US accuses ex-intelligence officer of revealing secrets to Iran
Former specialist was warned by FBI
Aformer US Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran despite warnings from the FBI has been charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran Government, including the code name and secret mission of a Pentagon programme, prosecutors said yesterday.
The Justice Department also accused Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, of betraying former colleagues in the US intelligence community by feeding details about their personal and professional lives to Iran.
Four hackers linked to the Iranian Government, charged in the same indictment, used that information to target the intelligence workers online, prosecutors said.
Witt had been on the FBI’s radar at least a year before she defected after she attended an Iranian conference and appeared in anti-American videos. She was warned about her activities, but told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors say. She was not arrested at the time.
“Once a holder of a top secret security clearance, Monica Witt actively sought opportunities to undermine the United States and support the Government of Iran — a country which poses a serious threat to our national security,” said FBI executive assistant director Jay Tabb, the bureau’s top national security official.
Tabb said “she provided information that could cause serious damage to national security”, though he did not provide specifics.
Witt remains at large in Iran, as do the four hackers, who prosecutors say were acting on behalf of the powerful, government-linked Revolutionary Guard. That group, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, has previously been designated by the US Government as terrorism supporter.
Witt served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She worked as a Defence Department contractor.
The Texas native defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two allexpense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards.