Former US air force intelligence officer Monica Witt is charged with spying for Iran as her 2013 defection is revealed
- Monica Witt, whose whereabouts are unknown, is accused of revealing the identity of a covert US agent and other secrets to Tehran
- Witt allegedly told an Iranian agent that she hoped to turn her US intelligence skills to ‘good use instead of evil’
A former US air force intelligence officer who defected to Iran in 2013, has been charged with espionage, giving away the identity of a covert US agent and other secrets.
Monica Elfriede Witt, aged 39, worked as a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for the US air force for more than 10 years before becoming an intelligence analyst for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in 2008 and doing other private sector work.
According to charges unsealed on Wednesday by the justice department on Wednesday she defected to Iran in August 2013, taking with her details of US counter-intelligence agents she had worked with, who were then targeted by Iranian hackers, four of whom are named in the indictment and charged alongside Witt.
“It is a sad day for America when one of its citizens betrays our country,” the assistant attorney general for national security, John Demers, said on Wednesday.
“Ms Witt was recruited by Iran as part of a program that targets former intelligence officers and others who have held security clearances. Following her defection to Iran in 2013, she is alleged to have revealed to the Iranian government the existence of a highly classified intelligence collection program and the true identity of a US intelligence officer, thereby risking the life of this individual.”