CIA official accused of leaking Israeli plans to take revenge on Iran
A CIA official has been accused of leaking Israeli plans to take revenge on Iran for a missile attack last year.
Asif W. Rahman was indicted in Virginia last week and arrested in Cambodia on Tuesday, The reports New York Times.
He was taken to Guam where federal charges were filed – two counts of knowingly retaining and transmitting national defense information.
Rahman is accused of leaking documents containing highly classified information and detailed interpretations of satellite images that provided insight into a possible Israeli attack in Iran.
The documents reportedly began circulating on Telegram last month.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts missiles fired by the Islamic Republic, seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on October 1
US officials had previously said they did not know the source of the leak and were investigating it.
Rahman had a top secret security clearance and had access to sensitive, compartmentalized information.
The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency and could be shared within the ‘Five Eyes’, namely the US, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
One of the two documents was similar in style to other National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency material leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking top-secret military documents about Russia’s war against Ukraine and other national security secrets.
The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It previously published memes featuring Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran’s self-styled “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle Eastern militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, October 23
Netanyahu vowed to exact retaliation against Iran after a ballistic missile attack 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 had fired into Israel weeks earlier.
It was the first time that the Israeli army 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 the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and push for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has also urgently warned Israel not to continue military operations in the north in Lebanon to expand and risk a broader regional war.
However, the Israeli leadership has repeatedly emphasized that it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.
