Word: awad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Awad's case began on Aug. 30, 1982, when he walked into the U.S. embassy in Bern, Switzerland. He claimed he was a prosperous Baghdad-based businessman whom Rashid had coerced, by blackmailing Awad's business, to blow up Geneva's Noga Hilton. The story sounded farfetched, but when Swiss police went to the Noga Hilton, they found a bomb-rigged suitcase in Awad's room. As Awad volunteered more detail about Rashid's modus operandi, U.S. officials began to detect a link between the bomb in Awad's suitcase and the one that had blown a hole...
...Awad's send-off and his long-delayed payoff are an apt reflection of the insensitive treatment too often meted out to foreign informants. Officials involved in Awad's case warn that if the U.S. fails to devise a coordinated approach for fostering informants during the long years of a terrorist prosecution, the trickle of foreign informants will dry up. That would be a situation the U.S. could ill afford. Typically, terrorist groups comprise people bound by geography, political injury, even bloodlines. Since U.S. agencies find it almost impossible to penetrate such tight-knit networks, they must rely on defectors...
...intelligence community is already struggling to regain its standing abroad. The February arrest of CIA officer Aldrich Ames was an enormous embarrassment. Last week Ames pled guilty to spying for Moscow since 1985 and agreed to help authorities assess the damage. In the case of Awad, damaging publicity about his mishandling threatens to impede overseas operations by giving the U.S. a reputation for running a bait-and-switch program. "We promise ((informants)) the moon in the beginning," says FBI special agent Frank Scafidi. "But when they come through for us, there's not much there. If the government doesn...
...years later, Awad was approached by a U.S. prosecutor. Would he enter the Witness Protection Program and testify against Rashid? Awad was told the Rashid case would be wrapped up in two years, after which he could receive a State Department reward of as much as $500,000. More interested in the prospect of U.S. citizenship than in a hefty reward, Awad asked only that he be able to live as well as he had in Switzerland...
...after Awad moved to America, he was shunted from city to city. Little effort was made to help him learn English or start a new life. In 1986 he quit the witness program and opened a convenience store. After Rashid was arrested in Greece in 1988, Awad was persuaded to return to the witness program. While Athens and Washington wrangled over Rashid's extradition for the next three years, Awad was refused a passport and permission to visit his relatives abroad. He grew so depressed that he threatened to kill himself...