In a Wednesday statement, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged that Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, revealed information to a Lebanese man that endangered the lives of American military personnel while living and working in Erbil, Iraq. The unidentified Lebanese man is believed to have worked for the Lebanese government and to have “apparent connections” to Hezbollah.
Specifically, Thompson is accused of providing the Lebanese national the names of foreign informants and details of information that they provided to the US - information that the US government keeps classified to protect such informants.
According to prosecutors, Thompson accessed the classified information in late December during a six-week-period in Erbil, when US airstrikes were targeting Iranian-backed forces in Iraq. The documents Thompson allegedly provided to the Lebanese man also included photographs of the human assets.
US officials reportedly became aware of Thompson’s actions on December 30, just a few days before the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a US drone attack on January 3.
Upon searching Thompson’s Erbil living quarters on February 19, US officials say they also found a handwritten note in Arabic under her mattress.
“FBI Agents reviewed a translation of the note and confirmed it contains the true names of certain human assets … Agents also confirmed that the note contained national defense information classified at the secret level, meaning its unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security,” the DoJ release states. In addition, officials say the note included a warning to a military target connected with Hezbollah and a request for informants’ phones to be monitored.
Thompson also told investigators that she wrote the classified information on papers, which she showed to the Lebanese national when speaking by video chat on her mobile phone. According to court documents, Thompson had a “romantic interest” in the Lebanese man.
“If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military,” John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said in court on Wednesday. “This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished.”
Thompson appeared in a Washington, DC, federal court Wednesday. She will be held without bond until her detention hearing next week. She faces three charges of delivering or conspiring to deliver defense information to aid a foreign government and could potentially spend life in prison or even face the death penalty if she is found to have revealed any information that resulted in the death of any of the informants.