New York: A former FBI interpreter reportedly ran away to marry an IS terrorist before realising her mistake and coming back to the US to turn herself in. Daniela Greene travelled to Syria where she was wed to German national Denis Cuspert, who rapped under the moniker Deso Dog in his homeland, before changing his name to Abu Talha al-Almani in Syria.
Videos featuring the one time musician – whose primary role is to attract Germans to the terror group – show him threatening former President Barack Obama.
Greene used online tools like Skype to get close to Cuspert before she lied to her FBI employers to travel to Syria, according to Federal Court documents seen by CNN, which also said that she tipped him off to the fact that he was under investigation.
On her return to the US she admitted what she had done and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. “It’s a stunning embarrassment for the FBI, no doubt about it,” John Kirby, a former state department official told CNN.
Most westerners trying to go to an IS region in Syria risk “getting their heads cut off,” he added. “So for her to be able to get in as an American, as a woman, as an FBI employee and to be able to take up residence with a known IS leader, that all had to be coordinated.” Greene’s story was kept secret when she first returned from Syria. Looking to avoid contaminating the investigation through allowing the case to go public with major media organisations, a federal court sealed most of the documents pertaining to her case.
People familiar with Greene said that they hadn’t seen anything that would lead them to think she would defect from the FBI. She had undergone an extensive vetting period for her job with the agency, after completing a Master’s degree in history. At the time of her departure, she had an American husband who she told that she was going to visit her parents in Munich. Instead, she went to Istanbul and contacted Cuspert. But after joinng him in Syria, she quickly determined she had made a mistake.