According to the statement, the prosecution believes that Mariam Taha Thompson, 63, a former contract linguist at overseas US military facilities, shared with her co-conspirator the identities of at least ten clandestine human assets, at least 20 US targets, as well as data on multiple tactics, techniques and procedures.
“Thompson jeopardized the lives of members of the US military as well as other individuals supporting the United States in a combat zone when she passed classified information to a person she knew was connected to Lebanese Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization which intended to use the information to hurt this country,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said on Friday.
During Friday’s plea hearing, Thompson admitted that she communicated with her co-conspirator over a messaging application and developed a romantic interest with him.
The co-conspirator asked Thompson, who was assigned to a US special operations task force facility in Iraq, to provide “them” with information on human assets who helped the Americans to target and assassinate top Iranian commander Qasem Suleimani in early 2020. The defendant admitted that she understood “them” to be Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese military and political movement, according to the statement.
Thompson was arrested by the FBI on February 27, 2020. She faces a maximum sentence of life in jail, according to the Justice Department.