In 2014, an FBI translator with top-secret security clearance went rogue and traveled to Syria to marry a top ISIS official that she had been assigned to investigate. According to a CNN report, former FBI employee Daniela Green, 38, is now free after serving two years in prison for marrying one of the most sought after terrorists by the name of Denis Cuspert, a former rapper from Germany turned influential ISIS leader in Syria, and providing him with intel.
According to CNN, Greene had been assigned to scanning communications from Cuspert before falling in love with him after months of tracking him. Unbeknownst to the FBI, she fled for Syria to marry Cuspert. It is unclear how the two communicated before she left.
Greene, who grew up in Germany, was married to a U.S. soldier at the time of her trip. She claimed to the agency that she was going to visit her parents in her old country but instead hopped a flight to Turkey before making her way to Syria.
Court documents show that within weeks of Greene and Cuspert’s marriage, Greene began having doubts about her decision. The documents revealed that Greene wrote to an unidentified friend to express her regret.
“I was weak and didn’t know how to handle anything anymore,” Greene wrote on July 8th. “I really made a mess of things this time.”
Two weeks later, she wrote again.
“Not sure if they told you that I will probably go to prison for a long time if I come back, but that is life. I wish I could turn back time some days,” she said on July 22.
On August 1, the FBI issued a warrant for her arrest after learning of her travel. She returned to the U.S. and was subsequently arrested. According to the report, she cooperated for a few months but stopped helping investigators by April of 2015.
Greene pleaded guilty to making false statements involving international terrorism. She received a light punishment of two years.
During the time of her trial, then-Secretary of State John Kerry designated Cuspert as a global terrorist.
“I hereby determine that the individual known as Denis Cuspert, also known as Denis Mamadou Cuspert, also known as Abou Mamadou, also known as Abu Talha the German…committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,” Kerry said.
Cuspert was thought to be killed by a U.S. airstrike in 2015, but in 2016 the Pentagon announced he was still alive. According to the report, Greene was released from prison the day after the Pentagon issued the statement.
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