Gullible Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris got chummy with two gift-giving guys masquerading as federal agents, triggering a scandal that ended with arrests and humiliation, lawmen say.
Now, international espionage experts say the incident — branded an insidious plot to infiltrate the U.S. government — is one of the most dangerous breaches of national security in American history amid claims the ruse was bankrolled by terrorists hell-bent on avenging Osama bin Laden’s death!
Sources dish a special agent assigned to First Lady Jill was hoodwinked by the scam while a uniformed officer protecting Vice President Harris’ residence was also taken in! A third agent involved in the scandal was on President Biden’s detail, insiders say.
“This is a huge, dark stain on the entire United States security community,” says international terrorism expert Dr. Jim Garrow. “These men were a heartbeat from not only the first lady and vice president — but President Biden himself!”
At least four Secret Service agents were placed on administrative suspension. Authorities allege they were duped by Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Sher Ali, 36, who pretended to be Department of Homeland Security investigators for more than a year and plied the suckers with lavish gifts to gain their confidence!
According to investigators, Taherzadeh and Ali are U.S. citizens with histories of money trouble, but each possessed visas for Pakistan and Iran — and Ali recently traveled to both notorious terrorist hotbeds!
What’s more, the feds say Ali openly boasted of ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency!
At the moment, the men are each only charged with “false impersonation of a federal officer,” but were held in jail as “flight risks,” lawmen say. Sources expect far more serious charges to follow!
“This was an attempt to get operational info to directly threaten the leadership of the United States,” says a highly placed international military advisor. “It also seems to be financed by foreign intelligence agencies — most likely the Iranians or the Pakistanis.”
According to a disturbing indictment affidavit, the fake agents lived rent-free in a luxury D.C. apartment complex called The Crossing after convincing building management they were investigating last year’s assault on the Capitol. They were also granted access to security cameras, door codes and personal information of residents — including many federal employees!
Court documents also charge the men showered gifts on agents who lived in the building, including expensive meals, iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat-screen TV and, in two cases, rent-free apartments that would have cost $40,000 a year!
“There’s no telling what kind of damage this kind of access to those agents may have caused,” one military intelligence source warns. “If those apartments were bugged, they would have had access to their most sensitive conversations and communications.”
“That would give them awareness of those agents’ activities as it related to the president, vice president and first lady. If they passed that intelligence on to terrorists, the results could have been devastating!”
Sources believe America’s foes may have organized the breach to gather intel as part of a planned retribution for the successful U.S. assassination of bin Laden, who plotted the 9/11 attacks.
“Pakistani intelligence has some of the most direct links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations around the world,” Garrow explains.
“They have been grinding an ax for American intelligence agencies ever since the Navy SEALs took out bin Laden in 2011 in Pakistan. That was an embarrassing moment for Pakistani intelligence and the entire jihadi terror community — and something for which they’ve spent a decade seeking payback!”
And Garrow is not alone in his opinion.
Daniel Hopsicker, author of “Welcome to TerrorLand,” adds, “The Pakistanis are no friends of ours. They harbored bin Laden, and that mission left egg on their faces.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if these so-called Homeland Security agents were passing along whatever they learned to jihadists, who would be interested in killing American officials.”
But Garrow says that doesn’t leave Iran off the hook.
“The Iranians back the Wahabi terrorists who are the revenge wing of the Shia terrorist community,” he says. “They were not pals with bin Laden, but they respect the damage he inflicted on the United States.”
He adds, “A clean kill is never really a clean kill. There is always a ripple in the puddle, and this embarrassing breach is an example of that.”
