An agent of the CIA, the main American intelligence agency, was arrested in the investigation into the publication in October of classified documents on Telegram concerning plans for Israeli strikes against Iran, reported this Wednesday, November 13 New York Times.
Asif Rahman, stationed abroad for the CIA, was arrested this Tuesday in Cambodia by the FBI, the American federal police, and must appear this Thursday before a federal judge on the American island of Guam, specifies the daily, citing court documents and sources familiar with the matter.
A “top secret” clearance
On October 17, two particularly sensitive documents attributed to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, an agency of the United States Department of Defense, were shared on a pro-Iran Telegram channel. According to the BBCthe first was titled: “Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Attack on Iran, Conducts Second Large-Force Exercise,” and described the use of missiles ballistics and air-to-ground. The second, “Israel: Defense Forces Continue Preparing Key Munitions and Covert Drone Activity Almost Certainly for Strike on Iran,” dealt with Israeli drone movements.
“The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and we are working in coordination with our partners in the Department of Defense and the intelligence community,” the American federal police announced on October 22. The White House, for its part, declared itself “deeply concerned” by the publication of these documents.
The source of these leaks therefore seems to have been found. According to the investigation, although Asif Rahman did not work for this branch of American intelligence, he did have a “top secret” security clearance with American security agencies. Enough to give him access to numerous particularly sensitive documents, and therefore to be the one who would have published these analyzes of satellite images carried out by the American federal agency.
A leak that did not prevent the Israeli attack
The distribution of these documents on Telegram did not prevent Israel – of which the United States is the main ally – from responding at the end of October to Iran’s firing of some 200 missiles towards its territory at the beginning of the same month.
The Islamic Republic itself claimed that these were retaliation for the Israeli strikes which killed the leader of Shiite Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and an Iranian general, Abbas Nilforoushan, in Lebanon, as well as the assassination in Tehran. of the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, attributed to Israel.