An FBI translator with a top-secret
security clearance traveled to Syria in 2014 and married a key ISIS
operative she had been assigned to investigate, CNN has learned.
The
rogue employee, Daniela Greene, lied to the FBI about where she was
going and warned her new husband he was under investigation, according
to federal court records.
Greene's
saga, which has never been publicized, exposes an embarrassing breach of
national security at the FBI—an agency that has made its mission
rooting out ISIS sympathizers across the country.
It
also raises questions about whether Greene received favorable treatment
from Justice Department prosecutors who charged her with a relatively
minor offense, then asked a judge to give her a reduced sentence in
exchange for her cooperation, the details of which remain shrouded in
court-ordered secrecy.
The man Greene married was no ordinary terrorist.
He
was Denis Cuspert, a German rapper turned ISIS pitchman, whose growing
influence as an online recruiter for violent jihadists had put him on
the radar of counter-terrorism authorities on two continents.
In
Germany, Cuspert went by the rap name Deso Dogg. In Syria, he was known
as Abu Talha al-Almani. He praised Osama bin Laden in a song,
threatened former President Barack Obama with a throat-cutting gesture
and appeared in propaganda videos, including one in which he was holding
a freshly severed human head.
Within
weeks of marrying Cuspert, Greene, 38, seemed to realize she had made a
terrible mistake. She fled back to the US, where she was immediately
arrested and agreed to cooperate with authorities. She pleaded guilty to
making false statements involving international terrorism and was
sentenced to two years in federal prison. She was released last summer.
The
FBI, in a statement to CNN, said as a result of Greene's case it "took
several steps in a variety of areas to identify and reduce security
vulnerabilities. The FBI continues to strengthen protective measures in
carrying out its vital work."
The FBI did not identify what steps were taken and declined further comment.
"It's
a stunning embarrassment for the FBI, no doubt about it," said John
Kirby, a former State Department official. He said he suspects Greene's
entry into Syria required the approval of top ISIS leaders.
Most
outsiders trying to get into an ISIS region in Syria risk "getting
their heads cut off," said Kirby, now a CNN commentator on national
security matters. "So for her to be able to get in as an American, as a
woman, as an FBI employee, and to be able to take up residence with a
known ISIS leader, that all had to be coordinated."
In
court papers filed in US District Court in Washington D.C., prosecutors
characterized Greene's conduct as "egregious," deserving of "severe
punishment."
Assistant US Attorney
Thomas Gillice said Greene had "violated the public trust, the trust of
the officials who granted her security clearance, and the trust of
those with whom she worked and, in doing so, endangered our nation's
security."
Even though Greene's
"conduct skirted a line dangerously close to other more serious
charges," the prosecutor argued she should receive a lighter sentence
because of her cooperation.
Greene's two-year sentence was less than punishments given other defendants charged with terrorism-related crimes.
Even
failed attempts to travel to Syria and join ISIS have earned defendants
much stiffer prison sentences. Americans convicted in dozens of recent
ISIS prosecutions received an average sentence of 13 1/2 years in
prison, according to an analysis in April by the Center on National
Security at Fordham University.
A Justice Department official, however, said Greene's sentence was "in line" with similar cases, but declined to cite examples.
After
Greene finished cooperating with authorities, prosecutors asked the
judge to unseal portions of the court file, including Greene's identity.
"Unsealing
these documents will allow appropriate public access to and knowledge
of the circumstances of this case," prosecutors stated.
Greene,
who now works as a hostess in a hotel lounge, said in a brief interview
with CNN that she was fearful of discussing the details of her case.
"If I talk to you my family will be in danger," Greene said. She declined further comment.
CNN
is withholding Greene's location in the US and has obscured her face in
photos and videos due to concerns raised about her safety.
Her
attorney, former assistant federal public defender Shawn Moore, said he
could not comment on details of the case, citing attorney-client
privilege constraints and national security restrictions.
He described Greene as "smart, articulate and obviously naïve." He said she was "genuinely remorseful" for her actions.
"She was just a well-meaning person that got up in something way over her head," Moore said. He declined further comment.
"She was a really hard worker..."
There
is nothing readily apparent in Greene's past to suggest she would one
day find herself the bride of an international terrorist.
Born
in Czechoslovakia and raised for a time in Germany, she married a US
soldier at a young age and moved to the United States, several friends
and acquaintances recalled. She went by the nickname Dani.
She
attended college at Cameron University in Oklahoma where she was on the
dean's list. She then went to graduate school at Clemson University
where she earned a Master's Degree in history.
"I
could see she was a really hard worker," said Clemson Professor Alan
Grubb, who advised Greene on her thesis, which explored "racial
motivations for French collaboration during the Second World War."
"She was one of our better graduate students, I thought," he said.
Grubb recalled writing a letter of recommendation for her for a job that involved translating for a federal government agency.
Fluent
in German, Greene went to work for the FBI as a contract linguist in
2011. It was a job that, following a grueling application and vetting
process, came with a top-secret national security clearance.
Greene
was assigned to the bureau's Detroit office in January 2014 when she
was put to work "in an investigative capacity" on the case of a German
terrorist referred to in court records only as "Individual A."
CNN
identified "Individual A" as Cuspert using court documents, newspaper
articles about his music career and transformation to jihadist,
government bulletins, videos and other sources. His identity was
ultimately confirmed by a source familiar with the investigation.
From Gangsta Rapper to Jihadist
Before
Cuspert became a front man for jihadists, he was known as Deso Dogg in
Germany. Tattoos on each hand spell out the image he cultivated in the
mold of American gangsta rappers.
"STR8" was inked on one hand, "THUG" on the other.
One
CD cover featured Cuspert with a menacing glare, holding a gun to his
own head. His image was backed up by a real life rap sheet with a string
of arrests. He had a lean, muscular physique and trained in various
martial arts.
Cuspert never
achieved star status in the music world, but he did enjoy some success:
In 2006, he opened for popular US rapper DMX.
A
near-death experience in a car accident prompted Cuspert to turn to
religion, according to numerous press accounts. In 2010, he quit the rap
world and converted to Islam. He traded his hard driving gangsta-style
lyrics for Islamic devotional songs called Nasheeds, including one that
praised bin Laden.
Cuspert gained
some notoriety as an extremist in 2011 after he posted on Facebook a
fake video purportedly showing US soldiers raping a Muslim woman. The
video motivated a man to carry out a terrorist attack on the Frankfurt
airport, killing two US airmen and wounding two others, according to The
New York Times.
In 2012, Cuspert
fled Germany, reportedly spending time in Egypt and Libya. The following
year, he arrived in Syria, where he would emerge as "ISIS's Celebrity
Cheerleader," according to a report from the Middle East Media Research
Institute (MEMRI), a group that monitors various topics in the region,
including violent extremism.
As
part of the FBI's investigation into "Individual A," Greene identified
several online accounts and phone numbers used by the terrorist,
according to the court file.
Among them were two Skype accounts. She maintained "sole access" to a third Skype account, the records state.
It
was in April 2014, during Greene's work on the investigation, that
Cuspert appeared in a video declaring his allegiance to ISIS and its
leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
He
called ISIS "the state that no one can stop," adding, "we will continue
to build it until it reaches Washington... Obama!" He then made a
throat-cutting gesture with his finger, according to the MEMRI report.
On
June 11, 2014, Greene filled out a Report of Foreign Travel form -- a
document FBI employees and contractors with national security clearances
are required to complete when traveling abroad.
Greene,
who was still married to her American husband at the time,
characterized her travel on the form as "Vacation/Personal," court
records show.
"Want to see my family," she wrote. Specifically, Greene said, she was going to see her parents in Munich, Germany.
She
boarded an international flight on June 23, 2014. But her destination
wasn't Germany. She flew instead on a one-way ticket to Istanbul,
Turkey, where she had reservations at the Erguvan Hotel. From there she
traveled to the city of Gaziantep, about 20 miles from the Syrian
border.
She contacted "Individual
A," the documents state, and with the assistance of a third party
arranged by him, crossed the border into Syria. Once there, according to
the court records, she married him.
Shortly
after, Greene sent emails from inside Syria to an unidentified person
in the US showing she was having second thoughts and suggesting she knew
she was breaking the law.
"I was weak and didn't know how to handle anything anymore," she wrote on July 8. "I really made a mess of things this time."
In
another email the following day she wrote: "I am gone and I can't come
back. I wouldn't even know how to make it through, if I tried to come
back. I am in a very harsh environment and I don't know how long I will
last here, but it doesn't matter, it's all a little too late..."
On
July 22, 2014, she again wrote to the unidentified recipient: "Not sure
if they told you that I will probably go to prison for a long time if I
come back, but that is life. I wish I could turn back time some days."
While Greene was expressing regrets, Cuspert was actively fighting ISIS's battles.
A
video from July 2014 "showed glimpses of him in the bloody aftermath of
the ISIS takeover of the Al-Sha'er gas fields in Homs," according to
the MEMRI report on Cuspert. In a field covered with dead bodies,
Cuspert "is seen for several seconds beating a corpse with a sandal,"
the report said.
Back in the US
It
is unclear from the court file precisely when or how authorities
learned of Greene's actions, but on Aug. 1, 2014, five weeks after she
left for Syria, federal authorities secretly issued a warrant for her
arrest.
"At that time,"
prosecutors would later write, "the defendant was at large in Syria or
Turkey in the company of the leader of a terrorist group."
After
about a month in Syria, Greene somehow was able to leave the war-torn
country and returned to the United States. She was arrested on Aug. 8,
2014.
In November that year, with
Greene in custody and cooperating with the government, prosecutors
argued for the court file to remain sealed: "Publicity regarding the
arrest of the defendant or the charges against her would contribute to a
substantial likelihood of imminent danger to a party, witness or other
person as well as a substantial likelihood that the ongoing
investigation will be seriously jeopardized."
What ensued was a succession of secret hearings and court filings.
Then,
on April 17, 2015, prosecutors told the judge Greene's cooperation had
concluded. The following month, portions of the case file were unsealed,
though the judge kept some material secret.
Gillice,
a prosecutor in the National Security Section of the US Attorney's
office in Washington D.C., wrote that Greene placed herself and her
country in serious jeopardy.
"She
endangered our national security by exposing herself and her knowledge
of sensitive matters to those terrorist organizations," he wrote. "Her
escape from the area unscathed, and with apparently much of that
knowledge undisclosed, appears a stroke of luck or a measure of the lack
of savvy on the part of the terrorists with whom she interacted."
In
his argument for a reduced sentence, Gillice noted that Greene
immediately began cooperating with authorities. Her cooperation was
"significant, long-running and substantial," he wrote.
"After
the egregious abuse of her position, the defendant attempted to right
her wrongs, and to ultimately assist her country again," the prosecutor
wrote.
A Special Designation
A
month after Greene secretly pleaded guilty in December 2014, an item
appeared in the US government's federal register about the man that only
handful of people knew she had married.
It was a notice from then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry dated Jan. 9, 2015.
"I
hereby determine that the individual known as Denis Cuspert, also known
as Denis Mamadou Cuspert, also known as Abou Mamadou, also known as Abu
Talha the German...committed, or poses a significant risk of
committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S.
nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the
United States."
The obscure
posting was a precursor to the State Department declaring Cuspert a
"Specially Designated Global Terrorist" in February 2015 in a bulletin
on the agency's website.
The
bulletin cited his oath of loyalty to ISIS and his appearance in a video
in which he held a severed human head he said belong to man executed
for opposing the group.
It called
Cuspert "a willing pitchman for [ISIS] atrocities" and said he appears
to be a recruiter with a special emphasis on recruiting German speakers
to the terrorist organization.
The bulletin made no mention of him having recently married an employee of the FBI.
But
days after the State Department bulletin was posted, a German newspaper
published a report saying Cuspert had married an FBI spy.
The report, citing unnamed US and German intelligence officials, did not name the spy.
The
report was also at odds with Greene's case on a fundamental level: It
described the operation as an FBI-sanctioned plot in which Cuspert was
duped by a spy, not as the work of a rogue employee who broke the law
and betrayed her country in the process.
Several
news outlets ran brief stories summarizing the German report. The FBI
declined comment and the matter died without Greene's identity or true
role being revealed.
In October 2015, the Pentagon said Cuspert was killed in an air strike near the northern Syria city of Raqqah.
Nine
months later, on August 3, 2016, the Pentagon released a statement
reversing its assessment of Cuspert's death: "It now appears that
assessment was incorrect and Denis Cuspert survived the airstrike."
One day later, Greene was released from federal prison, records show.
CNN's Eric Lichtblau, Curt Devine, Scott Bronstein, Drew Griffin, Collette Richards, Tal Yellin contributed to this report.
source: CNN.COM/wamburababublog