US government employee accused of leaking classified documents

A man who worked for the US government has been accused of leaking classified information assessing Israel’s past plans to attack Iran, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.

The man, identified as Asif William Rahman, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia this week and was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Guam.

He was indicted last week in U.S. District Court in Virginia on two counts of intentional transmission of national defense information — crimes that carry significant prison sentences.

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It was not immediately clear whether Rahman had an attorney or which federal agency he worked for, but officials say he had a top secret security clearance.

The indictment stems from the documents, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, that appeared last month on a channel of the messaging app Telegram. The documents noted that Israel was still moving military assets to carry out a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on October 1.

Israel carried out a retaliatory strike on multiple locations in Iran in late October.

The documents could be shared within the ‘Five Eyes’, namely the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The New York Times was the first to report his arrest.