How much power and influence have Islamic supremacists and jihadists bought in Washington? That is a story that will probably never be told, but given the Islamic supremacists’ access to oil billions, the number of bought politicians, diplomats and journalists is most likely quite high.
“Eavesdropping on Pakistani Official Led to Inquiry Into Former U.S. Diplomat,” by Matt Apuzzo, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, November 20, 2014 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
WASHINGTON — American investigators intercepted a conversation this year in which a Pakistani official suggested that his government was receiving American secrets from a prominent former State Department diplomat, officials said, setting off an espionage investigation that has stunned diplomatic circles here.
That conversation led to months of secret surveillance on the former diplomat, Robin L. Raphel, and an F.B.I. raid last month at her home, where agents discovered classified information, the officials said.
The investigation is an unexpected turn in a distinguished career that has spanned four decades. Ms. Raphel (pronounced RAY-full) rose to become one of the highest-ranking female diplomats and a fixture in foreign policy circles, serving as ambassador to Tunisia and as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration.
Ms. Raphel, 67, considered one of the leading American experts on Pakistan, was stripped of her security clearances last month and no longer has access to the State Department building.
The investigation is a rare example of an F.B.I. espionage case breaking into public view. Counterintelligence — the art of spotting and thwarting spies — is the F.B.I.’s second-highest priority, after fighting terrorism, but the operations are conducted almost entirely in secret. On any given day, Washington’s streets crawl with F.B.I. surveillance teams following diplomats and spies, adding to files that are unlikely ever to become public.
The senior American officials briefed on the case spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation. Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and Department of Justice declined to comment.
Ms. Raphel has not been charged with a crime. The scope of the investigation is not known, and it is unclear exactly what the Pakistani official said in the intercepted conversation that led to suspicion about Ms. Raphel. It is also not clear whether the conversation was by telephone, email or some other form of communication.
Still, the new details shed some light on the evidence that Justice Department prosecutors are weighing as they decide whether to bring charges. And they help explain why the F.B.I. viewed the matter seriously enough to search her home and State Department office, steps that would bring the investigation into the open.
Ms. Raphel is among a generation of diplomats who rose through the ranks of the State Department at a time when Pakistan was among America’s closest allies and a reliable bulwark against the Soviet Union. After retiring from the government in 2005, she lobbied on behalf of the Pakistani government before accepting a contract to work as a State Department adviser.
While the F.B.I. secretly watched Ms. Raphel in recent months, agents suspected that she was improperly taking classified information home from the State Department, the officials said. Armed with a warrant, the agents searched her home in a prosperous neighborhood near the Maryland border with Washington, and found classified information, the officials said….
Wellington says
Hmmm. If she has committed treason, she should be prosecuted to the max. Don’t know where the truth lies here though following the money is probably the best route to finding it.
Huck Folder says
Garbage, Holder and obuMBoy have her ass.
Wellington says
What, exactly, is garbage? Be specific.
Huck Folder says
Sorry Wellington, my sarcasm/flippancy, my bad; I totally agree with your comment. I think there’s smoke there, with a high probability of fire; such issues are not aired in public without serious scrutiny. The ‘garbage’ comment (sigh) pertains to my observations of this administration’s sins of omission and commission, which lead me to believe the worst of them.
Cynically, if exposing Ms. Raphel will damage the Republicans, or at least, the Reps much more than the Dems, all departments will give that high priority. If it might damage the Dems, or ESPECIALLY islam, the case will be shuffled hither and yon, and generally poo-pood by State and others. If it damages the US or US relations, who in this administration gives a shit?
Wellington – if you have read some of my comments – I am totally anti-Holder/obuMBoy/islam/leftards…, and pro anyone commenting like true jihad watchers.
I don’t mind occasional sinislam comments here, as a lead-in to expose some idiotic fantasy or misquotation; if I reply, I usually (ironically)THANK that commenter! I AM taken aback when the good guys here, seem to fall out, or seem to engage in long circuitous meanderings, about some point which I cannot remember after the third or fourth riposte. Some of us also feed the trolls occasionally, and get led off the thread. I am guilty as charged, and try to limit myself to one put-down.
Jay Boo says
Huck Folder
You seem to assume she is guilty.
Just for the sake of argument what if in reality she was actually collecting information embarrassing to the Obama administration.
The FBI is not above suspicion either.
Also —
During the removal of Kaddafi in Libya a lot of money and weapons fell into the hands of Islamists but then when the US ambassador was killed, Obama and Hillary did a cover up story.
TexasMom says
In this atmosphere, we will probably never know if she committed treason or if she uncovered treason in the higher-ups. Either way, I would not want to be living in
her skin, would you?
Keith Lehman says
Having classified documents in her home is a violation. If they found those documents, she is guilty. However, the treason part must be proved in a court of law. Does not matter for what reason the documents were illegally in her home – classified documents are NOT allowed to leave the secure workplace or unauthorized copies. The law is quite clear on that. I know because once I held a Top Secret (Atomal) clearance in the US Army serving at NATO LSE HQ.
KiwiKaffir says
This just gets better and better …. It’s not just Europe who have a suicidal wish!
C’mon USA, show the world some leadership!
Charlie Griffith says
Hopefully you mean well.
However a review of the “leadership” of the US.A. and its literally very bloody participation [entanglement?] in various international affaires since 1917 up to and including the Gulf War, with perhaps the exception of the non-bloody Marshall Plan, the emerging generalized Muslim guerrilla wars against the U.S.A. , indicate that it’s only a matter of time before the “Yanks Go Home!” graffiti appear on the streets of our ostensible “allies” who’ve sought our “leadership”.
“Leadership” decidedly unwanted after the immediate, desperate needs having been satisfied.
Anyone remember le auguste Charles de Gaulle decreeing “all Americans out of France.” One alleged retort from Dean Rusk was, “….out of the American cemeteries in France also?”
Now, at present, there is here a generalized weariness and wariness concerned with sending out yet more American “boots on the ground” and yet more shiploads of materiel and Green Dollars to the whole world’s trouble-spots.
Now, this American and former expat living in East and Southeast Asia says that our “aid” should be only of the Humanitarian/Natural Disaster Relief type.
Bukkdem Jizheads says
Yes the French people are so gracious and thankful for our bloody sacrifices and investment on their behalf, they will spit in your face! We should all admire their savage treatment of slaves, endless imperialism and sickening violence against the intelligencia and Christianity.
Can you name another empire in history, besides the U.S., who fought to save people from totalitarianism and does not want their territory, their treasures or their women? Can you name any empire in history who simply fought for the liberty of mankind, and who steps in to help victims of catastrophes with no expectation of remuneration?
Your kind of thought patterns are what’s wrong with self-styled “intellectuals”: Wrong, paranoid, acidic, depressed.
profitsbeard says
If true, hang her.
(If she is a secret convert, use a pigskin noose.)
mortimer says
Jihadists are all over Pakistan from top to bottom.
Don McKellar says
The corruption will be found mostly among those who were around during the Bush era when it was a free-for-all amongst everybody from military contractors to security companies and all the way up to Cheney and his cronies. All those people connected to governement out to make a buck during the “war on terror”. You could probably investigate anybody from that era and find at least half of them are as crooked as this bitch.
In the Obama administration, it is more of an ideological corruption, though there must be many, many on the take as well.
s.c. says
I guess you couldn’t read the part where it stated she was form the Clinton era, but i suppose that was G.W’s fault to.
Don McKellar says
I focused on this line about how she got cosy with Pakistan during the Bush era and then retired in the middle of it and started lobbying for Pakistan and then became a State Department adviser. This is the smoking gun time period. The shadowy Bush-Cheney on-the-take years appears very clearly to be the time of her corruption.
“After retiring from the government in 2005, she lobbied on behalf of the Pakistani government before accepting a contract to work as a State Department adviser.”
JoePk says
“After retiring from the government in 2005, she lobbied on behalf of the Pakistani government before accepting a contract to work as a State Department adviser.”
Anyone working for a foreign government is a foreign agent. The State Dept. probably hired her as an adviser to turn her into a double agent.
Because double agents are always so trustworthy.
Western Canadian says
Amazing the way you offer up your worthless drivel, as if it actually has anything in common with the real world.
zaba says
How much power and influence have Islamic supremacists
and jihadists bought in Washington?
I suddenly envisioned multiple muzlim $$ shots going to
MANY Americans in high and/or influential places.
This helps explain why so much deference (jizya) is paid to islam,
here, and everywhere in the West.
Follow the money!
King Dave says
Sadly, the USA has little choice but to give into Pakistani extortion. Otherwise it will be sooner rather than later that a Muslim militant group acquires the “Islamic Bomb” via Pakistan.
It is not if, but when.
Charlie Griffith says
Nonsense.
Hindu American says
So, we must give in to the Pakistani nuclear blackmail just because they hold a gun to their own collective heads every time they demand…er…negotiate jiziya from us? And, we do give in to their dictates each time.
By the way, Indians have been screaming from the roof tops for decades about Robin Raphel and her “connections” with the Pakistani establishment including the ISI. Note that she was left out of the crucial strategy meetings at the top when we flew into Pakistan to get Osama.
Arj says
This story is a lot bigger than the US media is making it out to be. People who are interested should check out Indian media .. Raphel is known as “Lady Taliban” in India, for her overt support of the Taliban stretching back to 1994. The Indian government tried to convince the US, to no avail, that Raphel was not only anti-India, her actions were against the interests of the US independently.
Check out this interview of a Pakistani journalist regarding Raphel and the Taliban (3 days before the FBI raid):
http://indianexpress.com/videos/idea-exchange-video/hamid-mir-talks-about-his-meeting-osama-bin-laden-and-mullah-omar/
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
The number of bought politicians, diplomats and journalists is most likely quite high.
What about traitor lawyers. Let us not forget Lynne Stewart, who passed Jihad info from the Scheick to the Mo-Bro-Hood. Whoops, wait a minute, the Mo-Bro-Hood is now our ally, so the question must be asked in retrospect whether it was fair to do prison time before the compassionate early release. All the Scheick did was a mass murder, so why point fingers at the lawyers, who have such a tough job to do. Along with the two dozen or so lawyers from Harvard Yale Columbia Law Tools who since Stewart have defended mujahidin at no charge.
If America cared about justice when it comes to things Moslem, shouldn’t the vaunted General Petraeus be facing public ridicule?
Salah says
“On any given day, Washington’s streets crawl with F.B.I. surveillance teams following diplomats and spies…”
What a waste of time and resources. Go straight to the W.H., arrest them and bring them to justice.
DiMu says
She reflects the anti-American ethos of the State Department. Fire the lot!
Oliver says
If our gutless wonders in Washington ever bring her to trial- and she is found guilty–WILL SHE BE SUBJECT TO AS LONG A SENTENCE AS JONATHAN POLLARD- WHO GAVE ISRAEL– AN ALLY– SECRETS TO WHICH THEY (ISRAEL) WAS ENTITLED TO AS A RESULT OF A TREATY>
Pollard has served longer then the Walker’s–(Joyhniie Walker Red) who gave secrets 9during the Cold War) to the old USSR. While a ranking naval officer.
just asking.
Bruce says
I don’t know if anyone watches “Homeland” – a show that gets some things wrong (connection between Al Qaida and Iran), but gets some things startlingly right. One of the main plot lines this season concerns a traitor inside our embassy in Pakistan selling secrets to the ISI. “Homeland” is great theater, but it has its work cut out, trying to beat reality for a nasty plot line.
Benadickt Arnold says
I’m shocked,just shocked, to find out that there are traitors in the Obama administration.