FBI translator fled to Syria, married ISIS terrorist she was investigating: Report

An employee of FBI with top-secret clearance travelled to Syria in 2014 and married a key ISIS operative she had been assigned to investigate, said a media report

Daniela Greene married Denis Cuspert also known as Abu Talha al-Almani, a German rapper turned ISIS, reported CNN.

Denis Cuspert had praised Osama bin Laden in a song, threatened former president Barack Obama with a throat-cutting gesture and appeared in propaganda videos, including one in which he was holding a freshly severed human head.

Before travelling to Syria, 38-year-old woman translator lied to the FBI about where she was going and warned her new husband he was under investigation, according to federal court records.

Within weeks of marrying Cuspert, Greene seemed to realize she had made a terrible mistake. She fled back to the US, where she was immediately arrested and agreed to cooperate with authorities.

She pleaded guilty to making false statements involving international terrorism and was sentenced to two years in federal prison. She was released last summer.

"It's a stunning embarrassment for the FBI, no doubt about it," said John Kirby, a former State Department official.

Greene was assigned to the bureau's Detroit office in January 2014 when she was put to work "in an investigative capacity" on the case of a German terrorist referred to in court records only as "Individual A" identified as Cuspert.

As part of the FBI's investigation into "Individual A," Greene identified several online accounts and phone numbers used by the terrorist, according to the court file. Among them were two Skype accounts. She maintained "sole access" to a third Skype account, the records state.

It was in April 2014, during Greene's work on the investigation, that Cuspert appeared in a video declaring his allegiance to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

(With PTI Inputs)