They say keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
But what’s happening at the Pentagon is just downright scary.
According to Politico report, Ariane Tabatabai, a Pentagon official whose links to Iran were revealed more than a year ago and who is reportedly suspected of being behind the leak of top secret US intelligence documents related to Israel, is no longer chief of staff for Assistant Secretary of Defense Christopher Maier.
Instead, she’s been “promoted” to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training.
A high-level description of her previous role in the Pentagon was as follows:
- Exercises authority, direction, and control of all special operations peculiar issues relating to the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces
- Is the Principal Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Official within the senior management of DoD
- Sits in the chain-of-command above USSOCOM for special operations-peculiar administrative matters; provides civilian oversight of the SOF enterprise.
- Advises, Assists, and Supports the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy on Special Operations and Irregular Warfare policy matters.
However, in her new role she will no longer have access to classified information about special programs, the current location of U.S. special forces, intelligence assessments, and much more.
This “promotion” is considered by some security experts as essentially a demotion and a viled admission that she was, in fact, the leaker, and they are working to contain the damage while the investigation continues.
This moves her out of the Special Ops world into an Admin slot with no access to real time real world info
Smells like a forced "promotion" she can't refuse while they investigate her and prep to bust her for the leaks https://t.co/sUNC1fyzrN
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) October 24, 2024
According to previous reports from RedState, Tabatabai’s position was as a policy adviser to disgraced Iran envoy Robert Malley, who’s accused of mishandling classified information himself.
And according to a Washington Free Beacon report, Tabatabai has been a frequent guest at the White House courtesy of Phil Gordon, who’s Kamala Harris’ national security advisor and who’s collaborated with Tabatabai on multiple opinion pieces “argu[ing] against sanctions on the Iranian regime.”