Ex-CIA analyst pleads guilty to leaking docs on Israel's plans to strike Iran

A destroyed building in Hod HaSharon following the Iranian missile attack on Israel in October 2024.

A former CIA employee who was accused of leaking classified documents about Israel's plans to strike Iran has pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he willfully retained and transmitted national defense information. Asif Rahman, 34, was arrested by the FBI in November, weeks after the classified documents appeared on the Telegram messaging app.

A former CIA official pleaded guilty Friday to leaking top secret US intelligence documents about Israeli military plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran.

Asif Rahman, 34, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency since 2016 and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November.

Rahman faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in a federal court in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

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Iran unleashed a wave of close to 200 ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killings of senior figures in the Tehran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

Israel retaliated with a wave of strikes on military targets in Iran in late October.

Sentencing was set for May 15.

(AFP)


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