A longtime Clinton ally, assistant secretary of
state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration, former Ambassador
to Tunisia and donor,
Robin Raphel, is at the center of an FBI
counterintelligence (spy) probe. She was a registered foreign agent for the
Pakistani government up until just days before she was appointed to run the
U.S. State Department’s Pakistan aid team
American investigators intercepted a conversation
this year in which a Pakistani official said that his government was receiving
American secrets from a prominent former State Department diplomat, officials
said, setting off an espionage investigation.
If this were a Republican (think Scooter Libby, who
was falsely accused of a bogus leak to the press), the media would be all over
this like white on rice. Instead, it has caused barely a ripple in the traitor
press.
But the Indian media has been reporting on it
closely. Raphel alienated our ally India and damaged our close relationship
with that key ally when she recognized Pakistan’s jihad claims to Kashmir,
changing longtime American policy.
In 1995, U.S. diplomat Robin Raphel was the toast
of the State department. President Bill Clinton appointed her the first
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (the post later included Central
Asia), and she was known to be close to him and Hillary Clinton …. more here.
Another reason why Hillary Clinton should never be
President. Between Huma Abedin and Robin Raphel, Clinton is a one-woman
American wrecking ball.
Robin Raphel, a veteran State Department diplomat
and longtime Pakistan expert is under federal investigation as part of a
counterintelligence probe and has had her security clearances withdrawn,
according to U.S. officials.
The FBI searched the Northwest Washington home of
Robin L. Raphel last month, and her State Department office was also examined
and sealed, officials said. Raphel, a fixture in Washington’s diplomatic and
think-tank circles, was placed on administrative leave last month, and her
contract with the State Department was allowed to expire this week. (Washington
Post)
We are infiltrated with traitors. Always Democrats.
In 1993, President Clinton appointed Raphel as the
first Assistant Secretary of State for a newly created position within the
State Department[3] that would focus on a growing array of problems in
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, including democratic stability, nuclear
proliferation, energy access, Islamist and Taliban extremism, poverty and
women’s rights issues.
Raphel was an early and adamant supporter of the
Taliban.
She alienated our ally India in her “signature
characterization of Kashmir” as “disputed territory,” a first in the annals of
U.S. diplomacy, and it made her quick friends in Pakistan. Her predilections
were obvious.
A second major policy directive that Raphel
advocated and developed during her tenure was engagement and cooperation with
the Taliban
Robin Lynn Raphel is a former American diplomat,
Ambassador, CIA Analyst and an expert on Pakistan affairs.[1] Until November 2,
2014, she served as coordinator for non-military assistance to Pakistan,
carrying on the work of the late Richard Holbrooke, whose AfPak team she joined
in 2009.[2] In 1993, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the
nation’s first Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian
Affairs, a newly created position at the time designed to assist the U.S.
government in managing an increasingly complex region.
Robin Raphel later served as U.S. Ambassador to
Tunisia from November 7, 1997 to August 6, 2000, during President Bill
Clinton’s second term in office.
In the 2000s, Raphel held a number of official
positions related to her expertise on South Asia.
[…]
In 2009, Robin Raphel joined the
Afghanistan-Pakistan task force known as AfPak, joining the late Richard
Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for the Af-Pak region. Her focus was how
to allocate U.S. resources committed under the proposed Kerry-Lugar Bill. That
legislation was enacted in late 2009, tripling civilian U.S. aid to Pakistan to
approximately $1.5 billion annually (Wikipedia)
Robin Raphel (far left) with Richard Holbrooke, Sec
of State Clinton and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani in Pakistan.
Robin Raphel (far left) with Richard Holbrooke, Sec
of State Clinton and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani in Pakistan.
“Raphel probe triggered by intercept of Pakistan
official’s chat,” Indian Express (via the NY Times)| Washington | November 21,
2014 (thanks to Lookmann)
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 FBI 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. Raphel 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.
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 .
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
Raphel.
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 FBI viewed the matter
seriously enough to search her home and State Department office, steps that
would bring the investigation into the open.
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 advisor.
While the FBI secretly watched 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 neighbourhood near the Maryland border
with Washington, and found classified information, the officials said.
Andrew Rice, a spokesman for Raphel, said: “Nothing
has changed for Ambassador Raphel. She has not been told she is the target of
an investigation, and she has not been questioned.”
In a sign of the seriousness of the case, Raphel
has hired Amy Jeffress, a lawyer who until recently was one of the Justice
Department’s top national security prosecutors. Jeffress served as a counsellor
to Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr on security matters, as the Justice
Department’s attaché to London, and as chief of national security at the United
States Attorney’s Office in Washington. She joined the law firm Arnold &
Porter this year. Jeffress declined to comment.
While the US and Pakistan remain allies in the war
on terrorism, tensions between the two countries have been frequently strained.
American officials suspect Pakistan of supporting the Taliban and believe Pakistan
has dispatched several double agents to collect intelligence from the US
government. Pakistani officials bristle continued…
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