Latest news with #NationalGeospatial-IntelligenceAgency
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Ex-CIA analyst who admitted leaking docs about Israel strike on Iran gets 37 months in prison
An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for leaking top-secret documents about Israel's plans to retaliate against Iran last year. Asif William Rahman, 34, had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after he was arrested for absconding with records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last October that indicated Israel was planning to launch airstrikes in response to a massive Iranian missile attack. Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top secret documents, leaked the stolen information on social media platforms — forcing Israel to delay its attack. Advertisement He was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, which is less than the government had demanded. 3 Rahman was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison. AP 'Asif Rahman violated his position of trust by illegally accessing, removing, and transmitting Top Secret documents vital to the national security of the United States and its allies,' US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert said in a statement. Advertisement 'The urgency with which Mr. Rahman was identified, arrested, charged, and prosecuted is a testament to the commitment and professionalism of the investigators and prosecutors who brought him to justice. 'This case should serve as a stern warning to those who choose to place their own goals over their allegiance to our nation.' Rahman was working in the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Oct. 17, 2024, when he sneaked the documents out in his backpack, brought them to his home, photographed them and then transmitted them to other individuals, before destroying evidence of his actions, according to the Justice Department. The top-secret documents appeared on the 'Middle East Spectator' Telegram channel the following day and 'appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification ranking,' prosecutors said. Advertisement The documents laid out intelligence gathered from satellite images of an Israeli base taken on Oct. 15 and 16. The breach forced Israeli officials to postpone their attack until Oct. 26. 3 The ex-CIA employee pleaded guilty in January to leaking classified information. NurPhoto via Getty Images 3 Rahman leaked documents related to Israel's plans to launch airstrikes against Iran. WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Advertisement Rahman 'repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information' up until his arrest in November of 2024, according to the DOJ. In the spring of 2024, when he was working in Virginia as a CIA analyst, he disclosed a batch of five secret and top-secret documents, making copies and giving them to people who weren't allowed to see them. And in the fall of 2024, he leaked another 10 classified documents. 'I fully accept responsibility for my conduct last year,' Rahman said in court Wednesday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. 'There was no excuse for my actions.' Rahman's attorneys blamed his actions on 'family-related grief' and traumatic assignment in Iraq, compounded by Israel's war against Hamas.
Axios
21-05-2025
- Science
- Axios
Robert Cardillo: The world is "owned by those who ask"
Robert Cardillo, the chief strategist and chairman of the board at satellite imagery firmPlanet Federal, wants you to be rested and inquisitive. Asked in an interview with Axios what advice he'd give his younger self, he offered: "My quick answer is get more sleep. But I strongly believe the world is owned by those who ask." "If you keep that unasked question in your head, it's not doing anyone any good," he said. "Just the two words 'why not' or the one word 'why' can be very useful." Why he matters: Cardillo has decades of experience in national security. He's a former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He's also a familiar face at the annual GEOINT Symposium, held this year in St. Louis. Q: When you hear "future of defense," what comes to mind? A: What comes to my mind is that we're able to reimagine the necessity to be secure, to protect life and liberties and pursuits in a way that leverages evolving technologies. It has frustrated me inside government with some of the barriers that we put up to that end. Now that I'm on the other side, on the industry side, I see those barriers from a different point of view. I'm generally an optimist, by my nature, and I remain optimistic about the future of defense. But, boy, it takes too long, and the system just sometimes can't get out of its own way. Q: When will wars be waged solely by robots? A: Well, I don't want to be around, and I wonder about humanity when that happens. I'm a big fan of the term "human on the loop." I thought "human in the loop" was one too high a bar, given the speed of technology. But I remain committed to my belief that the human has to be on the loop. If the robots are deciding to go to war, we have a much bigger problem. When are they going to decide to stop? Why would they stop with other robots? Et cetera. Q: What's a national security trend we aren't paying enough attention to? A: Water. I think people obviously understand the importance of water rights and the necessity to core human existence. I worry that we don't think hard enough about the security and stability implications of an eroding confidence in having access to water. Q: What region of the world should we be watching? Why? A: I'm a big believer that India is the next big thing. I have great admiration for the leap that they are in the midst of making. I think India's core democratic principles will advantage it going forward, to create a successful, long-term, enduring value proposition. A: A couple hundred? I unfortunately have a number of accounts. Personal. A couple of works. One nonprofit. So that's a problem.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Space Force says its relationship with Europe is ‘business as usual'
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Space Force's top officer on Wednesday said his service's day-to-day interactions with European allies haven't been impacted by growing uncertainty about the United States' relationship with Europe and the Trump administration's shifting posture toward Ukraine. 'The military-to-military relationships, especially with my counterparts that I deal with on a routine basis …it's business as usual,' Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during a briefing at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 'We're still discussing the same challenges we had. … We're still working the same basic collaborative issues that we've been working.' Saltzman's comments come as U.S. aid for Kiev's defense has slowed and the Defense Department is moving troops away from a Ukraine support hub in Poland. In early March, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency temporarily froze Ukraine's access to key satellite imagery amid a broader DOD pause on military aid to the country. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also urged Europe to invest more domestic funding in national security and rely less on U.S. support. At the same time, U.S. officials have said they want the European Union to continue to buy weapons from American companies. Saltzman noted that much of the Space Force's engagement with European partners comes through NATO and the service's commitment to information sharing with allied nations. Broader decisions around support for Ukraine and U.S. troop levels in Europe are outside of the Space Force's scope or responsibility. In the same briefing, Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, the Space Force's assistant chief of space operations for future concepts and partnerships, said the service and its partners recognize Space Force support to allied nations with nascent military space capabilities and organizations is crucial. 'If we just cut ties, let Europe get on with it, then they're going to have to spend significant amounts of money, potentially go down dead-ends, developing the sort of capabilities that the U.S. has put together over decades,' he said. That message undergirds a new international partnerships strategy the Space Force expects to roll out in the coming weeks. Saltzman previewed the document Wednesday during a speech at the symposium. 'Our international partnership strategy is built on one key concept: Coalition operations will be far more successful if we work together well before those contingency operations become necessary,' he said. 'We're not tightly coupled in our training, if we're not reconciling our operational concepts, if we're not integrating our capabilities, we will have a very steep learning curve when called upon in crisis or conflict.' The strategy's three main goals are to leverage individual nations' unique expertise, improve information sharing and interoperability and integrate across the spectrum of operations — from force design to employment of capabilities. Saltzman said the Space Force wants to embed more allies into its planning processes and acquisition strategies, expand joint exercises and coordinate personnel exchanges that allow partners to learn from one another. He also emphasized that the strategy does not view partnership in space as a one-way street, but instead recognizes that all nations have something to contribute. 'The trick is in focusing on areas where we have a comparative advantage,' he said. 'Maybe it's space domain awareness or hosted payloads. Maybe it's launch capacity or even simple geography for a ground station. I firmly believe that every contribution can make a meaningful impact on space security.' Saltzman and Godfrey told reporters they've been floating the draft strategy to foreign partners this week at Space Symposium and will discuss it in greater depth Thursday as Saltzman hosts a gathering of international space chiefs representing around 20 different nations. Then on Friday, the 10 nations who are members of the Space Force's Combined Space Operations initiative will meet to discuss partnership opportunities for the coming year.
