Real life Homeland
FBI girl fled to Syria to marry IS terrorist she was spying on
AN FBI translator is at the centre of a Homeland-style spy intrigue after it was revealed she travelled to Syria and secretly married an Islamic State terrorist she had been assigned to investigate.
Daniela Greene had a top security clearance when she went rogue.
Working for the Detroit office, she reportedly lied to her FBI bosses about where she was going when she sneaked into Syria to marry Denis Cuspert – a German rapper turned IS propagandist who appeared in a terror video holding a severed head.
According to court records, reported by CNN, Greene, 38, told her new husband he was under investigation by the US authorities. But within weeks of getting married, the translator appeared to have realised she had made a terrible mistake and fled back to the US.
She was immediately arrested and agreed to co-operate with the authorities in return for a two-year prison sentence.
The saga echoes the television spy series Homeland, which stars Claire Danes as a CIA agent who falls in love with a US Marine, played by Damian Lewis, despite suspecting he is a ‘turned’ Al Qaeda terrorist.
Last night, questions were being asked about Greene’s lenient sentence. Critics say those convicted of crimes associated with joining IS would normally get a much harsher punishment, with analysis revealing IS-related sentences in the US averaged 13 years.
Prosecutors branded Greene’s conduct as ‘egregious’ and deserving of ‘severe punishment’, say court papers from the US District Court in Washington DC.
The FBI said as a result of Greene’s case, it ‘took several steps in a variety of areas to identify and reduce security vulnerabilities’, adding: ‘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.
CNN said Greene was released last summer and is now working as a hostess in an American hotel. When approached, she said: ‘If I talk to you, my family will be in danger.’ Her location has not been identified for her own safety.
Her lawyer Shawn Moore said: ‘She was just a well-meaning person that got up in something way over her head.’
Greene, who speaks fluent German, started working for the FBI as a contract linguist in 2011. Assigned
‘I really made a mess of things’
to the Detroit office in 2014, she was put on the case of Cuspert, one of the most wanted IS terrorists. In one recruiting video he is seen holding a bloody human head. In another, he makes a throat-cutting gesture aimed at Barack Obama.
As part of her job, Miss Greene was tracking Cuspert’s communications and she gained access to several of his online accounts and phone numbers, including access to one of his two Skype accounts.
In June 2014, she told bosses she was going on holiday to visit her family in Munich.
Instead, she flew to Turkey and then Gaziantep, about 20 miles from the Syrian border, where she reportedly met up with Cuspert and married him, despite being married to an American soldier she met at university.
By the following month, she was having second thoughts and emailed a friend: ‘I was weak and didn’t know how to handle anything any more. I really made a mess of things this time.’
In October 2015, the Pentagon said Cuspert, 41, was killed in an air strike. Nine months later, officials admitted he had survived. The following day, Greene was released from prison.