U.S. air force defector Monica Witt is charged with spying for Iran
- by Lorene Schwartz
- in People
- — Feb 14, 2019
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.
The Department of Justice charged former U.S. Air Force special agent and counterintelligence specialist Monica Witt with espionage, accusing her of defecting to Iran in 2013 and revealing highly-classified U.S. intelligence to the government in Tehran.
She also conducted online research, including on Facebook, to create information "packages" on her former colleagues in the US intelligence community.
Prosecutors say she also did research to help Iranian authorities target her former co-workers within the American intelligence community.
The FBI seeks her arrest on the charges of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to representatives of a foreign government and delivering national defense information to representatives of a foreign government, specifically the government of Iran.
"It is a sad day for America when one of its citizens betrays our country", said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, announcing the indictment.
Monica Witt, 39, was accused of switching sides after more than a decade of U.S. military service and identifying American intelligence officers and their personal Facebook accounts for the Iranian regime. Investigators say her reasons for defecting were "ideological".
Drawing upon classified information obtained from Monica Elfriede Witt, IRGC-affiliated hackers attempted to develop malicious software and fake social media profiles to target US-based spy agencies.
Tabb said investigators believe Witt's motive was "ideological", and the indictment against her alleges that, before she defected, she appeared in videos that she knew would be broadcast by Iranian media outlets and "made statements that were critical of the USA government".
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Prosecutors say Ms Witt had been granted the highest level of US security clearance and worked in the US Air Force from 1997 to 2008.
Witt allegedly provided information on the targets that were worth hacking and even worked with the four hackers to register an impostor Facebook account in the name of a former colleague, successfully befriending other special agents.
The efforts included software to capture keystrokes and break into web cameras, as well as malware-infused attachments passed off as pornographic photos created to fool United States officials into letting Iranian hackers tunnel into their computer networks.
Also charged are four Iranians who allegedly worked on behalf of the Quds.
Witt is facing one count of conspiracy and two counts of delivering military information to a foreign government.
The Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned the New Horizon Organization, which sponsored the conferences Witt attended.
She wrote Individual A that she wanted to put her Air Force training "to good use instead of evil".
However, one agent who friended the fake account added the hackers to a Facebook group filled with United States government agents, allowing them to gather more information, according to the indictment.
The air force has since adjusted its security measures, said Terry Phillips, a special agent in the air force's office of special investigations.
