WASHINGTON (CN) — Mariam Taha Thompson, a 62-year-old contract linguist who worked for the Pentagon, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison Wednesday for transmitting highly sensitive information to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.
“Thompson’s sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation of the trust of the American people, of the human sources she jeopardized and of the troops who worked at her side as friends and colleagues,” John Demers, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.
Thompson was working at the department’s Special Operations Task Force facility in Erbil, Iraq, when she met a man on social media in 2017 through a family member. They never met in person, but they maintained an online relationship for two years, chatting over video-chat on a secure text application. Thompson never violated her security clearance during that time.
But the day after the U.S. killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani with an air strike on Dec, 30, 2019, their correspondence changed. “A review of Thompson’s activities on those government-owned systems showed that, beginning on that date, Thompson accessed information she did not have a legitimate need to access,” the affidavit reads.
From Dec. 30 to Feb. 10, 2020, Thompson accessed about 57 files regarding eight intelligence sources, each containing classified details like the sources’ names, background information, and photographs.
On Feb. 19, the FBI searched Thompson’s home in Erbil and found a note containing the real names of “certain human assets” under her mattress. “I have confirmed that the human assets were, in fact, collecting information on behalf of the United States government,” Danielle Ray, a special agent with the FBI, wrote in the affidavit.
She was arrested on Feb. 27 and the FBI found that she had sent the man the names of “at least eight clandestine human assets; at least 10 U.S. targets; and multiple tactics, techniques and procedures,” the Justice Department said.
The FBI also found that the man had a family member in the Lebanese Ministry of the Interior and claimed to have received a ring from Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Lebanese Hezbollah.
On March 26, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government.
“The defendant’s decision to aid a foreign terrorist organization was a betrayal that endangered the lives of the very American men and women on the battlefield who had served beside her for more than a decade,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips said. “Let today’s sentence serve notice that there are serious consequences for anyone who betrays this country by compromising national defense information.”
“Thompson’s sentence should stand as a clear warning to all clearance holders that violations of their oath to this country will not be taken lightly,” Demers said, “especially when they put lives at risk.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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