CIA employee accused of leaking classified info on Israeli attack plans to face charges in Virginia

WASHINGTON -- A CIA employee accused of leaking classified information assessing Israel's earlier plans to attack Iran was ordered by a federal judge Thursday to face felony charges in Virginia.

The FBI arrested Asif William Rahman this week in Cambodia, and he made his first court appearance Thursday in Guam. A judge there ordered that he be transferred to northern Virginia, where he was indicted last week on two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

Court documents do not identify the federal agency that employed him, but a person familiar with the case who was not authorized to discuss it publicly confirmed to The Associated Press that it was the CIA.

The indictment does not delve into the details of the allegations, but says Rahman had a top secret security clearance and access to sensitive compartmented information. It accuses him of having had unauthorized possession of top secret documents relating to national defense information and then illegally sharing them.

It was not immediately clear who will represent Rahman in Virginia and can speak on his behalf.

The charges stem from the documents, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, appearing last month on a channel of the Telegram messaging app. The documents 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.

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

The emergence of the documents triggered an FBI investigation that examined how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack — and whether any other intelligence information was compromised.

Officials also worked to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted.