Pentagon translator jailed for exposing US sources in Iraq

Mariam Thompson sentenced to 23 years in jail for passing the names of US informants to a man linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

A Pentagon translator has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for passing the names of United States informants in Iraq to a person linked to Lebanon’s powerful Shia movement Hezbollah. Mariam Thompson, 62, admitted transmitting the classified information to a Lebanese national in the belief that it was being passed on to the group – designated a “terrorist organisation” by Washington. “Thompson’s sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation of the trust of the American people, of the human sources she jeopardised and of the troops who worked at her side as friends and colleagues,” John Demers, head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, said in a statement on Wednesday.