U.S. counter terrorism official faces child sex charge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An official in the State Department's counter terrorism bureau has been charged with soliciting a child for sex though the internet, police said on Wednesday. Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, which is west of Washington, said Daniel Rosen, 44, was arrested at his home in the capital on Tuesday and that he would be transferred from Washington to Virginia within ten days. The case was based on written messages Rosen exchanged online with a person who he thought was a juvenile but who in reality was a Fairfax County detective posing as a child, a police official said. The official said that Rosen had first made online contact last November and kept up "intermittent" contacts over the following two months. A government official said Rosen was the director of an office in the State Department's counter terrorism bureau. He is not a member of the senior management and was not involved in active counter-terrorism investigations, the official said. A Department spokesperson confirmed that an employee had been arrested and charged but did not confirm his identity. The Department said the employee had been put on administrative leave and that his security clearance would be suspended. Fairfax police said investigators had taken possession of Rosen's communications devices which they will examine for evidence of possible further violations. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by David Storey and Andrew Hay)