Monica Witt
Monica Witt is a disgraced former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence agent who has been indicted on espionage charges. An arrest warrant has been issued.
Witt, reports say, is accused of providing American defense secrets with Iranian government officials, this was revealed by the Department of Justice earlier today.
Authorities are currently in the lookout for Witt who left the U.S. in 2013. She is believed to be currently living in Iran. Along with Monica Witt, there have been others charged with conspiring to commit cybercrimes and identity theft. According to the indictment, Witt defected for ideological motives and allegedly shared information with Iran that could cause “serious damage” to U.S. national security interests, government officials told reporters.
According to charges unsealed on Wednesday by the justice department, 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. According to the Washington Times, she also gave Iranians the code name and classified mission of a special U.S. Department of Defense operation.
Monica Witt worked as a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for more than 10 years. The 39-year-old was a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for the US air force for more than 10 years before working as an intelligence analyst for the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for five months in 2008 and doing other private-sector work.
She was born Monica Elfriede Witt; she served in the Air Force from 1997 to 2008, records show, rising to the rank of technical sergeant. Shortly after joining the military, Witt studied Farsi at the U.S. Defense Language Institute in California before deploying overseas for four years to conduct classified missions collecting signals intelligence.
Monica Witt faces seven charges, including conspiracy to deliver national defense information to representatives of a foreign government and delivering national defense information to representatives of a foreign government.
