Highly classified military and intelligence documents that appeared online, with details starting from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, have U.S. officials scrambling to discover the leak’s source, with some Western security experts and U.S. officials saying they suspected it may very well be someone from the US.
Officials say the breadth of topics addressed within the documents, which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggest they were leaked by an American relatively than an ally.
“The main target now’s on this being a U.S. leak, as lots of the documents were only in U.S. hands,” Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters in an interview.
Pentagon constructing, Arlington, Virginia.
(AP)
U.S. officials said the investigation is in its early stages and people running it haven’t ruled out the chance that pro-Russian elements were behind the leak, which is seen as some of the serious security breaches since greater than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.
The Russian embassy in Washington and the Kremlin didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Following disclosure of the leak, Reuters has reviewed greater than 50 documents labeled “Secret” and “Top Secret” that first appeared last month on social media web sites, starting with Discord and 4Chan. While among the documents were posted weeks ago, their existence was first reported on Friday by the Recent York Times.
Reuters has not independently verified the authenticity of the documents. Some giving battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine appeared to have been altered to attenuate Russian losses. It will not be clear why at the very least one is marked unclassified but includes top-secret information. Some documents are marked “NOFORN,” meaning they can’t be released to foreign nationals.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday that they’ve not ruled out that the documents can have been doctored to mislead investigators as to their origin or to disseminate false information that will harm U.S. security interests.
One in every of the documents, dated Feb. 23 and marked “Secret,” outlines intimately how Ukraine’s S-300 air defense systems can be depleted by May 2 at the present usage rate.
Such closely-guarded information may very well be of great use to Russian forces, and Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to debate ways to forestall leaks.
Watching allies
One other document, marked “Top Secret” and from a CIA Intel update from March 1, says the Mossad intelligence agency was encouraging protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court.
The document said the U.S. learned this through signals intelligence, suggesting the US had been spying on one among its most significant allies within the Middle East.
In a press release on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office described the assertion as “mendacious and with none foundation in any way.”
One other document gave details of internal discussions amongst senior South Korean officials about U.S. pressure on Seoul to assist supply weapons to Ukraine, and its policy of not doing so.
A South Korean presidential official said on Sunday the country was aware of stories reports in regards to the leaked documents and it plans to debate “issues raised” with Washington.
The Pentagon has not addressed the contents of any specific documents, including the apparent surveillance of allies.
Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there was concern in regards to the leak on the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, the documents showed a snapshot in time from greater than a month ago, relatively than newer assessments.
The 2 officials said the military and intelligence agencies were their processes for the way widely some the intelligence is shared internally.
The White House referred inquiries to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon on Sunday reiterated it was reviewing the matter and had made a proper referral to the Department of Justice asking it to research the incident.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it was in contact with the Defense Department and started a probe into the leak. It declined further comment.
Officials are what motivations a U.S. official or a bunch of officials would have in leaking such sensitive information, said one among the officials who spoke to Reuters.
The official said investigators were 4 or five theories, from a disgruntled worker to an insider threat who actively desired to undermine U.S. national security interests.
