Ariane Tabatabai, a Pentagon official whose troubling links to the Iranian regime 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.
Politico reports that Tabatabai has been promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training, a position she’s (also) completely unqualified for:
ARIANE TABATABAI is now the deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position she was offered last month. She was previously chief of staff for assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.
Note that Politico pointedly asserts that Tabatabai was offered the position last month, likely in an attempt to make people believe that this move wasn’t in response to the document leak.
In her position as chief of staff to Maier, Tabatabai had access to extremely sensitive intelligence assessments because of what Maier’s role entails:
ASD(SO/LIC) oversees and advocates for Special Operations and Irregular Warfare throughout the Department of Defense to ensure these capabilities are resourced, ready, and properly employed in accordance with the National Defense Strategy. In this role, the ASD:
- 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.
A defense official with knowledge of the investigation told RedState on Saturday evening that investigators believe that the top secret documents related to Israel’s activity/preparations to strike Iran that were leaked to an Iranian-linked Telegram channel were leaked by Tabatabai, and Sky News Arabic reported the same on Monday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters Wednesday, though, that, “There’s no OSD official being named as a part of this investigation.” […]
— Read More: redstate.com
