WASHINGTON — A Defense Department contract linguist has been charged with giving classified information, including the names of U.S. government sources, to a Lebanese national with ties to the militant group Hezbollah, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors accused Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, of turning over information that placed in danger those intelligence assets and American military personnel.


Thompson appeared briefly in Washington’s federal court, where she was ordered held without bond pending a detention hearing next week. Neither she nor her lawyer addressed the allegations in court.