FBI IS INVESTIGATING RETIRED US DIPLOMAT?

WASHINGTON, USA -  FBI counter-intelligence agents are investigating a veteran US diplomat suspected of taking classified information from the State Department home, and have searched her house and office for evidence, government officials said Friday.
The diplomat, Robin L. Raphel, is a retired ambassador and an expert on Pakistan who until recently was an adviser to the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
The officials said that after the FBI searches, Raphel was put on leave and her contract was allowed to expire.
The nature of the investigation is unclear, but officials said the FBI was trying to determine why Raphel appears to have brought classified information home, and whether she had passed, or was planning to pass, the information to a foreign government.
FBI counterintelligence agents have a broad mandate — including tracking foreign spies inside the United States, investigating US citizens suspected of spying for other nations, and examining the mishandling of classified information.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not give details about why they were examining Raphel’s activities. 

• Nor did they say whether she was officially a target of the investigation.
• It is extremely rare for the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into such a prominent Washington figure. 

Any decision by the Justice Department to open the inquiry would have had to take into account that an investigation - whatever its outcome — will have a lasting impact on Raphel’s ability in the future to operate within US diplomatic circles. 
One official said Friday that Raphel had been stripped of her security clearances as part of the investigation.

Source: NyTimes...More,,,