WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A CIA station chief suspected of raping two women in Algiers should have been dismissed when the allegations came to light, Director-nominee Leon Panetta said.
Panetta, nominated by President Obama as the U.S. spy agency's director, told a Senate committee that the charges are so serious that the man should have been "terminated," ABC News reported.
Andrew Warren, former station chief in Algeria, has been ordered out of the country and removed from duty. He remains on the CIA payroll while federal prosecutors investigate allegations that he drugged and raped two women at his house in Algiers and decide whether to charge him.
"We call that due process," an official told ABC News.
Panetta, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which will decide whether to confirm him, said Thursday that the CIA should have notified the committee of the allegations. Committee members say they learned about it from an earlier story on ABC.
"The level of behavior involved in this situation, I think is so onerous that the person should have been terminated," Panetta said. "And we have the responsibility, as director of the CIA, to implement that kind of termination."
