Mariam Thompson, love-struck US army linguist, jailed for 23 years

A US military linguist has been jailed for 23 years for passing classified information to a foreign national linked to the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

Mariam Thompson, 62, admitted sharing the names of US informants in Iraq to a man she was romantically linked with.

She said she had been "desperate" for "someone to love me in my old age" and did not set out to harm anyone.

Prosecutors said she knew she was putting US sources and troops at risk.

"Thompson's sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation of the trust of the American people, of the human sources she jeopardised and of the troops who worked at her side as friends and colleagues," John Demers, head of the Justice Department's national security division, said on Wednesday.