Violated FBI files named snitches

December 6, 2007

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Details of Nada Nadim Prouty's computer use came in Talal Chahine's indictment.

An illegal immigrant who parlayed a sham marriage into citizenship and key jobs at the FBI and CIA made five unauthorized inquiries into an FBI computer system to find out about investigations of Hizballah, a federal prosecutor said in court papers filed Wednesday in Detroit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell didn't indicate why Nada Nadim Prouty, a Lebanese immigrant who once lived in Taylor, wanted the information or what she did with it. But he said four of the inquiries involved files containing the names of confidential FBI informants.

In another development, a federal official familiar with the case said the CIA had access to derogatory information about Prouty before the FBI hired her in 1999, but failed to disclose it when the FBI contacted the CIA during a background check.

Had the information been disclosed, the official said, the FBI might not have hired her. More perplexing, the official said, is why the CIA hired Prouty away from the FBI.

The CIA declined comment.

The court papers filed Wednesday said Prouty made at least one unauthorized inquiry to find out whether one of the investigations of Hizballah involved her brother-in-law, fugitive La Shish restaurant owner Talal Chahine. Prosecutors have said Chahine is a supporter of Hizballah, which the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist group.

The latest details about Prouty's unauthorized computer inquiries were laid out in an indictment of Chahine.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Brighton Republican and ex-FBI agent who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said the Prouty episode is alarming. She pleaded guilty in the case last month in Detroit.

"I think this is a very serious security breach," Rogers said Wednesday, adding that the House Intelligence Committee has started looking into the case and hopes to conduct hearings in late January.

Michael Cutler, a former federal immigration agent from Brooklyn, N.Y., who has testified before Congress on immigration and terrorism issues, called it "a very disturbing picture. ... My concern is what she did with the information and what happened to the confidential sources."

Meanwhile, the indictment said Chahine, 51, formerly of Plymouth, wrote letters to immigration officials in 1992 to falsely say that Prouty's first marriage was legitimate and that he personally knew Prouty and her husband.

It said Chahine told an FBI agent before Prouty was hired that he wasn't aware of anything in her background that could be used to subject her to coercion or compromise or reflect badly on her character.

Chadwell wouldn't elaborate on the court papers, the latest twist in an unfolding scandal involving Chahine, his wife, her sisters and the sisters' former roommate, who became a Marine captain and pleaded guilty Tuesday. The women are accused of hiring U.S. citizens to marry them so they could stay in the United States.

Prouty, 37, of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty to citizenship fraud and accessing an FBI computer system without authorization on two occasions, in 2000 and 2003. She wanted to find out whether she, her sister and Chahine were being investigated by the FBI and to learn details about a Detroit-based investigation of Hizballah.

Wednesday's court papers listed six unauthorized inquiries from 2000 to 2003, five of them involving Hizballah. In May this year, Prouty falsely told FBI agents that she hadn't accessed the FBI computer to find out whether one of the Hizballah investigations involved Chahine, court documents said.

Prouty's lawyer, Thomas Cranmer, said he couldn't comment. Prouty is free on bond pending sentencing next year. She quit the CIA last month.

Last week, Prouty's sister Elfat El Aouar, 40, of Plymouth pleaded guilty to citizenship fraud. She married Chahine in 2000 and is serving 18 months in prison for helping him evade $6.9 million in federal taxes on his Dearborn restaurant chain. He fled to Lebanon in 2005.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com.


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