The New York Times, citing sources in the US intelligence community, report that a federal court in Virginia yesterday ordered charges under the Espionage Act to be filed, while issuing an arrest warrant against a member of the CIA who is alleged to be the person behind the leak of Israel’s top-secret plan to strike Iran.
According to Virginia federal court documents, the CIA member who allegedly leaked the top-secret documents and information to a Telegram channel is Asif Rahman who is already in the custody of a special FBI team in Cambodia. Based on what is known, the man in question was on a permanent assignment for US intelligence agencies in the Southeast Asian country and was arrested without resistance yesterday Tuesday. Today he has been taken to a US base on the island of Gwam, an area that is an unincorporated area of US jurisdiction, where he is expected to undergo a hearing and be charged. According to US media reports, Asif Rahman will take a special flight from Guam to Virginia on Thursday to appear before the judge who issued the warrant for his arrest.
Asif Rahman was not a mere member or outside contractor of the CIA but a man with top-level access to highly classified documents. In the leak two months ago in the Telegram environment Asif Rahman leaked a series of documents which included in addition to US spy satellite data and analysis by US military and intelligence officers regarding the movements of the Israeli military and the targets selected in retaliation for Tehran’s 2nd missile attack. The leak of these documents caused a stir both inside Israel and in the US Government with both sides searching for the leak for a long time and Tel Aviv eventually postponing for several weeks its response to the Tehran regime. Among the leaked documents was a specific US analysis of the nuclear warheads Israel has in its arsenal, an issue on which for decades the country’s political and military leadership has responded that it does not exist.
Asif Rahman will face very serious charges of espionage although it is currently still unknown when his trial will start. It should be noted that this CIA member was arrested by a special squad of the FBI and not of his agency as according to the US Espionage Act when such charges are brought by a federal judge a special squad of the US Federal agencies is responsible for bringing the suspects – defendants.
It should be noted that this development comes less than 24 hours after the announcement by the staff of the newly elected President Trump that the new head of the CIA will be John Ratcliffe, the man who was in charge of the intelligence services during the last five months of the 47th US President’s first term.
