Nada Prouty: Hopes to regain her citizenship.
Nada Prouty, the former FBI agent who lost her covert operations job at the CIA because she engaged in a sham marriage to get her citizenship has written a book to clear her name. The book -- "Uncompromised -- The rise, fall, and redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA" -- will hit store shelves on Tuesday, Nov. 8. / Palgrave Macmillan
Nada Prouty
Age: 41Residence: Suburban Washington, D.C.
Background: Born in Lebanon, came to the U.S. in 1989. Received an accounting degree from the Detroit College of Business in 1993 and a master's degree from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She joined the FBI in 1999 and the CIA in 2003.
Legal problems: Pleaded guilty in 2007 to hiring a Downriver man to marry her in 1990 so she could become a U.S. citizen, and to illegally using an FBI computer to look up information on a Detroit-based terrorism probe, a misdemeanor.
Outcome: Had to resign from the CIA, fined $750, stripped of her U.S. citizenship and ordered deported. Her removal was put on indefinite hold to keep her from falling into terrorist hands. In December, the heads of the Justice Department, CIA and Department of Homeland Security agreed to give her a green card, making her a permanent resident.
Cases Prouty worked
2000: Helped investigate the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors.
2001: Helped arrest Zayd Hassan Safarini for the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan that killed 22 passengers, including two Americans. He is serving life prison sentences in the U.S.
2001: Worked round-the-clock shifts at the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was sent to Pakistan to pursue leads.
2002: Helped investigate the assassination of USAID diplomat Laurence Foley, 62, in Jordan. Helped establish that Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, eventual head of al-Qaida in Iraq, planned the killing. He died in a U.S. air strike in Iraq in 2006.
2002: Helped arrest Artur Tchibassa in the Congo for the 1990 kidnapping of American helicopter mechanic Brent Swan. He is serving a 24-year prison sentence in the U.S.
2003: Helped investigate the 2003 terrorist bombings of housing compounds for foreign workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 35 people, including nine Americans.
2003-07: Cases she worked for the CIA are classified.
Nada Prouty, the former Taylor woman who was drummed out of the
CIA, prosecuted and stripped of her U.S. citizenship in 2007 because of a
fraudulent marriage, says in a new book that she was railroaded by
overzealous prosecutors and FBI agents in Detroit.
"They had no interest in the truth," Prouty, 41, says in "Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA" (Palgrave Macmillan, 282 pages, $26). She is launching a two-week nationwide tour today to promote the book.
"As a national security worker, I was an easy target," Prouty said, adding that prosecutors coerced her into pleading guilty, partly by threatening to destroy her husband's career at the State Department. She said she is a patriot who put her life on the line in the war on terror as an FBI agent and CIA officer.
Prouty pleaded guilty in 2007 to citizenship fraud and accessing an FBI computer without authorization to get information about a Detroit-based national security investigation involving Hizballah, which the U.S. designates as a Lebanese terrorist group.
Though she wasn't charged with espionage, authorities said she may have passed the information to her brother-in-law -- Detroit restaurateur Talal Chahine -- who fled to Lebanon in 2005 to avoid income tax evasion charges. Prosecutors said he supports Hizballah.
She denied passing information and the CIA, which extensively questioned and polygraphed her, agreed.
She also said the alerted the FBI at the outset about her fraudulent marriage and an FBI application coordinator told her not to worry about it. The Justice Department said it never condoned her marriage fraud.
A federal judge fined her $750, but imposed no jail time or probation, and blasted prosecutors and the news media, saying she had served her country with distinction.
The Justice Department said today that it "stands by the prosecution." It said she used a fraudulent marriage to obtain citizenship, jobs and security clearances at the FBI and CIA.
Prouty told the Free Press that she wrote the book to clear her name, a process that began in March 2010 when CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a story about her.
Because of the story, she said the CIA, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security made her a permanent U.S. resident.
She said she hopes to regain her citizenship and win a presidential pardon.
"The real losers in the Nada Prouty case is the American public," said her lawyer, Mark Zaid of Washington, D.C., adding that the decision to give her a green card is tantamount to an apology.
The Justice Department said her immigration status was changed because of national security concerns and was not an exoneration.
"They had no interest in the truth," Prouty, 41, says in "Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA" (Palgrave Macmillan, 282 pages, $26). She is launching a two-week nationwide tour today to promote the book.
"As a national security worker, I was an easy target," Prouty said, adding that prosecutors coerced her into pleading guilty, partly by threatening to destroy her husband's career at the State Department. She said she is a patriot who put her life on the line in the war on terror as an FBI agent and CIA officer.
Prouty pleaded guilty in 2007 to citizenship fraud and accessing an FBI computer without authorization to get information about a Detroit-based national security investigation involving Hizballah, which the U.S. designates as a Lebanese terrorist group.
Though she wasn't charged with espionage, authorities said she may have passed the information to her brother-in-law -- Detroit restaurateur Talal Chahine -- who fled to Lebanon in 2005 to avoid income tax evasion charges. Prosecutors said he supports Hizballah.
She denied passing information and the CIA, which extensively questioned and polygraphed her, agreed.
She also said the alerted the FBI at the outset about her fraudulent marriage and an FBI application coordinator told her not to worry about it. The Justice Department said it never condoned her marriage fraud.
A federal judge fined her $750, but imposed no jail time or probation, and blasted prosecutors and the news media, saying she had served her country with distinction.
The Justice Department said today that it "stands by the prosecution." It said she used a fraudulent marriage to obtain citizenship, jobs and security clearances at the FBI and CIA.
Prouty told the Free Press that she wrote the book to clear her name, a process that began in March 2010 when CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a story about her.
Because of the story, she said the CIA, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security made her a permanent U.S. resident.
She said she hopes to regain her citizenship and win a presidential pardon.
"The real losers in the Nada Prouty case is the American public," said her lawyer, Mark Zaid of Washington, D.C., adding that the decision to give her a green card is tantamount to an apology.
The Justice Department said her immigration status was changed because of national security concerns and was not an exoneration.
No comments:
Post a Comment