Former Air Force agent spied for Iran, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — Inside the government, some officials called her “Wayward Storm.”
Her real name was Monica Elfriede Witt, an exemplary Air Force counterintelligence agent who had studied Farsi and carried out covert missions in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
But by mid2013, Witt had become disillusioned with the government — why, exactly, remains a mystery — and had left the military. Thoughts of betrayal consumed her, federal prosecutors now say, until she finally acted on them at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, where they say she “told all.”
“They are going to get back to me on if they can help me very soon before I leave,” Witt wrote on June 30, 2013, to an Iranian-American reporter working on behalf of the Iranian intelligence services, according to a criminal indictment.
That indictment was made public Wednesday as the Justice Department accused Witt, 39, of defecting to Iran in August 2013 to work with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in betrayal of the United States.
Witt has been charged with two counts of espionage and other crimes for what prosecutors said was her help to the Iranian government with phishing attempts that targeted her former colleagues. Investigators also said she provided the Iranians with secret details about U.S. intelligence operations. She is believed to still be in Iran.
Authorities did not say whether Witt caused any damage to U.S. intelligence operations, but any programs she gained access to while in the Air Force would probably have been considered compromised. She also worked closely with the FBI on counterintelligence matters, and she knew the identities of Iranian informants the U.S. intelligence agencies were using.
Witt was born in El Paso. She entered the Air Force in 1997 as part of the Office of Special Investigations, which conducts counterintelligence inquiries in the United States and overseas.
A person familiar with her case said she had grown disgruntled while working for the Air Force and at some point had become enamored with Persian culture and converted to Islam. In early 2012, she traveled to Iran to attend a conference called Hollywoodism. Prosecutors said the conference is sponsored by the Revolutionary Guard, an elite Iranian paramilitary force, and is intended to promote anti-American propaganda.
While at the conference, she agreed to appear in at least one video in which she was identified as a veteran and made statements that were critical of the United States. The videos were broadcast by Iranian news outlets.
After her return to the United States, the FBI visited Witt, the indictment said, and delivered a warning: Iranian intelligence services were trying to recruit her. She told the FBI agents she would never reveal the work she did for the Air Force.
The Iranians continued to target Witt, according to the indictment. In June 2012, an American-Iranian journalist, Marzieh Hashemi, came to the United States and hired Witt to work on an anti-American film.
The indictment said she communicated frequently with Hashemi who is identified as “Individual A.” She told Hashemi the work she had done for the Air Force was “evil.” She also talked about exposing a secret program and “do like Snowden,” a reference to Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who stole sensitive documents and gave them to journalists.
Prosecutors described how Witt sent Hashemi an email in August 2013 titled: “My Bio and Job History.” It included her discharge papers from the military. Hashemi forwarded them to an email address associated with Iran.
Prosecutors accused Witt of defecting to Iran that month and working with the Revolutionary Guard to betray her country.