CIA official charged under the Espionage Act
Asif Rahman is alleged to have disclosed two documents showing American intelligence assessments of Israel's plans for airstrikes against Iran. Here's our statement.
The DOJ last week charged CIA official Asif Rahman with two counts of violating the Espionage Act. The indictment alleges Rahman released two documents showing American intelligence assessments of Israel’s plans for airstrikes on Iran. The classified documents, dating to October 15-16, 2024, originate with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and reveal the granularity of American surveillance of Israeli military activities. The documents also reference Israel’s nuclear program and reveal intelligence community anxieties over possible Israeli use of nuclear weapons against Iran. Rahman is charged under Section 793(e) of the Espionage Act, for unlawfully obtaining and communicating national defense information.
On November 14, 2024, the FBI arrested Rahman in Cambodia. Rahman’s case is slated to be transferred from a federal court in Guam to the Eastern District of Virginia, where many national security cases are tried. Defending Rights & Dissent is avoiding a rush to judgment on Rahman’s motives; the documents were released over Telegram, a social media platform and messenger app. Rahman did not disclose the documents to a journalist – though, once released, the documents received widespread press coverage and were clearly in the public interest. Rahman may or may not have released the documents with the intent to promote public debate, but the Espionage Act makes no distinction between whistleblowers, spies, and those with alternative motives for disclosing national defense information.
Rahman’s motives are unclear, but if he intended to act in the public interest, the Espionage Act provides virtually no opportunity to mount a successful defense. Defending Rights & Dissent has long criticized the Espionage Act’s adverse impacts on press freedom, public knowledge, and Americans’ right to know about government misconduct. Regardless of the motivations at play here, Defending Rights & Dissent continues to advocate for Espionage Act reform that would require the government to prove specific intent to harm national security to successfully prosecute unauthorized disclosure cases.
Defending Rights & Dissent will continue to monitor this case as additional information emerges.