CIA station chief investigated for drug-and-rape charges

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A former CIA station chief in Algeria is under investigation by the State and Justice departments after being accused of raping at least two women while he held the post.
Two Algerian women allege that the CIA’s former Algeria station chief raped them at his home. The women told investigators that they think date-rape drugs were used in the assaults, which are said to have occurred at the officer’s official residence.
The allegations were made in the fall, when the unidentified officer was still serving as station chief. In October, soon after the allegations were made, the man returned to the United States for a previously scheduled trip and was ordered not to return to his post, the source said.
A senior U.S. official confirmed that the case is under investigation but refused to comment on the details…
The women, who are Algerian citizens, brought their allegations to a U.S. government official, and federal authorities then launched an investigation.
A search of the station chief’s residence in Algeria was approved by a U.S. District Court judge after a request from the Justice Department. The search found pills believed to be of a type commonly used in date rape, the source said.
In that search, authorities also found about a dozen tapes that are thought to show the officer engaged in sexual acts, the source said, including some in which women are believed to be in a semiconscious state. CNN’s source had not seen the tapes but had been briefed on their content. Some of the tapes include date stamps indicating that the recordings happened when he would have been serving in Cairo, Egypt, before his tenure in Algeria…
So – possibly – this CIA operative has been doing the United States nothing but disservice during his tenure in North Africa. Nothing unusual about a government operative taking on the mantle of being above the law. This case sounds worse than many, though – using his position and power in such a corrupt and venal manner.




