An ex-CIA analyst pleaded responsible Friday to leaking high secret paperwork about Israel’s plans to retaliate in opposition to Iran final yr, forcing the assault to be delayed.
Asif W. Rahman, 34, admitted to violating the Espionage Act when he leaked two information he took from the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company on Oct. 17, which indicated that Israel was planning an airstrike in retaliation for Iran’s missile assault on Oct. 1, in line with court docket papers filed in Virginia federal court docket Friday.
The highest secret paperwork then landed the following day on a Telegram channel known as “Center East Spectator” and ultimately “appeared publicly on a number of social media platforms, full with the classification rating,” a press release of details filed by prosecutors reveals.
Rahman — who’d been with the CIA since 2016 and had a top-secret safety clearance — was working within the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when he snuck the paperwork out in his backpack, bringing them residence, copying them and distributing them, earlier than destroying proof of his actions, prosecutors declare.
He pleaded responsible to 2 counts of realizing and willful illegal retention and transmission of nationwide protection data and he’ll withstand 20 years behind bars at his sentencing on Might 15, in line with the plea settlement.
Rahman is more likely to get far much less time although as sentencing pointers suggest he obtain between 5 and six-and-a-half years behind bars.
Rahman’s lawyer, Amy Jeffress, advised Decide Patricia Tolliver Giles that her consumer had been in talks with prosecutors since December, in line with a report by the Washington Put up.
If he continues to work with the feds, prosecutors might in the end suggest an excellent lighter sentence.
Earlier than the unlawful disclosure of Israel’s plans, Rahman additionally gave away delicate data a number of different instances.
Within the spring of 2024, when he was working in Virginia as a CIA analyst, he disclosed a batch of 5 secret and high secret paperwork, making copies and giving them to individuals who weren’t allowed to see them, the assertion of details says.
And within the fall of 2024, he leaked one other 10 categorised paperwork — not together with the 2 involving Israel’s deliberate assault.
Every time, Rahman “deleted his exercise from digital gadgets and returned to his workstation with the categorised supplies the place he shredded them,” the court docket submitting says.
Rahman destroyed over 1.5 gigabytes of knowledge and likewise a smartphone and a router that he’d used to ship out the key data.
Prosecutors mentioned that Rahman could have been motivated by ideological beliefs and that he was nonetheless a menace to nationwide safety as a result of he might try and launch extra data to sway the Israeli’s struggle with Hamas.
The Israel army paperwork Rahman divulged didn’t embody images however laid out intelligence gathered from satellite tv for pc photographs of an Israeli base taken on Oct. 15 and 16.
Rahman’s breach pressured Israeli officers to postpone their assault — which was ultimately carried out on Oct. 26.
He’s presently behind bars.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the belief of the American folks by unlawfully sharing categorised nationwide protection data he swore an oath to guard,” Assistant Lawyer Common Matthew G. Olsen mentioned in a press release.
Jeffress declined to remark Friday afternoon.
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