSON, that detailed biographical information of HAROLD JAMES NICHOLSON and his family and close friends"

and

"The notebook also contained coded messages to be used by defendant NATHANIEL JAMES NICHOLSON when he met with the Russian Federation to confirm his identity, and questions for defendant HAROLD JAMES NICHOLSON regarding the details that led to his 1996 arrest by the FBI for espionage. "

Doesn't that seem like odd information to request and then pay for?
Maybe someone can help me out?

Oh, here's the link to a story that has indictment and affidavit pdf links.

[Jane]

Of course if he is convicted I think the bury him to his neck and stone him to death so that's a happy thought.

In Iran, if convicted, the woman gets to decide the penalty. Tying limbs to separate cars and driving off is very popular on the rare occasion that the woman lives.