US air force officer ‘helped Iran launch cyberattacks’
Intelligence specialist with top secret clearance alleged to have betrayed agents and former colleagues
A FORMER US air force intelligence officer was charged yesterday with helping Iran target her ex-colleagues with cyberattacks after defecting.
Monica Witt, 39, was accused of switching sides after more than a decade of US military service and identifying intelligence officers and their personal Facebook accounts for the Iranian regime.
Messages quoted in an indictment unsealed yesterday showed Miss Witt saying she wanted to “put the training I received to good use instead of evil” around the time of her defection.
Four Iranians said to have been involved in the cyberattacks were also charged, along with two Iran-based businesses, New Horizon Organization and Net Peygard Samavat Company.
The five individuals charged are all at large, meaning the chances of a successful prosecution remain unclear. The investigation to uncover the alleged crimes has been running for years.
John Demers, the US assistant attorney general, said: “This case underscores the dangers to our intelligence professionals and the lengths our adversaries will go to identify them, expose them, target them and, in a few rare cases, ultimately turn them against the nation they swore to protect.”
Miss Witt, a US citizen, worked for the US air force as an intelligence specialist and special agent between 1997 and 2008. She worked with the Defence Department as a contractor until 2010.
During her service, she was given access to secret and top secret information relating to counter-intelligence, including material that contained the true names of secret agents and sources. She was taught the Farsi language and was deployed in a number of overseas locations.
The first signs of Miss Witt’s alleged defection came when she travelled to Iran to attend the New Horizon Organization’s “Hollywoodism” conference in February 2012. The gathering was sponsored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s armed forces recently sanctioned by the Trump administration for its “malign” activities. The conference was partly aimed at “condemning American moral standards and promoting anti-us propaganda”, US prosecutors said. By August 2013, just 18 months later, Miss Witt had fled to Iran.
Messages between Miss Witt and an unnamed Iranian-american who helped arrange the trip which were published in the indictment give an insight into her thinking before the defection.
“Should I thank the sec of defence … you were well trained,” the unnamed individual allegedly wrote to her in one message before her trip, appearing to reference the US defence secretary, her former boss.
Miss Witt responded: “LOL thank the sec of defence? For me? Well, I loved the work, and I am endeavouring to put the training I received to good use instead of evil.” She added a smiling emoji and the words: “Thanks for giving me the opportunity.”
In another message she wrote “If all else fails, I just may go public and do like Snowden.” The apparent reference is to Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee who leaked classified material in 2013 and then fled to Russia.
Terry Phillips, a US special agent with the air force, said: “The alleged actions of Monica Witt in assisting a hostile nation are a betrayal of our nation’s security, our military and the American people.
“While violations like this are extremely rare, her actions as alleged are an affront to all who have served our great nation.”