Who is Monica Witt? FBI offers $200,000 reward for former Air Force expert’s capture, releases new poster in Persian

The poster was posted on the FBI website earlier this week and appears to be designed to appeal to Farsi speakers Iranian. The move underscores the FBI’s renewed commitment to arrest and prosecute Witt in a long-running national security case involving the alleged transfer of classified intelligence to foreign adversaries.

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An FBI representative chose not to provide Newsweek with any comment about possible tips received since the announcement.

Witt, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2019 on espionage charges, including transmitting defense information to the Iranian government. A federal arrest warrant was subsequently issued for her.

this FBI There has been renewed interest in Vitter’s case as the United States has been locked in a conflict with Iran since late February. Officials suspect that ongoing instability in Iran could leak information about Vitter’s location.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel Wierzbicki said Witt “allegedly betrayed his oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing defense information to the Iranian regime and may continue to support their nefarious activities.” washington the field office’s counterintelligence and cyber division said in a statement released earlier this month.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes someone knows her whereabouts at this critical time in Iran’s history,” Wierzbicki added.

The FBI described Witt as a white female, 5 feet 6 inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, and weighing approximately 120 pounds. Her famous aliases include Fatemah Zahra and Narges Witt.

Her tenure in the Air Force lasted from 1997 to 2008, during which time she received Farsi training and deployed internationally on classified counterintelligence operations, including missions in the Middle East. After her tour of duty, she worked as a Department of Defense contractor until 2010.

Witt, a native of El Paso, Texas, defected to Iran in 2013 after receiving invitations to attend two fully-funded conferences in Iran that the Justice Department claimed were intended to promote anti-Western propaganda and criticize American moral values.