That the CIA Station Chief in Algiers is a serial rapist will do serious damage to American prestige in that country. When this story hits the Algerian press, one can expect fire and anger. There are already enough conspiracy theories and rumors of ill will surrounding the American embassy and other American apendages in the country (one cannot talk to Algerians about the “War on Terror” without being asked (rhetorically) “Who started al-Qaeda? The CIA! Who created the [Arab] Afghans? The Americans!”). That this fellow went around drugging and touching Algerian women will have absolutely pernicous effects on the way Algerians look at the United States. Notice that the Algerian ambassador says that Algeria’s government wasn’t informed about the multiple rape accusations against its citizens as well. This will be the basis for conspiracy theories going forward and it shows that the Americans wanted to hide it, maybe to keep this man from being held responsible in the Algerian legal system where he would probably not face fair trial (a foreigner raping Algerian women has no chance to present “his side” of things) and if the identies of the women came out in Algeria their lives would be quite difficult, though not as much as had they been so coldly and perversely abused by other Algerians, which would bring nothing but social alienation if not indifference. Because this “man” is a foreigner, anger and spite will be directed at him and his country, less so at the women as might otherwise be the case in the country’s less enlightened quarters. If this “man” were an approximate Algerian official and these poor women came out with such stories against him, they would dissappear or be killed in a random accident. There would be no justice, just as there has been little justice for the countless victims of rape at the hands of various sets of armed personnel in Algeria: The station chief has joined the ranks of many men of arms in Algeria, exploiting his position to tear dignity away from the people of a demoralized nation.
