A CIA official has been charged with leaking Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack last year.
Asif W. Rahman was indicted last week in Virginia and was arrested on Tuesday in Cambodia, as reported by The New York Times.
He was taken to Guam to face federal charges – two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.
Rahman is accused of leaking documents that included highly classified information and detailed interpretations of satellite imagery that gave insight into a possible Israeli strike in Iran.
The documents reportedly began circulating last month on Telegram.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets fired by the Islamic Republic, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on October 1
A general view of Tehran after several explosions were heard in Tehran on October 26, 2024. Israel announced the launch of ‘precise strikes’ on military targets in Iran
US officials had previously said they did not know the source of the leak and were looking into it.
Rahman held a top secret security clearance and had access to sensitive compartmentalized information.
The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and were sharable within the ‘Five Eyes,’ which are the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
One of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.
The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran’s capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran’s self-described ‘Axis of Resistance,’ which includes Middle East militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, October 23
Netanyahu promised to exact retribution on Iran following a ballistic missile strike on Israel by the Islamic Republic on October 1
Last month Israel attacked several military targets in Iran in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired on Israel weeks earlier.
It was the first time Israel’s military has openly attacked Iran.
Iran had earlier fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel, causing minimal damage, after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic post in Syria.
The US has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a cease-fire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war.
