Asif William Rahman has pled responsible to transmitting categorized nationwide defence info, the US Justice Division says.
A former Central Intelligence Company (CIA) worker has pleaded responsible to leaking secret paperwork about Israel’s plans to strike Iran final yr throughout a interval of escalating regional tensions linked to Israel’s warfare on Gaza and Lebanon.
In a press release on Friday, the USA Division of Justice stated Asif William Rahman, 34, pleaded responsible to 2 counts of “willful retention and transmission of categorized info” associated to nationwide defence.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Might 15 and faces a most penalty of 10 years in jail for each counts, in keeping with a plea settlement.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the belief of the American individuals by unlawfully sharing categorized nationwide protection info he swore an oath to guard,” Assistant Legal professional Basic Matthew G Olsen stated within the assertion.
“At the moment’s responsible plea demonstrates that the Justice Division will spare no effort to swiftly discover and aggressively prosecute those that hurt the USA by illegally disclosing our nationwide safety secrets and techniques.”
The FBI arrested Rahman — whom the US authorities stated was an worker of the CIA since 2016 and had a High-Secret safety clearance — in Cambodia in November.
US media shops reported on the time that American officers accused him of leaking paperwork ready by the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company (NGA), which analyses photographs and knowledge collected by US spy satellites.
The NGA additionally conducts work in assist of secret US army operations.
The paperwork, which appeared in October on a channel of the Telegram messaging app, had famous that Israel was shifting army belongings in place to conduct a army strike in response to a ballistic missile assault by Iran on October 1.
Iran stated these launches have been carried out in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh within the Iranian capital, Tehran, in addition to the killing of a senior Iranian army official.
Israel carried out its own attack on a number of websites in Iran in late October.
Citing court docket paperwork, the Justice Division stated on Friday that Rahman had accessed and printed two paperwork marked “High Secret” that contained nationwide defence info “concerning a US overseas ally and its deliberate actions in opposition to a overseas adversary”.
“Rahman eliminated the paperwork, photographed them, and transmitted them to people he knew weren’t entitled to obtain them,” the division stated.
