A Pentagon official allegedly named as a suspect in the recent leak of U.S. intelligence to Iran has been transferred to a less sensitive post, the Pentagon informed Congress on Friday. “She’s been transferred to a place [where], they say, she will have fewer classified documents available to her,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) remarked skeptically on “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “I hope that Congress is going to take a really hard look at what happened.”
On October 18, a Telegram account linked to the Iranian regime published two classified documents showing U.S. intelligence about Israel’s war preparations. The leak forced Israel to delay their impending strike, retaliating for Iran’s October 1 missile barrage, and return to the drawing board. Israel successfully carried out their new attack plan on Saturday, only sharing information with the U.S. shortly before the attack.
On October 22, Sky News Arabia reported that Iranian-American scholar Ariane Tabatabai was a suspect in the leak investigation, according to an unnamed U.S. official. Members of Congress had raised concerns about Tabatabai’s security clearance in September 2023, after emails from the Iranian regime were published by Semafor, showing Tabatabai’s participation in an Iranian foreign influence operation in 2014.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry launched the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) to influence U.S. policymakers during negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal and were pleased with the results achieved by Tabatabai and others. “Tabatabai has never publicly disclosed her role in the IEI,” noted Jay Solomon, former global security editor for Semafor but now writing for The Free Press.
By the fall of 2023, Tabatabai was serving as chief of staff for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC), among the most sensitive posts in the government. Another SO/LIC veteran told Solomon, “I cannot underscore [enough]: The things SO/LIC … are doing are more sensitive than what the CIA is doing.”
At the time, the Biden-Harris administration went to bat for Tabatabai, defending her from congressional criticism and standing behind her security clearance. Last week, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder denied that Tabatabai was “a subject of interest” in the leak investigation, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “all but ruled out the culprit being Tabatabai or anyone else from the Pentagon,” Solomon acknowledged. Then, on Friday, the Pentagon informed Congress that Tabatabai had transferred from the SO/LIC office to a much less sensitive post.
“We may never know the identity of the leaker — there are probably thousands of bureaucrats across the U.S. government who had access to the documents. But of those masses, a single name has been circulating online: Ariane Tabatabai,” observed Solomon. “There is no evidence we have found that Tabatabai is the leaker, despite the fact that various Arab and Israeli news sites reported as much.”
“But, at the same time, the Defense Department, in recent days, quietly transferred the Iranian American academic out of her Pentagon post,” Solomon added. “The Pentagon press office declined to answer questions provided by The Free Press about Tabatabai’s status or the reasons for her transfer. And her job change is likely to deepen questions from Capitol Hill Republicans.”
In her new role, Tabatabai will be Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training, a role with “significantly less access to intelligence and covert military programs,” wrote Solomon. On paper, Tabatabai was promoted from chief of staff to deputy assistant secretary.
But “everyone that is in the know understands that this is not a promotion,” countered former SO/LIC official Garrett Exner. “She wants to be active in the policy space, and going over to education and force training is not.” He said the Biden-Harris administration transferred her to a department “where she can’t really touch any classified material.”
“In your view, is this transfer just to try to sweep [the scandal] under the rug, hoping people will just forget about it?” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins asked Congressman Self. “Absolutely,” replied Self. “This is trying to put cover between them and her treason. That’s all it is. It’s a CYA exercise.”
“My question is why do we not see an indictment coming down?” Self asked. “We know that this individual was a member of the Iran Experts Initiative, which was specifically to bolster Iran’s view in the U.S., for their foreign policy. Now she holds a classified clearance in the Department of Defense.” He called not disclosing these foreign connections “an indictable offense, a felony offense.”
“I served in the Pentagon in the black intelligence programs, as deep as you can get,” continued Self. “And if I had done anything like this [leaking classified intelligence to a U.S. adversary], I wouldn’t be in Leavenworth; I would be buried underneath Leavenworth. This is a chargeable offense. This is a felony offense.”
“I’ve held a security clearance, and I know any contact I have with foreign officials — I have to report that. That has to be disclosed,” Perkins added. “How could she be a part of an influence-peddling operation from Tehran and not disclose that?”
Someone in the U.S. government must get to the bottom of this affair, Self concluded, but “the Department of Justice is not going to do it. The DoD IG [Department of Defense inspector general] could do it. Will they? I doubt it.” With no answers to be expected from the Biden-Harris administration, he concluded, “Congress will have to do this.”
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.