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American spies are trying to figure out what made an Air Force sergeant defect to Iran and help the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps try and hack her old coworkers. Monica Witt left the Air Force in 2008, but after appearing at a handful of conferences in Iran, prosecutors say she fled to the country to help its cyberoperators target Americans. Witt has left few clues behind about her motivations but The Daily Beast found some of her writings that hint at why Witt began to have doubts about her life and her career in the military.
In her own words: Witt’s personal website from 2012, written under the name she took when she converted to Islam, features a brief narrative of her upbringing in Nebraska, her career in the military, and what she says was one of the “many defining moments” that led her to question her life in the U.S. military and her faith.