On Friday, March 26, Mariam Thompson from Minnesota pleaded guilty to providing national defense information to a foreign government. She was a contract linguist employed by the United States military in Iraq. She has shared information with an individual affiliated with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
US Defense agency's spy?
According to UsNews, Mariam Taha Thompson was arrested in an espionage case a year ago.
Investigators claim she put the lives of American military personnel and confidential sources at risk, along with a significant breach of classified information.
The top official at the Justice Department, Assistant Attorney General John Demers, described the actions as "a disgraceful betraying of country and colleagues."
The FBI placed a high priority on the case because the defendant provided classified defense information to a foreign terrorist organization, information that put U.S. military personnel in harm's way.
Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr., deputy director for the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, says in the post written on the Department of Justice's website.
In December 2019, while Thompson was assigned to a special operations task force facility in Iraq, the United States launched a series of airstrikes in Iraq that targeted Kata'ib Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization supported by Iran.
These airstrikes culminated in a January 3, 2020, strike that resulted in Hizballah's death and the Quds Force, Qasem Suleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis deaths.
The unindicted co-conspirator began seeking information from Thompson on the human assets helping the United States target Suleimani following Suleimani's death.
Thompson admits to understanding that "they" are Lebanese Hizballah, including a general who has not been named.
When the FBI arrested Thompson on February 27, 2020, she had used classified national defense information to provide her co-conspirator with the identities of at least ten undercover human assets, as well as at least 20 U.S. targets and multiple tactics and procedures.
Thompson intended for this classified national security information to be used to harm the United States and benefit Hizballah.
Why did she do it?
Thompson became in contact with the man she had never met in person via social media for the first time in 2017, following a family member's recommendation. Eventually, Thompson developed a romantic interest in him.
Investigators have determined that she accessed dozens of files containing information about human sources, including their names, photos, background profiles, and operational cables describing their gathered information.
The official believes the woman gave the man the classified information because she was planning to wed him, and she feared that if she didn't cooperate, they would end their relationship.
Thompson may face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, as reported in The Department of Justice Post. The maximum statutory limit has been established by Congress and is provided here as a guideline for informational purposes only. The court will determine the sentencing based upon the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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Written by Lionell Moore
