A former analyst working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Company (CIA) pleaded responsible to transmitting prime secret Nationwide Protection Data (NDI) to people who didn’t have the mandatory authorization to obtain it and tried to cowl up the exercise.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, was an worker of the CIA since 2016 and had a Prime Secret safety clearance with entry to Delicate Compartmented Data (SCI). He was charged with two counts of unlawfully transmitting NDI in November 2024 following his arrest.
He has pleaded responsible to 2 counts of willful retention and transmission of labeled info associated to the nationwide protection. He’s anticipated to be sentenced on Might 15, 2025, probably dealing with a most penalty of 10 years in jail.
Based on court docket filings, Rahman is alleged to have retained with out authorization two paperwork labeled as Prime Secret on or about October 17, 2024, and delivered it to a number of people who weren’t entitled to obtain it.
“Within the spring of 2024, the defendant accessed and printed from his workstation roughly 5 paperwork. These paperwork had been labeled on the Secret and Prime Secret stage,” court docket paperwork filed on January 17, 2025, reveal. “The defendant transported these supplies outdoors of his place of employment and to his residence by concealing these supplies inside a backpack.”
“From his residence within the Jap District of Virginia, the defendant reproduced the paperwork and, whereas doing so, altered them in an effort to hide their supply and his exercise. The defendant then communicated Prime Secret info he discovered in the middle of his employment to a number of people he knew weren’t entitled to obtain it. He additionally transmitted the reproductions of the Secret and Prime Secret paperwork to a number of people he knew weren’t entitled to obtain them.”
Rahman can be mentioned to have shared an extra 10 paperwork labeled on the Prime Secret stage in an analogous method within the fall of 2024. Then on October 17, he printed two extra Prime Secret paperwork pertaining to a United States ally and its deliberate kinetic actions in opposition to a overseas adversary.
The defendant then proceeded to {photograph} these paperwork from his residence and used a pc program to edit the photographs. The paperwork had been then shared with unspecified individuals who weren’t presupposed to them. These people are believed to have shared the knowledge with others, finally inflicting the paperwork to seem on a number of social media platforms on October 18.
Whereas the names of the international locations weren’t disclosed, a number of experiences from Axios and CNN revealed round that point that the discharge was linked to Israel’s plans to assault Iran. The paperwork, ready by the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company and the Nationwide Safety Company, had been posted on Telegram by an account known as Center East Spectator.
Rahman has additionally been accused of deleting the information and altering journal entries and written work merchandise on his private digital gadgets in an effort to hide his private opinions on U.S. coverage. He additional drafted entries to color a false, seemingly benign narrative concerning his deletion of data on his private system and the CIA workstation.
“Authorities staff who’re granted safety clearances and given entry to our nation’s labeled info should promise to guard it,” mentioned Government Assistant Director Robert Wells of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Nationwide Safety Department. “Rahman blatantly violated that pledge and took a number of steps to cover his actions.”
Philippines Arrests Chinese language Nationwide and a couple of Filipinos for Espionage
The event comes because the Philippines’ Nationwide Bureau of Investigation (NBI) disclosed the arrest of a Chinese language nationwide and two Filipino residents suspected of conducting surveillance on essential infrastructure amenities for over a month.
The three people, Deng Yuanqing, Ronel Jojo Balundo Besa and Jayson Amado Fernandez, are a part of a bunch consisting of six members who interact in surveillance operations by unlawfully acquiring delicate info associated to nationwide protection. The remaining three members, two {hardware} engineers and a financier (aka Wang), are at present in China, the company added.
Deng, per the NBI, is a software program engineer with specialization in automation and management engineering and is allegedly affiliated with the PLA College Science and Expertise, a Nanjing-based tutorial establishment below the management of China’s Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA).
The investigation additionally uncovered {that a} white car was procured and fitted with info and communications know-how (ICT) tools in order to facilitate the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operation.
“From December 13, 2024 to January 16, 2025, topic car was monitored traversing backward and forward the Nationwide Capital Area and the final divisions of Luzon, conducting detailed scouting, collating complete picture of the terrains and buildings and the over-all topography of the potential targets, with out consent and authority from the Philippine Authorities,” the NBI mentioned.
The company additionally famous that an onsite search led to the invention of a Chinese language character consumer account with system ID 918 452 619 controlling the pc system inside the topic car, such because the moveable keyboard, information, and cameras.
The Philippines has been a goal of a number of Chinese language menace actors lately, primarily pushed by geopolitical tensions in Southeast Asia over ongoing territorial disputes within the South China Sea.