Pentagon translator jailed for exposing U.S. sources in Iraq military news

Mariam Thompson was sentenced to 23 years in prison for providing the name of an American informant to a man associated with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A Pentagon interpreter was sentenced to 23 years in prison for passing on the names of American informants in Iraq to people connected with Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement, Hezbollah.

Mariam Thompson, 62, admitted to transmitting classified information to a Lebanese national because they believed that the information was being passed on to the organization-designated by Washington as a “terrorist organization.”

John Demers, Director of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, said: “Thompson’s verdict reflects the seriousness of her trust in the American people, the human resources she has endangered, and the forces that work by her side as friends and colleagues. Sex, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This case should clearly remind all those entrusted with national defense information that it is not selfless or heroic to unilaterally disclose such information for personal or other people’s benefit; this is a criminal act,” said Allen Kohler Jr., assistant director of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Division. .

According to court documents, Thompson, a U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, worked as an interpreter at a foreign military base in 2017 when she established a relationship on a video app with a man who claimed to be connected to Lebanese Hezbollah.

“Over time, Thompson developed a romantic interest in her accomplices,” the Justice Department said.

She later learned that the man’s family was in the Lebanese Ministry of Interior and the accomplice claimed to have received a ring from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

Security check

Thompson was assigned to the U.S. special forces in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq, in December 2019. She has a top-secret government security clearance.

At the time, the force was launching an attack on the pro-Iranian militia of Qataib Hezbollah, which ended on January 3, 2020. The powerful Iranian general Qassim Soleimani and the leader of Qataib Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis died of Hezbollah.

On January 3, 2020, the United States assassinated the powerful Iranian general Qassim Soleimani and the leader of the pro-Iranian militia of the Qataibu Hezbollah Abu Mahdi Mohandis, Thompson’s contact request Provide information about human assets that helped the United States implement. attack.

She provided him with data on several U.S. informants, including the real names of at least eight secret contacts, as well as information on U.S. military objectives and tactics.

Thompson admitted that she knew the information would be passed on to Hezbollah.

Next month, in late February 2020, she was arrested by federal authorities.

Thompson said that in her later years she “wanted” for someone to love her and did not intend to hurt anyone.

The Washington Post quoted Thompson as saying: “I just want someone to love me when I am old, because I am very eager for that kind of love, so I forget who I am in a short time.”