FBI Offers $200,000 Reward for Former Air Force Intelligence Specialist Who Defected to Iran

The FBI announced on May 14 a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Monica Elfriede Witt, a former Air Force counterintelligence special agent and linguist who defected to Iran in 2013. Witt, who studied Persian at the Defense Language Institute and served in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, used fraudulent social media accounts to prepare target packages for Iranian intelligence and revealed the classified true name and activities of a US Intelligence Community operative. The enhanced reward announcement comes during the ongoing Iran conflict.