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Breaking into the Iranian scene as a "Wall Street Activist"Whether or not the 2012 "Hollywoodism" conference had anything to do with Witt's recruitment, it was there that Witt made her first public appearance in Iran.
Mehanna insisted that Witt had not been formally invited to participate in the "Hollywoodism" conference, and maintained that New Horizon did not sponsor the event. "It was Marzieh [Hashemi] who brought her," Mehanna said.
For her part, Hashemi stated, "I am not sure if this individual was invited or not," referring to Witt. "I saw her at the conference, but later I was told that she had already been here in Iran and just came to the conference."
Invited or not, Witt was able to speak at the event, and was billed in conference literature published after the event as a "Wall Street Activist," referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The former Air Force officer converted to Islam in a publicly broadcast ceremony, and gave an interview to Press TV, Iran's state media company, during which she identified as a US military veteran.
New Horizon's Mehanna fervently denied any connection between her conference and Witt's espionage activities.
"Why should we be accused and sanctioned for something that we did not commit?" she exclaimed. "Ask any of our guests if they were approached by any IRGC member or asked to share any information related to security. The answer would be no!"
Michael Maloof, a former US Pentagon official who attended the conference in the name of fostering better relations with Iran, told The Grayzone that he was unable to detect any presence of IRGC recruiters at the event.
Maloof was nevertheless visited at his home this May by FBI agents asking questions about New Horizon.
Traumatized by "drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and atrocities against children"
Following her first trip to Iran, Witt returned to the US in May 2012 to complete a graduate program at George Washington University. In DC, she was approached by FBI agents who warned her that she was a target for recruitment by a foreign intelligence agency.
She promised she would not discuss her work with the US Air Force if she ever traveled to Iran again.
A former classmate of Witt's at George Washington told the New York Times that Air Force veteran was traumatized by US war crimes she had witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "She would talk about how she couldn't sleep at night, the stuff she saw and was a part of," the classmate said of Witt.
According to the Times, Witt "would mention drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and atrocities against children, all of which she claimed her colleagues in the military would brag about. She seemed distressed by what she called 'gross incompetence' by her superiors."
By the time Witt returned to Iran the following year, dropping in on another "Hollywoodism" conference, she was on the path to defecting and forking over information she had gathered as an intelligence analyst. Helping her make the move was Hashemi, the journalist and US dual citizen, according to federal prosecutors.
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