Former CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty to Leaking Secret Documents About Israel Strike Plans on Iran
A former CIA officer named Asif Rahman has been arrested and has pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about Israel’s plans to launch a missile strike on Iran.
Rahman, who is from Ohio and attended Yale University, was arrested in Cambodia, then transferred to Guam, and is now being held in Virginia.
ABC News reports:
Former CIA analyst pleads guilty to leaking Israeli retaliation plansA former CIA analyst arrested in November and charged with leaking highly classified records showing Israeli plans to launch a retaliatory strike on Iran pleaded guilty Friday in a federal court in Virginia.Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of transmission of national defense information, according to court records.Rahman faces up to 10 years in prison for the first count and up to three years for the second count. His sentencing was set for May 15.Rahman admitted to accessing and printing out two documents regarding Israel’s retaliatory strike plans on Oct. 17 and transporting them to his residence, where he later uploaded images of them and provided them to “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them,” according to the plea agreement.He later took various steps to try and conceal his involvement in the leak, even as authorities were able to track him down remarkably quickly given he was the only individual found to have printed out the documents, according to logs reviewed by investigators.
This reinforces the idea that our intel community deserves more scrutiny.
Ynet News has more details on what was leaked:
Rahman, 34, was arrested after an FBI investigation linked the leaked documents to his workstation at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The highly classified documents detailed aerial drills, weapons movements at an Israeli air base and preparations for a possible strike on Iran. These included a “large-scale deployment drill,” aerial refueling drills and handling of advanced air-launched ballistic missiles (ALBM), including at least 16 “Golden Horizon” missiles and 40 “Rocks” or ISO2 missiles.The documents were leaked on October 17 via a Telegram channel called Middle East Spectator, shortly after Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. At the time, the Biden administration was urging Israel to refrain from attacking Iranian nuclear or energy facilities.Rahman, a Yale University graduate, faces up to 20 years in prison under the Espionage Act. However, a plea deal under negotiation could limit his sentence to six and a half years. Federal prosecutors reportedly agreed to the reduced penalty after Rahman took responsibility for his actions and expressed a desire to resolve the case.
Six and a half years is a ridiculously short sentence for this. There are J6 people who have already been in prison for almost that long.
Featured image via YouTube.
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