An IAF Boeing 707 refueling plane and several F-35 and F-15 fighter jets carry out a drill just off the coast of Israel, Aug. 15, 2024. (Photo: Israel Defense Forces)
A U.S. official working overseas has been indicted for leaking highly classified information about Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran, according to court papers filed on Wednesday.
CIA operative, Asif William Rahman, was arrested in Cambodia by the FBI this week and is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Guam on Thursday.
Rahman was charged by a federal court in Virginia on two counts of violating the Espionage Act by disclosing classified U.S. documents about Israel’s plans for a retaliatory strike against Iran.
The indictment shows Rahman gained access to a classified document marked “top secret” and “secure compartmented information” on Oct. 17 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, then delivering the document to someone who wasn’t authorized to receive it.
The leaked Pentagon documents were circulated on the internet just days after the Islamic Republic fired over 200 ballistic missiles at Israel and ahead of the Oct. 26 retaliatory strike on Iran’s military sites.
The top-secret documents, originating from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, noted that satellite imagery from Oct. 15 and 16 showed Israel was moving military enforcements in place to prepare for the retaliatory strike.
The documents first appeared on the Telegram messaging app in October and quickly spread throughout popular Telegram channels.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to strike Israel again after the Oct. 26 airstrike on its air defense batteries and military sites that wiped out some of their best Russian-made defense systems.
Iran’s spiritual leader and highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted on 𝕏, “The United States of America and the Zionist regime will definitely receive a crushing response for what they do against #Iran and the #Resistance Front.”
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in a video released by Iranian state media.
The Iranian assault on Oct. 1 was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel, after an unprecedented drone and missile strike in April, 99% of which was intercepted with the help of the U.S. military , only causing minimal damage.
The Islamic Republic of Iran said its Oct. 1 attack on Israel was a retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah Sec.-Gen. Hassan Nasrallah and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.
The CIA did not comment on the espionage case involving the U.S. official and a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond what was already included in the court records.
Tracy Walder, a former CIA covert operations officer and FBI special agent said the case was “very serious” because Rahman held such a high-security clearance.
“His leaking of the docs has confirmed that Israel has nukes as well as exposed our own collection methods,” Walder said.
Javed Ali, a professor at the University of Michigan who has held a variety of senior U.S. intelligence positions, said Rahman’s arrest will begin an investigation into the suspected leaker’s motives and possible accomplices in obtaining and posting the information.
“This is not a good-news story for the CIA,” Ali said. “Who is this person? How long had he been in the position? Was he an analyst? A case officer? What motivated him to leak the information that he had access to? Was he involved in Iran-related intelligence operations?”
Ali said the case reveals the significant vulnerabilities the U.S. government has when it comes to keeping highly classified and politically sensitive secrets from the public.
“The fact that it’s a CIA person here shows again that every day there are tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of people in the intelligence community and the military that have access to the most sensitive intelligence information this government has,” Ali said.
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