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CIA official charged with leaking records of Israeli attack on Iran

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A CIA official has been charged with violating the Espionage Act by disclosing classified U.S. documents about Israel's preparations to retaliate against Iran over a missile attack earlier this year, according to court documents and a source familiar with the allegations.

Asif William Rahman was charged Nov. 7 in federal court in Virginia with two counts: intentional retention and disclosure of national defense information.

According to court records, Rahman was arrested in Cambodia on Tuesday and taken to Guam to appear in federal court. An initial court appearance was scheduled for Thursday in Guam.

The CIA did not comment on the case. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment beyond what was stated in court filings.

Authorities will look for the leaker's motivation: expert

The indictment alleges that on October 17 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Rahman gained access to a classified document marked “top secret” and “secure confidential information” and gave the document to someone unauthorized was to receive it.

The document about the Israeli attack, which was distributed on the messaging app Telegram, appeared to have been created by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. They described U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite images from October 15 and 16. Federal authorities investigated the leak.

Tracy Walder, a former CIA covert operations officer and FBI special agent, called the case “very serious” because Rahman had such a high security clearance.

“This is very serious for me,” said Walder. “His sharing of the documents confirmed that Israel has nuclear weapons and also exposed our own collection methods.”

Javed Ali, who has held various senior US intelligence positions at various agencies, said Rahman's arrest will undoubtedly trigger an urgent search into the alleged leaker's motives and possible accomplices in obtaining and publishing the information.

“This is not good news for the CIA,” Ali, now a professor at the University of Michigan, told USA TODAY. “Who is this person? How long had he been in this position? Was he an analyst? A clerk? What motivated him to reveal the information he had access to? Was he involved in intelligence operations related to Iran?”

Ali said the case also underscores the significant vulnerabilities the U.S. government faces in how it keeps its most classified – and politically sensitive – secrets from becoming public.

“The fact that this is a CIA individual shows once again that every day there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of people in the intelligence community and military who have access to the most sensitive intelligence information this administration has,” Ali said.

What happened during the Israeli attack?

The Israeli military said it had carried out a series of retaliatory strikes against Iran in response to an Iranian missile attack, a move that pushed the Middle East into a more dangerous and multi-fronted phase of the conflict a year after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack The Jewish state threatened to drive things up.

Iranian state television reported that several heavy explosions were heard around the capital Tehran. Semi-official Iranian media said explosions were also heard in the nearby town of Karaj.

Israel's operation came after Iran fired around 180 rockets at Israel on October 1, in what Tehran said was retaliation for Israel's killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other top Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon. Most of the Iranian missiles were intercepted with the help of the US military. A Palestinian was killed in the West Bank.

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