FBI offers $200,000 to former Air Force agent suspected of defecting to Iran

The FBI announced Thursday that it will offer $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the former US operative. Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations accused of espionage.

Monica Witt, 47, who also goes by the aliases Fatemah Zarah and Narges Witt, was indicted in Washington, DC in 2018 and charged with espionage. He is accused of defecting to Iran and passing classified information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Here’s what we know about Witt’s alleged ancestry from an American warfighter to suspected Iranian assets.

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US military service

Witt was born in El Paso, Texas, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1997, just after his 18th birthday. According to the New York Times, he was assigned to the RC-135 test flight team.

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His 2018 indictment says he was assigned to the US Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, between 1998 and 1999, where he studied Persian Farsi.

From May 1999 to November 2003, the Witt was sent to “several locations overseas to conduct various operations to gather signals intelligence.”

In 2002, he was reportedly sent to Saudi Arabia.

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The lawsuit says Witt was assigned as an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) special criminal investigator and intelligence officer, where he served elsewhere in the Middle East, including Iraq in 2005 and Qatar in 2006.

Monica Witt is believed to be living in Iran, according to FBI officials. (FBI)

He was part of the “Special Access Program” (SAP) which gave him access to classified information, including “details of ongoing intelligence operations, the true names of sources, and the identities of US agents involved in the recruitment of those sources.”

“This SAP was known within USIC by a code name,” the indictment said. “The code name allowed agents to communicate openly without revealing the true nature of their activities.”

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Witt’s tenure as a member of the Air Force ended in 2008.

Government contracts and education

From 2008 until 2010, Witt was employed as a government contractor but worked with AFOSI.

The New York Times reported that Witt earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 2008, around the same time he left the Air Force. After that, he enrolled in a graduate program at George Washington University in Middle Eastern studies.

Witt was described as “withdrawn” and “alienated” by his classmates, who also talked about “drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and atrocities against children.”

It was in February 2012, shortly before he graduated from George Washington University, that the government says Witt laid out his plans to betray the United States and defect to Iran.

A bridge damaged by a US airstrike is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, on April 3, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

He traveled to Iran that month to attend the International Conference on Hollywoodism in Tehran, an anti-Western event held during the annual Fajr International Film Festival “aimed at criticizing American moral values ​​and promoting anti-US propaganda,” according to the lawsuit.

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During that trip, he is accused of giving his “facts” to the IRGC in order to prove that he was a reliable source for US national security intelligence and that he disclosed government secrets to them.

He was not invited to Hollywoodism, but was allowed to speak anyway, according to the New York Times. The lawsuit says he “identified himself as an American veteran and made statements critical of the US government, knowing that these videos would be broadcast by Iranian media.”

At the same time, his public conversion to Islam was recorded and broadcast on Iranian state television.

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In May, around the same time he received his degree, the FBI reached out to Witt, telling him he was a high target for recruitment by Iranian intelligence officials.

An Iranian flag is planted in the rubble of a police station, damaged in airstrikes on March 3, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Rebellion

By then it was too late.

Witt has been caught by a “spotter” – someone who hires a foreign intelligence service – this time, in Iran.

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The lawsuit refers to the “spotter” as “Person A,” named by the New York Times as Louisiana-born journalist turned naturalized Iranian citizen and state broadcaster Marzieh Hashemi.

Hashemi allegedly traveled to the US, and together with Witt, filmed an anti-Western propaganda film that was later broadcast in Iran.

Over the next year, according to the indictment, Witt traveled from country to country while working with Hashemi to obtain permanent residency in Iran. Some of that time was spent in Dubai and Afghanistan.

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At the time, the FBI issued a missing persons notice for Witt, saying that as of July 2013, he was believed to be in Afghanistan or Tajikistan teaching English.

Iranians burn the flags of the United States and Israel during a rally in Enghelab Square in Tehran on March 17, 2026, to commemorate those killed in the sinking of the warship Dena. (Getty Images)

Messages between the two report on their efforts, including Iranian allegations about Witt and alleged plans to “quietly sneak into Russia” and leak US secrets through WikiLeaks if he can’t get to Iran. Witt said in another message that he will not go to Turkey for fear of the extradition agreement with the United States.

But on August 25, 2013, according to the lawsuit, Witt sent an email titled “My Bio and Job History” to Hashemi, which included additional “bona fides,” his Active Duty DD-214 certification form, and his Islamic “conversion.” The indictment alleges that at the same time, he was searching Facebook for names of US intelligence agencies.

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On the same day, that email was sent to an email address associated with the Iranian government.

On August 28, 2013, he boarded a flight to Iran.

“I’m leaving and I’m leaving! I’m coming home,” Hashemi texted.

Motorists pass by the Imam Sadiq (AS) Mosque with a large Iranian flag placed in front of Palestine Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)

Life in Iran

Shortly after the defection, Witt was accused of giving Iranian government officials the Department of Defense code name SAP.

Throughout 2014 and 2015, he is accused of helping to create “target packages,” defined as, “a document, or collection of documents, collected so that an intelligence or military agency can detect, fix, track, and eliminate a threat,” to the Iranian government.

Those “targeted episodes” allegedly included the names of US counterintelligence agents.

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Later, he was accused of linking Iranian hackers to producing malware “designed to capture keystrokes, access a computer’s webcam, and monitor other computer activity.”

This technology was turned into US intelligence assets that Witt identified, according to the lawsuit. Witt and his co-defendants conspired to install malware on the computers of U.S. military intelligence personnel known to Witt, primarily by communicating with them through Facebook.

Mourners wave Iranian flags and hold a poster of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a funeral in Tehran, Iran, on March 11, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

He was indicted along with four other accused of conspiracy in the robbery campaign.

Witt has been formally charged with conspiracy to deliver and delivering national security information to representatives of the Iranian government, delivering national security information to representatives of the Iranian government, conspiracy to hack, computer tampering, aggravated theft of information and aiding and abetting.

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“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime with National Security Information and may continue to support their nefarious activities,” said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber ​​​​Division, in Thursday’s announcement about the $00020 award.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical time in Iran’s history, someone knows where he is. The FBI wants to hear from you to help us catch Witt and bring him to justice.”