A former CIA analyst who leaked classified information detailing Israel’s military plans against Iran has been sentenced to 37 months in prison.
Asif William Rahman, 34, admitted guilt in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
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Federal investigators say Rahman exploited his top-level security clearance to print, photograph, and distribute highly sensitive documents, which later surfaced on social media platforms.
The leaked material included assessments of Israel’s planned air strikes on Iranian military sites — attacks that were ultimately carried out in October 2024. Israel launched the strikes in response to a missile barrage from Tehran weeks earlier.
“For months, this defendant betrayed the American people and the oaths he took upon entering his office by leaking some of our Nation’s most closely held secrets,” said John Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, in a press statement.
The leak first appeared on an Iranian-linked Telegram channel and featured top-secret documents reportedly originating from a Department of Defense agency. The documents were marked for distribution within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
They also included intelligence on Israel’s military preparations, asset movements, and one document referencing Israel’s nuclear capabilities — which the country has never officially acknowledged.
Reacting to the breach at the time, former President Joe Biden said he was “deeply concerned.”
Authorities arrested Rahman in Cambodia, where he had been working abroad, and extradited him to the U.S. territory of Guam to face prosecution.
