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US searching for source who released secret military and intelligence documents

2023-04-10 17:40:57Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REUTERS
US searching for source who released secret military and intelligence documents
US looking for source who released secret documents

US officials are working to identify the source of classified military and intelligence documents that appeared online detailing everything from Ukraine's air defenses to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.

Some Western security experts and US officials say they suspect it may be someone from the United States who leaked the classified documents.

Officials say the breadth of topics covered in the documents, which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggest they may have been released by an American rather than an allied country.

"Attention is now focused on the possibility that this is a leak from the US, as many of the documents have been in American hands," says Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official.

US officials said the investigation is in its early stages and those leading it have not ruled out the possibility that pro-Russian elements were behind the leak. It is seen as one of the most serious security breaches since more than 700,000 diplomatic documents, videos and reports were leaked to the WikiLeaks website in 2013.

Following the disclosure of the documents, Reuters news agency has reviewed more than 50 documents labeled "Secret" and "Top Secret" that first appeared last month on social media, starting with 'Discord' and ' 4Chan'.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents. Some, giving battlefield casualty figures from Ukraine, appear to have been altered to minimize Russian losses.

It is not clear why at least one document is marked unclassified, but it contains highly classified information. Some documents are marked "NOFORN", which means that they cannot be given to foreign nationals.

The US Department of Defense said on Sunday that multiple agencies are working to assess the national security impact of the leak of top-secret documents.

"The Department of Defense continues to review the validity of documents circulating on social media sites that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement.

Ms Singh said that national security is the highest priority for the Pentagon and that US officials have "engaged with allies and partners and briefed the relevant congressional committees on the disclosure".

One of the documents, dated February 23 and marked "Secret", describes in detail how Ukraine, at the current rate of use, risks being without air defense systems by May 2.

Such information could be useful to Russian forces, and Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks.

Observation of allies

Another document, marked "Top Secret" from information gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) dated March 1, says Israel's Mossad secret service was encouraging protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to strengthen control over Israel's Supreme Court.

The document noted that the US provided this information in a way that suggests the United States had been spying on one of its most important allies in the Middle East.

In a statement published on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office described the information as "untrue and without any basis".

Another document details internal discussions among senior South Korean officials about US pressure on Seoul to help supply arms to Ukraine and its policy not to do so.

A South Korean presidential official said on Sunday that the country was aware of the reports about the classified documents and that it planned to discuss the "issues raised" with Washington.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there was concern about the leak at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, the documents speak to what the situation was more than a month ago and do not contain the most recent assessments.

The two officials said the military and intelligence agencies were examining their processes to understand the extent to which classified information is shared within the US.

Officials are looking into what motives a US official or group of officials would have to release such sensitive information, said one of the officials who spoke to Reuters.

He said investigators were looking at four or five theories, ranging from the possibility of a disgruntled employee to an insider threat actively seeking to undermine US national security interests.

 


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