A former soldier who escaped from prison after being accused of spying for Iran told police he decided to carry out his own interception operation after contacting an Iranian agent via Facebook, a court heard.
Daniela Khalifa he told officers after his arrest that he had always wanted to work in intelligence, and was devastated when he was told that his Iranian-Lebanese heritage meant he might not pass the background check.
Instead he decided to launch his own operation, meeting Iranian agents in a park and cemetery to receive payment, then flying to Istanbul for the meeting, Woolwich Crown Court was told.
Khalife told police he got “a little excited” about trying to be a double agent, but struggled to gain the Iranians' trust until he started creating fake top secret documents and told them he was working for the Gucci unit in the US. British Army.
A 23-year-old from Kingston in the South West LondonHe is accused of collecting secrets from the Royal Regiment of Signals, which he passed on to an Iranian agent using the name David Smith.
After being charged under the Official Secrets Act, Khalifé allegedly escaped from Wandsworth Prison under a catering van. He was captured three days later after a nationwide manhunt.
Khalife denies committing any act that threatens the security or interests of the state, obtaining information about members of the armed forces or escaping from lawful custody.
The former soldier was originally arrested by police on January 6 last year after he emailed MI6 twice and then anonymously called MI5 twice to tell them what he had done.
“I thought I was smart enough to do it myself.”
After his arrest, the jury heard him tell police: 'I wanted to be a double agent, I wanted to be an intermediary with Iran. I always hated it Iran. I hate this fucking government. I'm not even kidding, I hate it so much, I hate them all.
“Maybe it's immature and a little crazy the way I think, but I thought I could make a difference.
“I almost thought I was smart enough to do it myself and didn't really care what anyone said, but I did. I made a connection and I would like to see someone else do it.”
Khalife was told he was unlikely to be vetted to work in his dream job offering signals support to special forces, and that “all the cards on the table were just gone, all the chess pieces.”
He then told police: “I don't want to be here, I'm not interested in sitting on the damn radio all day. I'm better. I know it sounds a little narcissistic, but I felt like I was better than everyone else.”
Working in intelligence was his goal “since childhood”
Khalife said working in intelligence was “all I ever wanted to do,” the court heard, before adding: “I wanted to prove I could do it myself and it was kind of exciting.”
This has been his goal “since I was a kid,” he said, adding: “I'm going to act like the MI6 website and take these little quizzes they run there.”
The Woolwich court, presided over by Justice Cheema-Grubb, heard that Khalifa described how he found an agent called Hamed Ghashgavi by looking through a list of people sanctioned by the US government and contacting him on Facebook.
“I contacted him and explained to him what my job was. In a sense, I kept silent about everything. I thought, 'Oh, I'm doing this, that, that.' It took over a year for them to finally trust me,” he said. Police.
Khalife told officers he had prepared false documents, adding: “I know it sounds crazy, you're probably thinking 'what the hell is this guy', but our intention from the beginning was to contact the security services. I wanted to be a double agent.”
He said he thought it was “the only way I can do this job without getting a security clearance because it's a gray area.”
Thanks to the documents, the Iranian agent “finally believed me,” he told the officers, but then they wanted to know which unit he worked for.
“I made it up and said I was really in the Gucci unit. I received a letter congratulating me for completing the course, so I made an exact copy, but wrote that I was in some Gucci unit – the terminology we use for a special, specialized unit.
“From that moment on they really started to believe me.”
'MI5 didn't call me back'
Khalifa said he began to realize he needed help, but MI5 he did not answer phone calls, the court heard.
“I was only going to do it on my own for a month before I made the connection, but it was two, three years and it was just messed up,” he said.
“You know you're so detached from everyone because you do it all by yourself. I'm not looking for sympathy or anything, but I just wanted help. You know, you have an entire intelligence agency, the entire IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard), and you fucking stay here and I get nothing in return. I call MI5 and they don't call me back.
He told police he “just couldn't wait for you guys to do it because I didn't want to take it anymore.”
“Man, I just turned 20, I was that damn teenager, man. Everyone was going to nightclubs and I was sitting there with a fucking intelligence officer screaming in my ear saying he wanted me to go to Iran and I was thinking about whether they were going to kill me or not.
“I didn't know what to do. The moment they didn't call me back, I thought, “I can't call them again.” I felt embarrassed.”
“I have contacted MI6… MI5, what should I do, call 999?”
Jurors were told that in a second interview he added: “All the plans I had for the intelligence community in this country, that's what I wanted, but it just didn't work out.
“I didn't really have any other plans, what else could I do? I contacted MI6, I contacted MI5, what do I do, call 999?
“I didn't know what to do, I was just stuck, and then what I actually expected happened. I had so much evidence I could have given them if they had just called me back.”
The process continues.
