Washington: FBI agents searched the home of India baiter and pro-Pakistan American diplomat Robin Raphel in October as part of a counter-intelligence investigation, according to media reports.
Raphel was a senior adviser on Pakistan at the time of the raid. In that job, she was chiefly responsible for administering non-military aid such as US economic grants and incentives, according to The Washington Post which first reported the story.
Raphel, who was appointed the first assistant secretary of state for South Asia in 1993 by then president Bill Clinton, was widely perceived as hostile to India, particularly in view of her alleged lobbying for separatists in Jammu and Kashmir when she was stationed in New Delhi.
“Raphel also sided with Sikh separatists and persuaded Clinton to stand with them in disputes with New Delhi. She was seen in New Delhi as a catalyst for Washington ‘trafficking with India’s enemies’,” the portal said citing a Los Angeles Times report published in 1994.
As part of the investigation, Raphel’s State Department office was searched and sealed, CNN reported, citing three US government officials. Her security clearances have been withdrawn.
Two US officials cited by the Post described the investigation as a counter-intelligence matter, which typically involves allegations of spying on behalf of foreign governments.
The exact nature of the investigation involving Raphel remains unclear. She has not been charged, it said.
A spokesman for Raphel cited by the Post said she was cooperating with investigators but has not been told the “scope or nature or that she is the target” of any probe.
“We are aware of this law enforcement matter,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “She is no longer employed by the State Department,” Psaki added.
The 67-year-old long-time diplomat began her government career as a CIA analyst, according to a State Department biography. She served 30 years in the Foreign Service and retired from the State Department in 2005, but was hired as a contractor in 2009 by the US Embassy in Islamabad to oversee development aid and civilian assistance to Pakistan. Two years later, she returned to Washington and was working until last month in the office of the US Special Representative to Afghani-stan and Pakistan at the State Department.
Her hiring by the embassy in Pakistan had raised some eyebrows because after her retirement from the foreign services she had worked for Cassidy and Associates, which lobbied on behalf of the Pakistani government.
Raphel’s connections to Pakistan are deep as her late former husband, Arnold Raphel, served as ambassador in Islamabad. Arnold Raphel was killed in a mysterious 1988 plane crash that also claimed the life of then-Pakistani President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq.
