The FBI is now offering a $200,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of former United States counterintelligence agent, Monica Witt, who defected to Iran more than a decade ago.
The May 14 announcement puts Witt, a former Air Force intelligence specialist, back at the center of a national security case that has haunted federal law enforcement since 2013. The Texas native, apparently fluent in Persian, is now rumored to be residing in Iran, where she may still be aiding the country’s rulers.
The FBI specifically raised concerns that Witt’s information could empower the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has “elements responsible for intelligence collection,” and provides “direct support to multiple terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens.”
But Witt’s betrayal, recorded in a 2019 federal indictment, is just one example of the chaos a trusted insider can inflict. The 47-year-old is far from alone in the long saga of espionage against the U.S. For decades, the government has grappled with the recurring threat of its own residents turning against it.
Here is a definitive ranking of the most-infamous defectors and spies in recent U.S. history.
1. Robert Hanssen
The former FBI agent who spent 22 years selling the bureau’s most sensitive secrets to Russia for more than $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and Rolex watches, is widely considered the most destructive spy in U.S. history.
Hanssen compromised dozens of human intelligence sources and revealed the existence of a classified tunnel the NSA had dug beneath the Soviet embassy in Washington.
He died in federal prison in 2023, aged 79.
2. Aldrich Ames
A CIA counterintelligence officer who, beginning in 1985, handed the KGB a list of U.S. assets operating inside the Soviet Union, resulting in the execution of 10 known CIA agents.
The financial motive—Ames was paid more than $4 million—made his treachery feel both calculating and banal.
3. Edward Snowden
The former NSA contractor who leaked the details of mass global surveillance programs in 2013 is known to have caused catastrophic damage to American capabilities and has lived in Moscow ever since.
4. Chelsea Manning
Born Bradley Edward Manning, Manning was an army intelligence analyst during the Iraq War who passed more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic files to WikiLeaks.
Manning, now 38, was charged with 22 offenses including aiding the enemy.
She served around seven years before her sentence was commuted by then-Democratic President Barack Obama.
5. Monica Witt
The FBI’s renewed push for information on Witt underscores the damage she caused.
A native of El Paso, Texas, Witt served in the U.S. military from 1997 to 2008 and later worked as a government contractor, accumulating access to top-secret information including the true identities of intelligence personnel in undercover roles.
The FBI now warns her intelligence could be actively empowering the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), while she reportedly resides in Iran.
6. Ana Montes
Known within intelligence circles as the “Queen of Cuba,” the former Defense Intelligence Agency senior analyst spied for Cuba for 17 years.
Montes pleaded guilty to spying and, in October 2002, was sentenced to a 25-year prison term to be followed by five years’ probation. She was released on January 6, 2023 and is serving five years of probation in Puerto Rico.
7. John Walker
The Navy warrant officer who ran a family spy ring for the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985 gave Russian intelligence officials the keys to encrypted naval communications.
U.S. officials later said the operation may have been catastrophic had the Cold War turned hot.
8. Lee Harvey Oswald
Before gaining international attention for the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959, renounced his citizenship, and offered intelligence to Moscow. He moved back to the U.S., with his Russian wife, just months before murdering the then-president.
9. Abouzar Rahmati
The naturalized U.S. citizen and former contractor with the Federal Aviation Administration pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of the Iranian government inside the U.S. without notifying the attorney general.
10. Jack Teixeira
The former Massachusetts Air National Guard airman leaked classified Pentagon intelligence assessments on an online gaming server starting from October 2022, in what officials described as one of the most-serious military intelligence breaches in years.
The 24-year-old’s recent case is a reminder that the insider threat is not a relic of the Cold War.
11. Eileen Wang
The former mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an agent of the Chinese government—a rare and striking case of a sitting elected official facing espionage-related charges.
12. Jinchao Wei
The former U.S. Navy sailor was convicted on espionage-related charges after transmitting classified military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
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