A former senior policy adviser to the Obama administration has appeared in court in Britain charged with child sex offences.
Rahamim ‘Rami’ Shy, 46, who co-ordinated the US government’s strategy to combat terrorists from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, is accused of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, court documents reveal.
He is also charged with possession of two category C indecent images of children and possessing a prohibited image of a child.
Shy, a US citizen, who lives in New Jersey, worked for the White House under president Barack Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, was arrested in late February by Bedfordshire Police. He was charged the following day and appeared at Luton Crown Court via video-link from HMP Bedford on Friday wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit.
He was not asked to enter a plea to any of the charges and was remanded in custody ahead of a hearing in June.
Most recently employed as an executive at banking group Citi, Shy worked in a senior role at the US Treasury department from 2008 to 2014, advising officials on countering the financing of terrorism and assisting foreign governments to impose sanctions on hostile regimes. As well as working as a senior adviser to the late US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who served under the last three Democrat presidents, Shy provided strategic policy analysis to chiefs of staff at the US Department of Defence.
He was deployed to Afghanistan to provide expertise to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was set up to maintain stability following the America-led invasion of the country.
According to his LinkedIn page, Shy provided ISAF with counter- terrorist finance expertise and went on to present the US’s strategy on Afghanistan to a congressional hearing in 2010.
