traitor muslim pilots

Iran Conducted Cyber Hacks on U.S., Recruited U.S. Air Force Officer to Steal Classified Info

February 13, 2019
Washington Free Beacon
By Adam Kredo

WARSAW, Poland—The Trump administration announced a new package of sanctions on Iranian entities tied to the cyber backing of U.S. individuals, a move that comes on the heels of American authorities indicting a U.S. Air Force officer who allegedly tried to pass classified information to Tehran after defecting to the country.

The Department of Justice announced early Wednesday that it had indicted Monica Elfriede Witt, also known as Fatemah Zahra, a former active duty U.S. Air Force Intelligence Specialist and Special Agent, for attempting to pass classified American information to Iran.

Witt had access to secret and top-secret information, according to the indictment, unsealed early Wednesday.

Witt was deployed to several overseas location to conduct "classified missions collecting signals intelligence," including those of adversaries.

Witt had access to "classified information, including details of ongoing counterintelligence operations, true names of sources, and the identities of U.S. agents involved in the recruitment of those sources," according to the indictment.

"In or around January 2012 to in or around May 2015, in Iran, and elsewhere outside the jurisdiction of any particular State or district, defendant [Witt] did knowingly and unlawfully combine, confederate, and agree with other persons, both known and unknown to the grand jury, including officers of the IRGC, to knowingly and unlawfully communicate, deliver, and transmit to a foreign government, specifically Iran, and to that foreign government’s representatives, officers, and agents, directly and indirectly, documents and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of Iran, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 794(a)," the indictment alleges.

The disclosure of this information leak was timed to coincide with an announcement by the Treasury Department that it is sanctioning a handful of Iranian entities for their role in cyber hacks on Americans.

The sanctions hit an Iranian-based entity tied to the country's Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC. This includes "efforts to recruit and collect intelligence from foreign attendees [of various conferences], including U.S. persons, and four associated individuals," according to the Treasury Department.

Sanctions also were leveled on "a separate Iran-based entity and six associated individuals involved in the targeting of current and former U.S. government and military personnel as part of a malicious cyber campaign to gain access to and implant malware on their computer systems."

The revelation of Iran's sophisticated cyber espionage operations comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo helms a major ministerial gathering in Warsaw aimed at countering Iran's malign activities across the globe. It is likely Tehran's cyber operations will be a topic of conversations in the wake of these disclosures.

"Treasury is taking action against malicious Iranian cyber actors and covert operations that have targeted Americans at home and overseas as part of our ongoing efforts to counter the Iranian regime's cyber attacks," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "Treasury is sanctioning New Horizon Organization for its support to the IRGC-QF. "

"New Horizon hosts international conferences that have provided Iranian intelligence officers a platform to recruit and collect intelligence information from attendees, while propagating anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial," Mnuchin said. "We are also sanctioning an Iran-based company that has attempted to install malware to compromise the computers of U.S. personnel."

Treasury coordinated with DOJ and the FBI, which separately announced the indictment of the Iranian defector.

US Air Force veteran convicted of attempting to join Islamic State

Tairod Pugh, 48, convicted after a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court – the first case of its kind

By Reuters
8:53PM GMT 09 Mar 2016

A US Air Force veteran was found guilty on Wednesday of attempting to join Islamic State, according to his lawyer.

Tairod Pugh, 48, was convicted after a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court. The case is the first in more than 75 Islamic State-related prosecutions brought since 2014 by the US Department of Justice to reach a jury verdict.

Prosecutors said Pugh immersed himself in violent Islamic State propaganda for months before buying a one-way flight from his home in Egypt to Turkey, where he hoped to cross the Syrian border into territory controlled by the extremist group.

He was detained by Turkish authorities at an Istanbul airport and eventually flown to the United States to face terrorism charges.

Pugh's defence lawyers argued that his only offence was to express "repugnant" views about Islamic State in Facebook posts and to watch dozens of the group's slickly produced recruitment videos. They said he travelled to Turkey to find work, not to become a jihadist.

But prosecutors pointed to a letter he drafted to his Egyptian wife, found on his laptop, in which he vowed to fight for Islam and declared he had two options: "Victory or Martyr." The letter was written days before he flew to Turkey, though it was unclear whether he ever sent it.

He also took with him to Istanbul a black face mask, a map depicting Islamic State's strongholds in Syria and a chart of the border crossings between Turkey and Syria.

Only one other Islamic State-related US prosecution has reached trial. In Phoenix, Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem is on trial for plotting with others to attack a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas. Two of his alleged associates were killed in a shoot-out with police at the event.

Pugh served as an avionics specialist in the Air Force from 1986 to 1990 and later worked as an Army contractor in Iraq from 2009 to 2010, prosecutors said.

In addition to attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organisation, Pugh also was convicted of obstruction for destroying four portable electronic storage devices after his detention in Turkey, local media reported.

RAF 'foiled ISIS airline terror plot to bomb four UK cities after cracking pop song code'

24 JAN 2016
BY STEVE ROBSON
Mirror

Two pilots, who were leaving Amsterdam's airport Schiphol for a Middle Eastern country, used coded language which made reference to pop music, it is claimed

The RAF foiled an Islamic State terror plot to bomb four UK cities after intercepting suspicious chatter between commercial airline pilots, it has been claimed.

The suspected jihadists made references to attacks on London, Brighton, Bath and Ipswich in the days after the Paris massacre last November, it was reported.

The two pilots, who were leaving Amsterdam's airport Schiphol for a Middle Eastern country, used coded language which made reference to pop music, the Sunday Express claims.

But it was reportedly cracked by GCHQ experts who believed the pair were planning to smuggle in explosives or chemical weapons.

The pair used the emergency 'Mayday' frequency to discuss their plans, it was reported.

The Ministry of Defence said today it would not comment on matters of national security.

The Government considered increasing the terror threat level in Britain to 'critical' from 'severe' in the wake of the attacks on the streets of Paris last November 13 which left 130 dead.

It also emerged last year that defence chiefs have drawn up plans to deploy more than 5,000 troops on the streets of the UK in the event of a terrorist attack.

The plan, codenamed Operation Temperer, would see the army protect key targets alongside armed police.

It comes as France vowed to keep its state of emergency until a 'total and global war' against ISIS has been won.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the country would not relent in its high-security strategy, while also warning Europe's migration crisis was putting EU countries at risk.

The measures give police more power to conduct raids and impose house arrests.

Mr Valls said: "As long as the threat is there, we must use all the means.

"In Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia we must eradicate, eliminate Daesh. It is a total and global war that we are facing with terrorism."