Ex-CIA Agent Sentenced to Prison For Sex Assault on Drugged Muslim Woman

Andrew Warren is wheeled out of federal court in Norfolk, Virginia on Tuesday, April 27, 2010.PlayABC News
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Andrew Warren, a former CIA station chief in Algeria, has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for drugging and raping a Muslim woman in Algiers, and for illegally possessing a firearm while under the influence of cocaine.

Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle added almost two years to the sentence prosecutors had requested, saying it seemed Warren, 43, had thought he would get away with the offense because of diplomatic immunity and the victim's fear of reporting the crime. Huvelle did not, however, sentence Warren to the maximum term of ten years in prison.

Warren pleaded guilty to the charges last June, admitting that he had engaged in abusive sexual contact with a woman he had rendered unconscious on U.S. Embassy property on February 17, 2008. He also admitted possessing a handgun during a crack-fueled episode in a Virginia hotel room in April 2010.

As first reported by The Washington Post, Warren had a gun in his waistband when officers attempted to arrest him in a Norfolk, Virginia, motel room in April after he missed a pretrial hearing.

According to federal law enforcement officials, officers tasered Warren twice because they believed he was under the influence of drugs and was reaching for his "mid-torso," where the gun was located. The officials said a crack pipe and a handgun were recovered from Warren's room. After his arrest, Warren was brought into a Norfolk courtroom in a wheelchair, with bruising visible on his face.

Local ABC affiliate WVEC reported that neighbors of Warren noticed odd behavior in the weeks prior to the hotel room confrontation.

The acquaintances said that Warren displayed his genitals outside his pants.

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Bureau of Diplomatic Security

Warren was a rising star at the CIA before he was charged with sexual assault, according to two former CIA officials. He was a fluent Arabic speaker who had converted to Islam, making him an ideal officer in the Middle East for the intelligence agency. He was recalled from Algeria in October 2008 and then fired after two women came forward and accused him of rape, accusations which were first reported by ABC News' Brian Ross in January 2009.

Warren's fall from grace was dramatic.

Before being posted to Algeria, Warren had served in Egypt, Afghanistan, and a stint in that CIA domestic station in New York. It was in New York, a few years after 9/11, that supervisors spotted him as a potential star, ready to be deployed around the world as a spy. Within a very short time -- four years -- Warren had been posted as station chief in Algeria.

According to an affidavit filed by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, two women in separate incidents alleged that Warren gave them drinks that caused them to pass out and then sexually assaulted them at his Algerian apartment while they were in a helpless unconscious or semi-conscious state.

In the first case, the alleged victim claims that Warren prepared a mixed drink of cola and whiskey. The woman stated that she felt a "violent onset of nausea," and Warren said she should spend the night at his home.

When she woke up the next morning, according to the affidavit, "she was lying on a bed, completely nude, with no memory of how she had been undressed." She said she realized "she recently had engaged in sexual intercourse, though she had no memory of having intercourse."

Warren was indicted for, and pled guilty to, the second attack described in the affidavit. The second victim's account also states that Warren allegedly drugged her before raping her.

"While drinking the second apple martini, [Victim 2] suddenly felt faint and felt the immediate needed to vomit. V2 described the sudden and violent onset of the illness as nothing like the physiological effects of alcohol related sickness that she had experienced when she consumed alcohol on previous occasions. V2 stated she immediately began to pass in and out of consciousness. V2's recollections of the ensuing events are characterized as passing in and out of consciousness, due to the debilitating effects of the illness," the affidavit states.

"[Victim 2's] next recollection was being located in Warren's upstairs bathroom, on the floor. V2 could see and hear, but she could not move. Warren was in the bathroom, and he was attempting to remove V2's pants. Although V2 could not physically resist Warren, she was able to speak, and she asked him to leave the bathroom. Warren continued to undress V2, and told her she would feel better after a bath. V2 stated that she had difficulty comprehending what was happening to her. Eventually Warren was able to remove V2's blue jeans, boots, and her blazer," the statement said.

Allegedly, the woman remembers being in Warren's bed and asking him to stop, but according to the affidavit, "Warren made a statement to the effect of 'nobody stays in my expensive sheets with clothes on.'" She told the Diplomatic Security agents that, "as she slipped in and out of consciousness she had conscious images of Warren penetrating her vagina repeatedly with his penis."

Diplomatic Security Special Agent Scott Baker noted in the affidavit, "The victims' symptoms were consistent with drugs used to facilitate sexual assaults."

U.S. officials also said that a search of Warren's residence uncovered many tapes of Warren engaged in sex with women, including at least one tape that shows a woman in a semi-conscious state.

Asked for a comment on the case in 2009, CIA spokesman George Little said in a statement, "We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in this matter, which involves a former agency employee who was fired earlier this year."

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