Former CIA analyst sentenced to three years for leaking Israel’s military plans

A former CIA analyst has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison for leaking top-secret documents last year concerning Israel’s military plans to attack Iran. The documents spread rapidly on social media.

Asif W. Rahman pleaded guilty to two violations of the Espionage Act, admitting he leaked more than a dozen classified documents while working as a CIA analyst.

Rahman was arrested last year after FBI investigators traced the download of two documents detailing Israel’s military preparations to Rahman’s station at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

US officials stated that two top-secret documents from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency were published in mid-October on a Telegram channel called Middle East Spectator. The documents described air drills and the movement of munitions vehicles at an Israeli airport, consistent with preparations for an attack on Iran, but contained no imagery.

Officials said the leak spread to other social media platforms and caused Israel to postpone its attack plan.

About two weeks before the top-secret documents appeared online, Iran had fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

The Biden administration was publicly pressuring Israel not to target Iran’s nuclear or energy facilities during its preparations for a retaliatory strike.

Announcing Rahman’s sentence in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said, “I don’t think the seriousness and gravity of this conduct can be overstated. Our intelligence community has a responsibility to ensure the security of our country, and actions that in any way jeopardize that responsibility endanger us all.”

Rahman, 34, also admitted to leaking more than ten classified documents whose contents were not disclosed in public court filings or proceedings.

His lawyers said Rahman had a promising life, graduating as high school valedictorian, then with honors from Yale University in three years. He left a lucrative career in finance to join the CIA, but his judgment was clouded for months under difficult circumstances.

A forensic psychologist noted that Rahman had mental health issues stemming from a traumatic assignment in Baghdad and his wife’s miscarriage last year, just before the couple planned to move to Cambodia. Rahman ultimately moved there alone.

His lawyers requested a sentence of one year and one month, stating that Rahman “had no intention of harming the United States or its interests” but was disturbed by “the events that began in the Middle East in the fall of 2023.”

In a statement before the judge on Wednesday, Rahman said, “I violated the oath I took when I joined the CIA, and I have let down my colleagues and the American people.”