Ex-CIA Official Admits To Stealing, Leaking Israeli Attack Plans On Iran
A former CIA analyst pled guilty in federal court this week to stealing and leaking secret Israeli retaliation plans in October against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, had been employed by the agency since 2016 and had a Top-Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).
The U.S. Department of Justice said that on October 17, 2024, Rahman “accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information” related to Israel’s planned retaliatory strikes against Iran after Iran had fired hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel just a couple of weeks prior.
The following day the classified documents began to appear on social media platforms and were widely reported on.
The DOJ continued:
After Oct. 17, 2024, Rahman deleted and edited journal entries and written work product on his personal electronic devices to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity. Rahman also destroyed multiple electronic devices, including a personal mobile device and an internet router he used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct.
Beginning in the spring of 2024 and continuing through November 2024, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information, including documents classified up to the Top Secret level, to take them to his residence. There, Rahman reproduced the documents and, while doing so, altered them in an effort to conceal their source and his activity. Rahman then communicated Top Secret information that he learned in the course of his employment to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury on November 7th and was arrested the following week as he arrived at work.
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He pled guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense, and remains in federal custody. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will spare no effort to swiftly find and aggressively prosecute those who harm the United States by illegally disclosing our national security secrets.”