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CIA officer investigated in alleged rapes in Algiers

Bloomberg News

Published January 28, 2009 at 6:48 p.m.
Updated January 28, 2009 at 7 p.m.

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WASHINGTON — The CIA’s station chief in Algeria is being investigated for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women, ABC News reported, citing federal law-enforcement sources.

Andrew Warren, the suspect, is accused by two women of drugging their drinks on separate occasions and then having sex with them, according to an affidavit from Scott Banker, a Diplomatic Security Service special agent whose sworn statement is provided on the ABC News Web site.

Warren has not been charged in court with a crime.

In a statement, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said that the U.S. government is investigating the incidents and that “the individual in question” has returned to Washington. “The U.S. takes very seriously any accusations of misconduct involving any U.S. personnel abroad,” he said.

Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement “that the agency would take seriously, and follow up on, any allegations of impropriety.”

One victim said she went to a party at Warren’s Algiers residence in 2007, where he gave her several drinks, the affidavit said. Eventually she felt sick to her stomach and had no other memories until she woke up the next morning in the residence lying naked on a bed.

In February, a second victim felt sick after an apple martini Warren gave her and recalled slipping in and out of consciousness while partially clothed in a bathtub, the affidavit said. The woman said she ended up in his bed where Warren said, “Nobody stays in my expensive sheets with clothes on,” according to the affidavit.

Banker’s affidavit said he requested court approval to search Warren’s laptop because he suspected it contained images of the alleged assaults.

Algeria has been a center of al-Qaida activity in recent years. A group referring to itself as the al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for a Sept. 28 suicide bombing that killed three and injured six in Algeria, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments

  • January 29, 2009

    2:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Who_Me writes:

    Not in person, but I have seen videos of Muslims beheading Russian soldiers. 10-yr-old looking kid doing the knife across the throat thing, earning some warped version of what those animals consider to be manhood.