Suddenly, they have standards again.
Playtime is over. Cat’s coming back.
What else can one conclude with this kind of news from the New York Times?
A C.I.A. official has been charged with disclosing classified documents that appeared to show Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack earlier this year, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter.
The official, Asif W. Rahman, was indicted last week in federal court in Virginia with two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. He was arrested by the F.B.I. on Tuesday in Cambodia and brought to federal court in Guam to face charges.
The documents were prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes images and information collected by U.S. spy satellites. It conducts work in support of clandestine and military operations.
Mr. Rahman, who worked abroad for the C.I.A., was set to appear in Guam on Thursday.
The information in the documents is highly classified and details interpretations of satellite imagery that shed light on a possible strike by Israel on Iran. They began circulating last month on the Telegram app.
That was quick.
Based on the sparse info in the story, he appears to have been a highly vetted CIA officer with responsibility abroad, and his absence of social media presence suggests a clandestine capacity. He was busted on U.S. Election Day in Cambodia, meaning, the lawmen had been working on the matter before that, probably dating from the leak itself reported on Oct. 19. The Cambodia locale was the kind of place they might lure someone for an arrest, so he could have been based pretty much anywhere within flying distance of Phnom Penh. But betting markets and polls had shown that Trump was the likely next president around the time of the leak, so they may have been motivated to get this guy based on what was coming. He may have been motivated to leak based on the same likelihood. The institution strives to save itself, preserving some kind of appearance of professionalism, which was hardly the case in the recent past.
Hellbound and Down 