C.I.A. Officer Faces Sexual Misconduct Inquiry

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency’s senior officer in Algeria was recalled to Washington late last year and is under investigation for allegations of drugging and sexually assaulting two women, American officials said Wednesday.

The C.I.A. officer was identified as Andrew Warren in a government affidavit unsealed Wednesday evening in a District of Columbia federal court.

The affidavit was filed last October to obtain a warrant to search a laptop computer belonging to Mr. Warren, who at the time of the alleged assaults was the agency’s station chief in Algiers.

The affidavit said that investigators for the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service were also investigting whether Mr. Warren recorded the assaults, which are said to have occurred in September 2007 and February 2008, and stored the images on his computer, cell phone and digital camera.

Mr. Warren was interviewed by federal investigators about the allegations last October during a trip to the United States, according to the affidavit. At the time he told investigators he had engaged in consensual sex with the two women and agreed to cooperate in the inquiry, the affidavit said.

During the interview Mr. Warren voluntarily turned over to investigators his camera and cell phone, which, the affidavit said, contained multiple images of the two victims along with a number of pictures of other unidentified women.

Mr. Warren’s return to Washington and the Justice Department’s investigation were first reported Wednesday by ABC News.

The case could be particularly delicate in Algeria, a Muslim country where the United States is working with local officials to combat militants.

The specific accusations were detailed in the affidavit, which provided an account based on interviedws with the two women about how he invited them to his residence and offered them drinks. The women, who reported feeling nauseated and almost paralyzed, provided similar accounts about being assaulted by Mr. Warren in his residence without a precise recollection of events. The affidavit said the women experienced symptoms typical of people who have been given date rape drugs.

Neither of the victims was identified by name. One is described as an Alergerian who also holds German citizenshiop. The other is identified as a Algerian who is married and lives in Spain. Both were said to visit Algiers periodically to visit their families.

The current status of the investigation is unclear, but the disclosure of the affidavit suggested that the inquiry had reached a phase in which prosecutors will soon decide whether to bring charges against Mr. Warren. An undercover member of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service, he was ordered back to the United States by David D. Pearce, the American ambassador in Algeria.

Earlier in the day, officials had declined to identify the officer involved saying his name was classified, but in the affidavit, Mr. Warren is referred to by name.

Former intelligence officials described him as a convert to Islam who joined the agency before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and who had served in multiple overseas posts.

Robert A. Wood, the acting State Department spokesman, said Wednesday that the “U.S. takes very seriously any accusations of misconduct involving any U.S. personnel abroad.”

“The individual in question has returned to Washington, and the U.S. government is looking into the matter,” he added. Justice Department officials declined to comment, and government lawyers cautioned that it was too early to determine whether there was a prosecutable case against the C.I.A. employee.

They said that it might be difficult to bring a case, in part because federal statutes might not apply to sexual improprieties or other abuses committed in another country. But the affidavit said the Justice Department had jurisdiction over sexual crimes committed on government property overseas, adding that the acts took place in a house rented for Mr. Warren by the government.

By : Mark Mazzetti and David Johnston

A version of this article appeared in print on January 29, 2009, on page A10 of the New York edition.

Re-Published By : The Author