“Sex, rape and videotapes at the U.S. embassy in Algiers.”

Octavia Nasr
AC360° Contributor
CNN Arab Affairs Editor

Did a CIA official drug, rape and videotape two women in Algeria?

Rape in the Arab world carries a stigma that is rarely discussed. When two Algerian women came forward to allege that a CIA official drugged them and raped them the news was shocking to an entire region.

Algerian media were hesitant to report the story at first. It is unclear whether the sensitivity of the topic or lack of early information available to Algerian authorities and reporters kept them from reporting. Algeria’s press is very much like the rest of the Arab world. Mostly controlled by the government and doesn’t enjoy much independence. The two women carry double nationalities and their whereabouts are unknown to us. One is Algerian-Spanish and the other Algerian-German. They filed their complaint against the CIA official directly with the US embassy in Algiers without going through the Algerian authorities.

Over the weekend, newspapers published the photo of the official, named as Andrew Warren in a U.S. affidavit, along with editorials expressing unfriendly sentiments towards the US.

The French-language El-Wattan newspaper’s headline read, “Sex, rape and videotapes at the U.S. embassy in Algiers.”