Judge denies release of CIA analyst charged with leaking Israel's Iran retaliation plans - report

The release of the CIA employee who leaked Israel's plans to retaliate against Iran in October was denied by a US federal judge, Politico reported on Thursday. 

Asif William Rahman was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November and was charged with disclosing classified documents allegedly showing Israel's attack plans against Iran, the New York Times stated. 

Rahman was brought to a federal court in Guam to face charges and later indicted by a US federal court in Virginia with the charges of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, the report said.

Rahman pleaded not guilty to violating the Espionage Act, the Washington Post reported.

A magistrate judge ruled last week that Rahman could be released pending trial on two counts of violating the Espionage Act. However, a US District Judge overturned the release order, Politico said, noting that the judge said that Rahman posed a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Prosecutors in the case said that as a result of the leak, Israel delayed retaliating against Iran and that the nature of the conflict in the Middle East increased the gravity of charges against Rahman, Politico reported. 

Rahman worked at US Embassy in Cambodia 

According to the Washington Post, Rahman had been a CIA analyst since 2016, and he had been working at the US Embassy in Cambodia at the time of his arrest.

After the documents were posted in the Telegram channel "Middle East Spectator" and the information began to circulate, Rahman deleted 1.5 gigabytes of data from his workstation, the Washington Post noted. He also carried additional phones, laptops, and a "highly encrypted" hard drive. Along with these devices, he had eight pages of handwritten notes in his wallet that US officials worked to code-break.