According to U.S. court documents and individuals with knowledge of the situation, a CIA official has reportedly now been charged with disclosing classified documents that contained sensitive information regarding Israel’s intentions to launch a military strike against Iran last month.
On Tuesday, Asif William Rahman, a U.S. government official with the highest level of security clearance, was apprehended in Cambodia and subsequently transported to a federal court in Guam for prosecution.
Last week, he was indicted in federal court in Virginia on two counts of willful transmission of national defense information. These allegations are punishable by years in prison.
According to court documents submitted on Wednesday, Rahman was in possession of a top-secret security clearance and had access to sensitive compartmented information.
The documents do not indicate that he was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency; however, individuals who are knowledgeable about the matter have verified his employment at the espionage agency.
Two classified reports from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes imagery collected by American reconnaissance satellites, were released on Telegram and X in October.
The data were disseminated by Middle East Spectator, a pro-Iran account that claims to have obtained them from an anonymous source.
The leak prompted a flurry of activity within U.S. intelligence agencies, which have experienced numerous substantial unauthorized disclosures in recent years, to determine the source of the breach.
Officials expressed concern regarding the potential for additional disclosures; however, it appears that the breach was restricted to the original documents.
The disclosed reports evaluated Israel’s preparations for a potential attack on Iran, which included the potential aircraft and munitions that the military could employ.
They also described Israeli air-force exercises that involved air-to-surface missiles, which were reportedly conducted in anticipation of aerial assaults inside Iran. According to one of the reports, the United States had not observed any indication that an attack would involve nuclear weapons, a capability that Israel is known to have but has not publicly acknowledged.
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