BREAKING: Defense Department Linguist Charged With Espionage

By Stu Cvrk | 3:15 PM on March 04, 2020

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A DoD linguist has just been charged with espionage in transmitting classified information, including the names of individuals helping the US overseas, to a Lebanese national with Hizballah connections. Hizballah has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Dept.

From today’s announcement:

Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State. According to the affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, the information Thompson gathered and transmitted included classified national defense information regarding active human assets, including their true names. By compromising the identities of these human assets, Thompson placed the lives of the human assets and U.S. military personnel in grave danger.

The announcement was made by John C. Demers, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Timothy J. Shea, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; Robert Wells, Acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division; and Timothy R. Slater, the Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office.

“While in a war zone, the defendant allegedly gave sensitive national defense information, including the names of individuals helping the United States, to a Lebanese national located overseas,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished.”

Barack Obama terminated Operation Cassandra, which had targeted stopping Hezbollah-backed drug trafficking through Latin America. Glad to see anecdotal evidence that the Trump Administration is going after Hezbollah with this announced indictment.

The end.