A former soldier has been indicted on espionage charges. Iran He spent ‘over a year’ trying to gain the trust of the agents he approached. FacebookThe court heard.
Daniel CaliphOn the 23rd, they discovered Hamed Gashgabi through a list of individuals sanctioned by the U.S. government and approached him through social media platforms.
‘I contacted the person and explained my job, and I trashed everything, and he said, ‘Oh, I do this, I do that, I do that.’ It took more than a year for them to finally trust me,’ Khalife said.
He told police he had always wanted to work in intelligence and was shocked to be told he might not pass the screening because he was from Iran-Lebanon.
Instead, he decided to start his own business, meeting agents in parks and cemeteries to collect payments and flying to Istanbul for meetings.
The Caliph said he got ‘a bit of a thrill’ from trying to be a double agent. It has struggled to gain Iran’s trust. He began creating fake top secret documents and said he worked for the British Army’s ‘Gucci’ unit.
Accused Iranian spy Daniel Khalife spent ‘well over a year’ gaining the trust of agents he approached through Facebook, court finds
Khalife joined the army at the age of 17 and served as a computer network engineer in the Royal Corps of Signals, the British Army’s communications unit.
Khalife, from Kingston, south-west London, is accused of collecting secrets from the Royal Regiment of Signals and passing them on to Iranian agents using the name ‘David Smith’.
Khalife was then charged under the Official Secrets Act. Escaped from Wandsworth Prison in a catering van. He was recaptured three days later after a nationwide search.
Khalif was arrested by police on January 6 last year after sending two emails to MI6. Two anonymous calls to MI5 He tried to tell them what he had done.
He told police after his arrest: ‘I wanted to be a double agent, a sort of intermediary in contact with Iran. I have always hated Iran. I hate the damn government too. It’s not even a joke, I hate it so much, I hate it all.
‘Maybe the way I think is immature and a little crazy, but I thought I could make a difference.
‘I thought I was smart enough to do it myself, and I didn’t care what anyone said, but I did it. I’ve reached out, and I’d love to see someone else do the same.’
Caliph was told he was unlikely to get developmental screening to work in his dream job, providing signal support for special forces, and ‘all the cards on the table were just off.’ All the chess pieces are gone.’
Afterwards he told police: ‘I don’t want to be here and I’m not interested in sitting on the radio all day.’ I’m better than that. I know it sounds a bit narcissistic, but I felt like I was better than everyone else.’
Khalife said working in the intelligence field was ‘everything I ever wanted’, adding ‘I wanted to prove I could do it myself and it was a bit of a thrill’.
The 23-year-old was in prison on terrorism charges after allegedly plotting a fake bomb hoax at his army barracks in Stafford, Md., and passing material to Iranian intelligence.
He added that it had been his goal ‘ever since I was a baby.’ ‘I’d like to continue like the MI6 website and do the little quizzes they do.’
“It may sound crazy, you may be thinking, what the heck is this guy, but my intention from the beginning was to contact the security services,” Khalif said, adding that he created the fake document. I wanted to be a double agent.’
Khalife said that’s because ‘it’s a bit of a gray area because that’s the only way to do this without getting a security clearance.’
Through the document, the Iranian agent ‘finally believed what I said.’ But they wanted to know which department he worked in.
‘I put it together and said it really like a Gucci unit. I got a letter congratulating me on completing your course, so I made an exact copy, but I put it in that it’s kind of like a Gucci unit, the term we use for a special, specialized unit.
‘From then on they really started to believe me.’
Khalife denies committing any act detrimental to the security or interests of the state.
The trial continues with the extraction of information on military members and their escape from lawful custody.
Khalife said he began to realize he needed help, but MI5 did not return his calls. ‘I was trying to do this on my own for about a month before I contacted him and it’s been two or three years and it’s been a complete mess. .
‘I know you’re so far away from everyone because you’re doing everything on your own. I’m not looking for sympathy or anything, but all I wanted was some help.
‘You have the entire intelligence community, the entire IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards) and you are left here and I know I get nothing in return. I called MI5 but got no answer.’
He told police: ‘I want you guys to do this because I don’t want to do it anymore.’
Caliph claimed to have escaped from Wandsworth, a claim he denied, and a nationwide search followed for several days.
‘Dude, I just turned 20 and was a fucking teenager. Everybody was going to a nightclub and I was sitting there and this fucking intelligence agent was screaming in my ear and saying he wanted me to go to Iran and that they were debating whether to kill me or not. .
‘I didn’t know what to do. The moment I didn’t hear from you, I was embarrassed because I thought I’d never be able to call again.’
In a second interview he added: ‘Every plan I had to work in the intelligence community of this country was what I wanted, but it didn’t work out.
‘I had no other plans, so what else could I have done? I contacted MI6, I contacted MI5. What should I do? Dial 999.
‘I didn’t know what to do. I was so transfixed, but what I expected actually happened. If they called me again I had so much evidence to give them.’
