CQ points out that NSA isn’t the only place where it pays to keep your pie hole closed:

The FBI’s former top agent in Panama carried on an affair with a confidential informant that left him open to blackmail by “a hostile foreign intelligence agency,” according to his former deputy, who has filed a discrimination suit against the bureau.

Cecilia Woods, a veteran agent herself, was deputy to the FBI’s legal attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Panama during 1999-2000, when she discovered that her boss [married and with three children] was having a sexual relationship with the woman, a former Panamanian government official.

Her boss admitted to that affair, as well as others, during a Nov. 4, 2003, deposition taken as part of Woods’ suit and seen by CQ Homeland Security.

Woods said that the affairs left her boss, legal attaché Gil Torrez, open to blackmail by hostile foreign intelligence agents in Panama, a money-laundering hub for drug kingpins and other top criminals in Latin America.

Normally I would say that he-said-she-said cases are a lot more complicated than they are portrayed. Then this little tid-bit falls to the floor:

“It generated some counterintelligence issues,” Woods said in a brief telephone interview. “Another [U.S.] agency learned he was being targeted for his behavior.”

No kidding.

In June 2000, she made her first official, documented complaint to an FBI inspection team.

For years, she said, FBI headquarters officials ignored her warnings about Torrez’s behavior.

“Nobody bothered to listen to me. I was just a female complaining about a male. It was shoved under the rug.” […]

Torrez was given a 14-day suspension but allowed to transfer to his posting of choice in the FBI’s Dallas field office, according to two sources with firsthand knowledge of the case.

This sounds remarkably like the case of former Special Agent James Smith (if that’s his REAL name), who spent a good deal of time “de-briefing” a source (did I mention she’s a suspected double agent for the Chinese?) and whose punishment consisted of three months of home confinement. It would appear that being a man in the Bureau is a good thing.

I’ve got good friends in the Bureau. I was at a luncheon with Linda Franklin the day before the Beltway Snipers took her life. These people work like dogs, get short shrift, and then have to deal with people thinking that the place is run by horn-dogs who would compromise their integrity and the security of the nation for a little trim. I’ve got two words for all you aspiring Bureau c***-smiths: Internet porn.

About the Author

Michael Tanji

Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.