From the Telegraph and the Los Angeles Times
The CIA has removed its station chief in Algeria from his post amid an investigation by the Justice Department of allegations that the officer drugged and raped two Algerian women, according to current and former U.S. government officials familiar with the matter.
Investigators from the Justice Department allegedly found more than a dozen secretly recorded videotapes of the Mr Warren performing sex acts with other women. An official said one woman appeared to be in a "semi-conscious state".
Both the women who came forward to complain and made sworn statements are Muslim, and the case could spark a strong reaction in the Arab world. One of the women said she met the him at the bar in the American embassy before going to his residence, where she was drugged.
Algiers is one of the most sensitive posts in the agency, as it works closely with local intelligence services against a branch of al-Qaeda that has been responsible for major bombings, including an attack in the capital last August that killed 48 people.
. . . sources said the investigation had expanded to Egypt where the officer, who has not been named, served previously.
Warren was described as a highly gifted officer, a convert to Islam who demonstrated a rare ability to blend in among Muslim communities across several countries.
"He is exactly the guy we need out in the field," said a senior U.S. government official who had met with the accused officer in Algiers last summer before the scandal emerged. "He's African American. He's Muslim. He speaks the language. He seemed well put together, sharp and experienced."
A former CIA official who worked with Warren said he had "done great works in the mosques" in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion of 2001. "He was able to go into the mosque for Friday prayers, could recite the Koran, and wasn't afraid to mix it up," Sounds like he is fitting in all too well.
Warren had joined the CIA before the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said, but quit the agency midway through his first overseas assignment. He went to work in the financial sector in Manhattan, and rejoined the CIA after witnessing the World Trade Center towers collapse.
"People who have talked to him say he has denied" the assault allegations, said the former CIA official. In an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and posted on the ABC News website, investigators provided detailed accounts of the two women's accusations.
The affidavit said that in an interview in Washington, Warren said "he had engaged in consensual sexual intercourse" with the women. It also said that a search of his personal electronics and Washington hotel room uncovered "multiple photographs" of the women, as well as a handbook on investigating sexual assaults.
A senior GOP congressional aide said the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into the matter, and that it was not clear whether the case had jeopardized any U.S. intelligence operations.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA came under intense pressure to expand its clandestine service and recruit officers with the ethnic backgrounds and language skills to help penetrate organizations such as Al Qaeda. Congressional officials said the latest allegations may lead to increased scrutiny of the agency's hiring and screening practices.