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Veteran US diplomat decries FBI investigation against her

By Our Correspondent 2016-05-19
WASHINGTON: A veteran US diplomat, punished apparently for her affection for Pakistan, has said that an FBI investigation against her was flawed from the beginning.

On Nov 7, 2014, several US media outlets reported that the former assistant secretary of state was facing federal investigation as part of a counterintelligence probe possibly linked to espionage. But in March this year, the US Justice Department said that it had closed its espionage investigation against Robin Lynn Raphel with no charges.

In an interview published on Wednesday, Ambassador Raphel recalled how agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation raided her Washington residence on Oct 21, 2014, launching an investigation that did anirreparable damage to her career before it fell apart.

`The FBPs investigation of me was flawed from the beginning because they had a fundamental misunderstanding of what diplomats do,` Ms Raphel told senior Washington Post journalist David Ignatius. `I was never told what triggered the investigation, but I am convinced it was a misreading of raw intelligence by persons who simply did not understand the context.

Ms Raphel, with decades of experience dealing with Pakistan, was recalled from retirement in 2009 to join the late Richard Holbrooke`s Af-Pak team. Her mission was to `double track` the messages being passed by the US Embassy in Islamabad.

In 2011 and 2012, military and intelligence channels with Pakistan were closed and Ms Raphel was tasked with working on `theother channels that kept the relationship on life support and helped nurture it back`.

Ms Raphel recalled how she frantically telephoned her ofHce at the State Department to ask what was happening when the FBI agents arrived at her residence. But her colleagues had been instructednot to speak to her.

The government`s case collapsed in March, when the Justice Department informed Ambassador Raphel`s attorneys that it wouldn`t prosecute her, for either espionage or improper retention of the documents.

`If the FBI had talked to senior people..

who were knowledgeable about her work, I believe they would never have launched this investigation,` Jeff Smith, a former CIA general counsel who was one of Raphel`s attorneys, told the interviewer.

Three of Ms Raphel`s supervisors atSpecial Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan office recalled that Ms Raphel became special adviser in 2011 after leaving a post in Islamabad overseeing US assistance there. At that time, the relationship between Washington and Islamabad was `poisonous, with deep distrust` among intelligence and military officials.

They said that Ms Raphel`s assignment was to `augment existing channels` at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington and that`s why she stayed engaged with Pakistani friends and contacts.

Mr Ignatius noted Ms Raphel`s colleagues stood behind her, even when the investigation was active.

Beth Jones, another former assistant secretary of state, organised a legal defence fund last summer. The fund raised nearly $90,000 from 96 colleagues and friends.