{"id":5000,"date":"2022-04-08T18:07:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T18:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=5000"},"modified":"2022-04-08T18:07:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T18:07:30","slug":"fake-us-federal-agent-claimed-ties-to-pakistani-intelligence-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2022\/04\/08\/fake-us-federal-agent-claimed-ties-to-pakistani-intelligence-prosecutors-say\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fake\u2019 US federal agent claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2022\/apr\/08\/us-agent-department-of-homeland-security-prosecutors-pakistan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two American men named Arian Taherzadah and Haider Ali have been arrested on the charges of false impersonation of a US officer, as they falsely posed as Secret Service members to gain intelligence on the US presidency. These men, who have been accused of having ties to Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, and Qatar, used false identification and uniforms to infiltrate the Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, by living in the same apartment complex as other US officials, they gained ties with members of the first ladies personal guard, as well as other high up administration. Although the case is not currently being treated as a matter of national security, multiple members of administration have been suspended for their interactions with said men. The charges could be expanded to conspiracy, which would result in 5 years in prison. Taherzadah himself offered favors and goods to the officials he contacted, some as much as a 2,000 dollar rifle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motives behind Taherzadah and Ali’s infiltration is unclear- but their ties with Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, and Qatar are worrying. Because of their evident high budget and technology abilities ( as they were able to replicate Secret Service badges, uniforms, SUV’s, etc.), makes me wonder how (and who) funded them. Additionally, so far it’s unclear if they were after a certain piece of intelligence, or just intel in general. Taherzadah and Ali also had access to the apartment complex’s security system and large parts of the building, which means that they had capabilities beyond just the Department of Homeland Security, and possibly talents in hacking. Overall, their connections to the Pakistan ISI (or the Pakistani version of an intelligence server), raises questions as to the Pakistani and US governments current relationship- and how the US will proceed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Pakistan has an agenda that endangers US democracy ( however unlikely that may be) it will strain the relationship Pakistan will have with other countries such as Canada and the UK, under the basis of collective security. This infraction of security may blacklist Pakistan’s foreign affairs in the future (adding on to their partial-blacklist [or grey-list] for economics under FATF). Additionally, Pakistan already struggles with a reputation of terrorism- this would not be a great addition to that reputation. It is, however, possible that Taherzadah and Ali worked privately and that their ties with Pakistan intelligence are completely unrelated to this infiltration- although that is unlikely. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2022\/apr\/08\/us-agent-department-of-homeland-security-prosecutors-pakistan Two American men named Arian Taherzadah and Haider Ali have been arrested on the charges of false impersonation of a US officer, as they falsely posed as Secret Service members to gain intelligence on the US presidency. These men, who have been accused of having ties to Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, and Qatar, used false identification and uniforms to infiltrate… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5001,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions\/5001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}