USA TODAY International Edition
Feds: Ex-Air Force officer spied for Iran
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors revealed charges Wednesday that a former Air Force intelligence officer provided defense secrets and the identity of at least one other U.S. intelligence officer to the Iranian government.
Monica E. Witt, 39, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday that also charged four Iranian nationals who prosecutors alleged were involved in cyber operations against eight of her former U.S. military colleagues. Witt is charged with espionage, conspiracy and other crimes.
Federal authorities alleged that Witt defected to Iran in 2013 and provided Iran with the code name and mission of a classified Defense Department program. They said that while she was in Iran, Witt revealed the identity of a U.S. counterintelligence agent who was working against “a specific target.”
Prosecutors said Witt wrote to an Iranian contact that she was “endeavoring to put the training I received to good use instead of evil.”
Investigators said the first clues to Witt’s change in allegiance came in a series of contacts with an unnamed Iranian from 2012 to 2013.
Before boarding a flight from Dubai to Tehran on the eve of her defection, prosecutors said, she typed an email to the Iranian contact saying, “I’m signing off and heading out! Coming home.”
When she arrived in Iran on Aug. 28, 2013, according to court documents, Iranian officials began providing her financial support “to facilitate her work on behalf of the government of Iran.”
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said Witt’s alleged activities violated “her solemn oath to protect and defend our country, and the bounds of human decency.”