Defense Department Linguist Charged With Espionage

     WASHINGTON – Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State. According to the affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, the information Thompson gathered and transmitted included classified national defense information regarding active human assets, including their true names.  By compromising the identities of these human assets, Thompson placed the lives of the human assets and U.S. military personnel in grave danger.