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The US Department of Justice announced that former Pentagon interpreter Mary Thompson has pleaded guilty to transmitting classified defense information to Hezbollah, Lebanon. According to a court document, Maryam Taha Thompson (now 63 years old) began sending information after the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Quds Force, in a US airstrike in January 2020.
Thompson, who had a security clearance allowing access to top-secret information, was stationed at a special operations force facility in Iraq from mid-December 2019 until his arrest in February 2020.
Years before the transfer of classified information began, Thompson met a Lebanese citizen through social media with the advice of a relative, and the man claimed that he has a “relative” who works for the Lebanese Ministry of the Interior and has contacts with members of “Hezbollah”.
Although Thompson never met the man in person, he expressed his desire to marry her and move her to Lebanon, according to the court document.
After Soleimani’s death, the man began asking Thompson to “provide” information on the human assets that had helped the United States attack the Iranian leader, and Thompson knew that “they” means “Hezbollah.”
Thompson feared that if she refused to pass on the information, her relationship with the Lebanese citizen would “end” and “he would not marry her.”
The US justice said that Thompson provided the man with information on “the identities of at least 10 secret human assets and at least 20 US facilities, as well as multiple tactics, techniques and procedures.”
On the other hand, the man told her that “the information she provided was satisfied by those involved” and that after her arrival in Lebanon, she would present it to a military commander in Hezbollah.
After pleading guilty to a charge related to providing national defense information to a foreign government, Thompson faces life in prison. The sentence will be pronounced on June 23.
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