
The National Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an international search operation for the arrest of Monica Witt, a former US Air Force employee, accused of defecting and collaborating with Iranian secret services.
US authorities have announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to her capture.
According to US investigations, Witt served in the US Air Force since the late 1990s and had access to classified information related to covert operations and the identities of US agents in the Middle East. She worked in the counterintelligence sector and was fluent in Persian (Farsi).
US intelligence agencies believe that the turning point in her radicalization was her travels to the Middle East and participation in an anti-Western conference in Tehran in 2012. She then allegedly left the US and began cooperating with Iranian secret services.
According to the FBI, Monica Witt may have provided Iranian authorities with critical information on American operations and helped expose an entire network of American agents.
Investigators allege that after defecting, she handed over code names of secret Pentagon programs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and then compiled detailed dossiers on her former colleagues.
These materials, according to American authorities, helped Iranian intelligence identify American operatives in several Middle Eastern countries.
Witt is also accused of helping Iranian hackers plan cyberattacks against US military targets and gathering information through social media.
In another serious charge, US authorities suspect that she may have participated in the 2016 interrogation of US Navy sailors captured by Iran.
The case is considered by American authorities as one of the most serious cases of defection and compromise of American Intelligence in recent decades.