The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the capture and prosecution of a former Air Force counterintelligence specialist accused of defecting to Iran and passing along classified national defense secrets.
Monica Witt, a former active-duty Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, served in the military between 1997 and 2008 before working as a U.S. government contractor until 2010. Her career gave her access to top secret material, including the real identities of U.S. Intelligence Community personnel working undercover — among the most sensitive categories of information in the American security apparatus.
Ms. Witt defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards. Before that, she had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but told agents she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran.
A federal grand jury in Washington indicted her in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the Iranian government. She allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad, and conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.
After her defection, Iranian government officials provided Ms. Witt with housing and computer equipment to facilitate her work for them, according to the indictment.
The FBI said Ms. Witt’s alleged actions have benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has elements responsible for intelligence collection, unconventional warfare and providing direct support to multiple terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens and interests.
“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division. “The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.”
Ms. Witt is known to speak Farsi and is believed to reside in Iran. She may be using the aliases Fatemah Zahra or Narges Witt. The FBI described her as a White woman with brown hair and brown eyes, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
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