How did FBI/CIA infiltrator color US understanding of the enemy?

After looking at the mess the FBI made of part of the Hanssen espionage damage assessment, it might be too much to ask for the Bureau to make a proper assessment of how former Special Agent Nada Nadim Prouty may have warped US understanding of the Islamist enemy.

Prouty is the illegal alien who became one of the FBI's only Arabic-speaking special agents in the 1990s and went on to become what agency insiders are pooh-poohing as a mere "mid-level official" at the CIA.

Prouty pled guilty to crimes relating to stealing classified information on behalf of relatives in Hezbollah. US official response has been appalling, practically ruling out the idea that she was a spy for the terrorist organization (or for its main state sponsor, Iran),

Are the CIA and FBI in denial AGAIN? Is anybody in the counterintelligence business any more? Does the US still cling to the Cold War idea of counterintelligence as working or defending against the intelligence services of foreign governments - thus not treating terrorist organizations with their own intelligence services as counterintelligence threats?

I don't know, but something tells me that the answer isn't a good one. Prouty was at the center of the United States' most sensitive counterterrorism investigations in the late 1990s, at home and abroad, when she was one of only 7 (that's right: seven) FBI agents who could speak Arabic. Her pre-911 influence within the US counterterrorism, counterintelligence and intelligence communities is likely to have been considerable.

A Google News search doesn't show it, so we'll break some news here: Prouty told her closest friends in the 1990s that she was of Druze background in Lebanon. By inference, she would not have been an Islamist; the Druze split with Islam centuries ago and many are allied with Lebanese Christians and even with Israel. However, many Druze also support Hezbollah.

Prouty was one of the FBI's hottest agents at the time: hard-charging, tall and in excellent physical condition, and known to carry her Bureau-issued weapon in the most casual of dress. Prior to 9/11, when presented with evidence of Islamist networks in the Washington, DC area, she dismissed the evidence as of little importance. Those close to the matter trusted her judgment at the time, though after 9/11 US authorities, under the direction not of the FBI but the Justice Department, raided the offices in those networks, made several arrests, and got several terrorist-related convictions.

Bottom line: As with the Ana Belen Montes case of Cuban penetration of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI and CIA must do fundamental and sweeping damage assessments of how Prouty might have colored American perceptions of the terrorist threat in ways damaging to this country.

Comments

[anonymous]

two notes:

1. Some news accounts are listing Prouty as Shiite Muslim.

2. While the Bureau (Bu) largely does an excellent job for this country, the Prouty issue speaks to the ongoing chaos and glaring lack of properly trained managers and leaders within the Bu, and possibly other Government agencies. The Bu is in the process of professionalizing and re-tooling itself and there seems that there is no "change-Master" leading the way.

The same stonewalling and stovepiping that killed us on 9/11 is still pervasive throughout the Bu (and possibly other agencies).
The old guard,(longtime mostly highschool diploma employees) who hold most of the critical information regarding cases and processes, continue to refuse to properly inform or train the new guard (new hires, mostly college grads).

The Special Agent middle managers desparately need the old guard to keep them briefed in order to run their divisions and units. Thus the Agent/managers refuse to acknowledge the ever widening skill and information gap that is created. Furthermore, managers do not want to risk their own careers (not to mention National Security).

As long as this culture of stonewalling and stovepiping is allowed to persist, the Bu and other agencies will continue to have Prouty-type issues.

Annonymous

[ANNOYED]

GET REAL!!! Many government employees are illeagls or hold dual citizenship!

(SUPPOSEDLY THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO GIVE UP THEIR FOREIGN CITIZENSHIP IN ODER TO WORK FOR THE US GOV!)

There are a couple of employees at the FBI and Homeland Security( and possibly other Gov. Agencies) who hold dual US/Israeli citizenship and who knows, how many other employees hold dual citizenship from other countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Cuba, China, or any other country!!!