In the United States, authorities are trying to find the source of a classified intelligence leak that Western security experts and US officials believe may be in the United States.
Officials note that the breadth of topics mentioned in the documents, which include the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggest the leak came from an American, not one of the US allies. .
“Now the emphasis is on the fact that this is a leak from the United States, since many of these documents were only in the possession of the United States,” said Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, to Reuters in an interview.
US officials have said the investigation is still in its early stages, and those leading it do not rule out that pro-Russian elements could be behind the leak. The current leak of classified documents is considered one of the biggest security breaches as more than 700,000 diplomatic documents, videos and cables were posted on WikiLeaks in 2013.
The Russian Embassy in Washington and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment.
After the leak became known, Reuters reviewed more than 50 classified and top-secret documents that first surfaced on social media sites Discord and 4Chan last month. Although some of the documents appeared on the Internet a few weeks ago, their existence was first known on April 7 after articles in the New York Times.
Reuters has not independently verified the authenticity of the documents.
Some estimates of battlefield casualties in Ukraine were likely changed to minimize Russian casualties.
It is unclear why at least one document is marked as unclassified but contains top secret information.
Some documents are marked “NOFORN”, which means that they cannot be transferred to foreign citizens.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters on April 9 that they did not rule out that the documents could have been tampered with to mislead investigators as to their origin or to spread false information that could harm national security interests. UNITED STATES.
One of the documents dated February 23 and marked “Secret” specified that at the current rate of use, the ammunition for the Ukrainian S-300 air defense systems would be exhausted by May 2.
This highly sensitive information can be very useful for Russian troops.
Ukraine said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and senior Ukrainian security officials discussed on April 7 how to prevent such leaks.
ALLY SURVEILLANCE
Another “Top Secret” document, contained in a March 1 CIA fact sheet, says Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is encouraging protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to tighten control over the Supreme Court.
The document says the US learned about it through an electronic intelligence report, suggesting the US was spying on one of its most important allies in the Middle East.
In an April 9 statement, Netanyahu’s office called the claim “false and baseless.”
Another document details internal discussions among senior South Korean officials over US pressure on Seoul to help supply arms to Ukraine, as well as a political decision to refuse such supplies.
A South Korean presidential spokesman said April 9 that the country was aware of reports of leaked classified documents and that Seoul planned to discuss the “issues raised” with Washington.
The Pentagon has not commented on the contents of the specific documents, including the apparent surveillance of allies.
Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that while the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are concerned about leaking classified information, the documents are over a month old and contain no information. more recent estimates.
The military and intelligence services are trying to understand how much certain intelligence is shared within the intelligence community, these officials said.
The White House forwarded the questions to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon confirmed April 9 that it was reviewing the matter and sent a formal request to the Justice Department to investigate the incident.
On April 7, the US Department of Justice said it was in contact with the Department of Defense and had launched an investigation into the leaked documents, but declined to comment further.
Officials are trying to understand the motives of a US official or group of US officials who may have leaked such classified information, an official who spoke to Reuters said.
The official said investigators were looking at four or five theories, ranging from a disgruntled employee to an insider threat to an active attempt to harm US national security interests.
Read the latest news about the Ukraine conflict on The Eastern Herald .
