A Syrian man who prosecutors say was a central figure in a hacking operation run from former President Bashar Assad’s inner circle was sentenced Thursday to 42 months in federal prison.
Ahmad Umar Agha, 42, carried out the conspiracy from as early as Aug. 24, 2011, until Jan. 31, 2024, according to the Justice Department. The operation was organized and led by members of Assad’s circle, including the commander of Syria’s General Intelligence Directorate.
Agha hacked approximately 47 media entities, businesses, nongovernmental organizations and U.S. and allied government bodies, prosecutors said. The motives included punishing news organizations for reporting on Syrian government atrocities during the Arab Spring and the civil war that followed, spreading fear and confusion among the regime’s opponents, collecting intelligence and trying to persuade members of the U.S. military to refuse their orders.
“Agha deployed his hacking skills in the service of Assad’s regime to silence reporting on the regime’s atrocities, intimidate its opponents, and incite U.S. servicemembers to refuse their orders,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.
The most damaging intrusion came April 23, 2013. Prosecutors said Agha accessed the Twitter account belonging to the Associated Press to post a false claim that President Barack Obama had been injured in two explosions at the White House. The post triggered a flash crash, briefly erasing $136 billion in value from the stock market.
In another intrusion, Agha, who used the hacker handle, “Th3 Pr0,” compromised the company hosting the U.S. Marine Corps’ recruitment website and redirected about 3,500 visitors to an image urging Marines to refuse their orders and fight alongside the Syrian Army. On two occasions, he stole usernames and passwords for White House staff email accounts in attempts to take control of the White House’s social media accounts. In one instance he succeeded, prosecutors said.
The costs to victims were significant. One company that works with online publishers lost about $35,000 a day for roughly six months. A global nongovernmental organization spent about $250,000 on new network monitoring products, retrained more than 800 staff members and suffered $480,000 in total losses.
“This case emphasizes the grave threat posed by cyber criminals and especially those serving regimes hostile to the United States,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Agha and coconspirator Firas Dardar were first charged by criminal complaint June 12, 2014, and indicted May 17, 2018. Dardar remains a fugitive. He was also charged in 2015 in a separate conspiracy alongside Peter Romar, a Syrian national then living in Germany, that involved computer intrusion, extortion, money laundering and violations of the Syrian Sanctions Regulations. Romar was extradited from Germany and pleaded guilty in 2016.
Assad’s regime collapsed in December 2024, and the former president fled the country.
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