A Tale of Two Women

The story has a familiar ring: a Lebanese woman arrives in the United States on a student visa, obtains citizenship through a fake marriage, lands a security job with access to government secrets and ends up in court. In November, it was Nada Prouty, who worked for the FBI and CIA and illegally tapped into computer files detailing investigations into Hizbullah activities (her brother-in-law was a suspected Hizbullah fund-raiser) until she was arrested. Last week, in almost identical circumstances, Samar Spinelli, 39, was brought before a Michigan judge for marriage fraud. She joined the Marines after arriving from Lebanon in 1989 and served two tours in Iraq. Coincidence? According to court papers and Justice Department sources, the two women studied together in Lebanon, came to the United States and paid two Detroit brothers, Chris and Jean Paul Deladurantaye, to marry them for citizenship. When agents began investigating Prouty, they contacted her FBI employment references. One was Spinelli.

After divorcing Deladurantaye in 1995, Spinelli married a fellow Marine and had two children. Her lawyer says she has received more than 20 decorations. In court last week, she admitted to conspiracy and passport fraud. Under a plea agreement, Spinelli, who declined to comment through her lawyer, has been expelled from the military and faces up to nine months in prison. She was not charged with security violations, but investigators have wondered if both cases point to an effort by Hizbullah to plant moles in U.S. government agencies. According to Stephen Murphy, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, "That's the million-dollar question."

© 2007