Former CIA analyst pleads guilty to leaking info on planned Israeli attack on Iran

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former CIA analyst pleaded guilty Friday to leaking information on a planned Israeli attack on Iran.

Asif Rahman, 34, was arrested by the FBI in November weeks after classified documents appeared on the Telegram messaging app.

He entered guilty pleas in federal court in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Rahman, a CIA employee since 2016, abused his access to top-secret information by accessing, removing and printing out two documents related to Israel and a planned attack on Iran. He then shared them with people not authorized to receive them.

Two documents that surfaced on Telegram in October, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, noted that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1.

Israel carried out a retaliatory attack on air defense systems and missile manufacturing facilities in Iran in late October. In court papers, the government has said the leak caused Israel to delay its attack plans.

The documents were shareable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Rahman was born in California and moved with his family when he was a child to Cincinnati, where he was a high school valedictorian, according to court papers submitted by his lawyer. He went to Yale University and graduated in three years. He and his wife now live in the D.C. metro area, along with his parents.