An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced on Wednesday to more than three years in prison for leaking top-secure documents about Israel’s plans to take revenge on Iran last year.
Asif William Rahman, 34, had guilty in January for two counts of deliberate retention and transfer of classified information after he was arrested for absconds with records of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency last October indicating that Israan was planning to launch air strikes in response.
Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top -secrecy documents, leaked the stolen information on social media platforms – so that Israel would postpone the attack.
He was sentenced to three years and a month In the federal prison by the American district judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, who was less than the government had demanded.
“Asif Rahman has violated his position of trust by gaining illegal access to, removing and sending top -secret documents of vital importance for the national security of the United States and its allies,” said American lawyer for the eastern district of Virginia Erik Siebert in a statement.
“The urgency with which Mr. Rahman was identified, arrested, sued and prosecuted is proof of the dedication and professionalism of the researchers and public prosecutors who brought him to the court.
“This case should serve as a strict warning for those who choose to set their own goals over their loyalty to our nation.”
Rahman worked in the American embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 17 October 2024, when he brought the documents in his backpack, to his house, photographed and then transferred to other individuals, before he destroyed proof of his actions, according to the Justice Department.
The best secret documents appeared the next day on the Telegram channel of the Telegram channel of the Middle East and “published publicly on several social media platforms, complete with the classification langlist”, said officers of justice.
The documents imposed information from satellite images of an Israeli basis taken on 15 and 16 October.
The infringement forced Israeli officials to postpone their attack until October 26.
Rahman “repeatedly accessible and printed classified national defense information” until his arrest in November 2024, according to the Doj.
In the spring of 2024, when he worked as a CIA analyst in Virginia, he unveiled a party of five secret and top-secret documents, made copies and gave them to people they were not allowed to see. And in the fall of 2024 he leaked another 10 classified documents.
“I fully accept the responsibility for my behavior last year,” Rahman said in court on Wednesday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “There was no excuse for my actions.”
Rahman’s lawyers blamed his actions for “family-related grief” and traumatic assignment in Iraq, aggravated by Israel’s war against Hamas.
