Pentagon interpreter arrested for exposing US sources in Iraq | War Stories

Mariam Thompson was sentenced to 23 years in prison for passing on US identities to a Lebanese Hezbollah affiliate.

A Pentagon translator has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for forwarding US names to Iraq to a person associated with the powerful Shia group in Hezbollah.

Mariam Thompson, 62, admitted to sending the information to a Lebanese citizen in the belief that it had been passed on to the group – which was selected as a “terrorist group” by Washington.

“Thompson’s sentencing highlights the seriousness of his violation of the American people’s faith, the people he has wronged and the soldiers he worked with as friends and allies,” John Demers, head of the Justice’s National Security Division, said in a statement. Wednesday.

“The case should be a clear reminder to all those in charge of national security that disclosing one of these benefits to them, or to others, is not selfish or heroic; it is a crime,” said Alan Kohler Jr., chief executive officer of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.

According to court documents, Thompson, a Lebanese national born in Lebanon, worked as an interpreter for a foreign army when, in 2017, he fell in love with a video program with a man he allegedly linked with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Over time, Mr. Thompson fell in love with the perpetrators,” the justice department said.

He later learned that the man had a relative who was in the Lebanese interior ministry and the deputy said he had received the ring from Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general.

Security permit

Thompson was sent to a special US military base in Erbil, the Kurdish capital of Iraq, in December 2019. He had a very secretive government permit.

At the time, the group was launching threats to Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian military, which ended on January 3, 2020, with the deaths of Iranian General Qassem Soleiman, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Kataib Hezbollah.

Following January 3, 2020, the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the Kataib Hezbollah pro-Irani militia, allied with Thompson demanded more information on the wealth of people who had helped the US carry out the attacks.

It provided him with information from several U.S. investigators, including at least eight real names, as well as information about US military targets.

Thompson admitted he understood that this would be handed over to Hezbollah.

He was arrested by the authorities next month, in late February 2020.

Thompson said he was “desperate” for someone to love him when he was older and didn’t want to hurt anyone.

“I just wanted to be with someone who loved me in my old age, and because I really wanted that love I forgot who I was for a while,” Thompson told The Washington Post.