A CIA officer has been arrested and charged with disclosing classified documents that allegedly revealed Israel's military plans for responding to an Iranian missile attack earlier this year, according to federal court documents and sources familiar with the case, The New York Times reports.
Asif W. Rahman, who worked overseas for the CIA, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday in Cambodia and transported to federal court in Guam, where he faces two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
The classified materials, which began circulating on the Telegram app last month, contained sensitive satellite imagery analysis produced by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The agency specializes in analyzing data from US spy satellites to support covert and military operations.
The FBI acknowledged last month it was investigating the leak. "We are working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and intelligence community," the bureau told The New York Times.
Rahman is scheduled for his first court appearance in Guam on Thursday. Court documents reveal he held a top-secret security clearance with access to sensitive compartmentalized information, a level of clearance common among CIA personnel handling classified materials.
