The Slatest

Veteran U.S. Diplomat Under Counterintelligence Investigation

Robin Raphel, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing in 2004.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The Washington Post is reporting a longtime diplomat with the State Department has lost her job as she faces a counterintelligence investigation, which usually implies allegations of spying for a foreign government. Robin Raphel, a 67-year-old Pakistan and South Asia expert, was most recently working with the State Department on a contract basis distributing nonmilitary aid in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Raphel, the Post notes, was a high-profile female diplomat at a time when the State Department was still largely a boys’ club. “U.S. officials acknowledged that the FBI conducted a search at Raphel’s home Oct. 21 but would not provide details of the search,” according to the Post. “Agents removed bags and boxes from the home, but it is not clear what was seized there or at her office.” A State Department spokesman said Raphel’s security clearance was suspended last month, and a spokesman for the former diplomat says she is cooperating with the investigation, although she has not been charged.