DETROIT, Nov. 13, 2007
Ex-FBI Agent Accused Of Security Breach
Woman Pleads Guilty To Charges Involving Improper Access Of Information
-
Play CBS Video Video Serious Security Questions An ex-FBI agent with a brother-in-law linked to Hezbollah pleads guilty to database searches, raising questions about the security of top secret files in the war on terror. Bob Orr reports.
-
Nada Nadim Prouty, a former employee of the CIA and FBI, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access and naturalization fraud, November 13, 2007. (CBS/U.S. Marshals Service)
-
Interactive Inside The FBI See the bureau's highs and lows in this interactive portrait of the crime-fighting agency.
-
Special Report War On Terror Complete coverage of the military's battle against terrorism.
Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, emigrated to United States from Lebanon in 1989. She was given U.S. citizenship five years later and began working as a special agent at the FBI's field office in Washington in 1999, according to a criminal information sheet filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
While working as a special agent, Prouty improperly searched an FBI computer database for information about her relatives and links they might have to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, the criminal sheet showed. She joined the CIA in 2003 and resigned as part of her guilty plea Tuesday, officials said.
There's no evidence that Prouty was working as a spy on Hezbollah's behalf, two government officials said.
However, "This still continues to be an ongoing investigation," said FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak in Washington.
The case raises questions about hiring practices and background checks by two of the nation's most security-sensitive and secretive agencies.
"Clearly, something was broken in the system that allowed her to get in, to maintain that type of access for an extended period of time," said CBS security analyst John Brennan.
"This case highlights the importance of conducting stringent and thorough background investigations," Stephen J. Murphy, the U.S. attorney in Detroit, said in a statement. "It's hard to imagine a greater threat than the situation where a foreign national uses fraud to attain citizenship and then, based on that fraud, insinuates herself into a sensitive position in the U.S. government."
Prouty passed a lie-detector test before she was hired by the FBI, which conducted numerous interviews with her relatives and other associates in Beirut and the United States as part of her security background check, Kodak said. But she was not subjected to the more rigorous security screening that the FBI adopted after its 2001 arrest of turncoat Robert Hanssen, who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia over a 20-year period.
"She had a complete, full investigation," Kodak said, referring to the FBI's background check on Prouty before she was hired.
The CIA largely relied on the FBI's security checks when they hired Prouty, according to a government official familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
"The CIA may have been a little too trusting of the FBI's ability to do a background check, as the bureau's own pre-employment investigation of Prouty would have covered her first years in country," the official said. "That won't happen again."
According to the court documents, released in Washington by the Justice Department, Prouty lived in Taylor, Mich., with her sister when her visa ran out in 1990. That summer, she paid off an unemployed U.S. citizen to marry her in a civil ceremony in Detroit. But the two never lived together and the marriage was never consummated sexually, the documents show.
Over the next four years, Prouty claimed she was legally married and living with her husband as part of her application for U.S. citizenship. She was naturalized in 1994.
In 1999, she was hired as a special agent in the FBI's field office in Washington, where she investigated crimes committed against U.S. residents while overseas. She was not part of investigations into Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla group that the U.S. government has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
Prouty was not authorized to search the FBI database, in 2002, for her name and that of her sister and brother-in law. Her relatives were linked to Hezbollah two years later when they joined a senior Hezbollah official at a fundraiser.
Prouty's brother-in-law Talal Chanine spoke at that fund raiser in Lebanon alongside Hezbollah's one-time spiritual leader Sheikh Fadlallah, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
Prouty joined the CIA in 2003. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield described Prouty as a "midlevel employee" who violated immigration laws long before she was hired by the government.
The CIA is cooperating with the investigation, Mansfield said.
Prouty pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access and naturalization fraud.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From War On Terror
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 84 CommentsCALIPHATE IS ON OUR TAILS YET FAR TOO MANY HAVE THEIR HEADS UP THEIR BUTTS!!! WAKE UP FOLKS!
Later on in life, I suppose the Government will have the nerve to ask me to make the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE for the GOOD of AMERICA. WHO IS PUREEE without SIN, who is making the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE and EMPLOYING ME!!!!!!!
Posted by kiwi_chick at 04:50 PM : Nov 13, 2007
Actually, if you reread the article, she paid an unemployed American citizen to marry her in a civil ceremony. They never lived together or consumated the marriage. Since she used fraudulent means to obtain her citizenship, it can be revoked. So, since she was a "citizen" she can now be charged with treason and espionage, instead of just espionage. I always thought those were death-penalty crimes.
Posted by forthepeopl1 at 02:19 PM : Nov 13, 2007
as long as Americans are fat, dumb and happy, there will be no revolution. Never in the history of mankind has there been a revolution/overthrow of power by a populace that is well housed and well-fed.
n the time comes that I retire and don''''t have to worry about clearances and the such, I''''m filing a FOIA with the FBI and CIA for my files... I just wonder what wonderful *** they''''ve gathered on me all these years
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:37 AM : Nov 14, 2007
You should file for a FUBAR if that doesn''t get it for you file for a SNAFU. Or ou could ask Hillary what she and Bill gathered on you with the ECHALON and CARNIVORE domestic spying programs they were using. If that doesn''t get you what you want your SOL.
All - In direct Compliance with :
The Federal Drug Smuggling and Money Laundering Operations
illegal Wiretapping and Surveillance programs
The involvement of The FBI in the Torture and Atrocities committed against Children within Juvenile Detention Centers
Federal Whistle-blowers Vilified, Demoted
Hiding and Suppressing Evidence against Federal Employees and Politicians engaged in Child and Homosexual Predator Activities.
Allowing Under-aged Congressional and Senatorial Pages to be s*e*x*ually stalked and s*e*xually assaulted
The Political - Intimidation and Blackmail Operations
Allowing Nuclear Weapons technology to be sold to Countries Hostile to the United States
The FBI - The Justice Department is so Corrupt with Contemptible Disgusting Acts of Political Nepotism and Patronization They no-longer have a function.
The FBI needs to be Eradicated - Rebuilt with People with some installed Undiminished Morals - Ethics - and Patriotic Values - As it stands now - the FBI - The Justice Department Possesses None of these Qualities
Want do you do - with a person who does exceptionally good work ? ?
Correct Answer - Get rid of them
Part of the Profile Qualifications for The FBI - Management Branch
Lastdance
I''m just speculating, going by the mug shots, maybe 25 years ago, she might have been a little hottie, and her husband never got some of that?
Never hit it, not even once? A Detroiter???
More than a little strange.
I lived in Inkster, next town an the border from Taylor. Strange people, at the time the Grand Dragon of the kkk, alongside an ethnic group generally known as "Chaldeans", all side by side. Now I hear of this lady, who faked a marriage to a jobless person, and sought to rat out her own family members as members of the anti Zionist Hezbollah?
I had heard several times that the kkk was sending money to anti Jewish groups over there, maybe she was looking for a relative to receive some of this largesse?
Tinian,
Are you in this video?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dSHl3C9kgY
"I am not a "jew-hater", but I am strongly opposed to Zionist tools..."
Too bad there isn''t a real time machine--one that could send you back 69 years and three days ago. I''m sure you would''ve loved that crystal night.
From the way you speak, however, a time machine might not be necessary. The stench of nostalgia is pretty thick.
Is this some kind of conspiracy theory?
Posted by FeelFree1 at 05:47 PM : Nov 13, 2007
Maybe you are trying to start a conspiracy about a conspiracy that''s all about a conspiracy that doesn''t exist. But when you get done it will be all about you just being a major Deranged Bush Syndrome conspiracy victim. Caught up in a SOROS INC conspiracy to get conspiracy rumors started. You need help soon.
____
Good one.
Re: "Nada Nadim Prouty, a former employee of the CIA and FBI, pleaded guilty to conspiracy"
Is this some kind of conspiracy theory?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 84 Comments