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The appearance online of military and classified documents on various topics, including Ukraine’s air defense and Mossad, one of Israel’s intelligence agencies, has led US officials to intensify investigations into the origin and those responsible for this. “filtration”. Some experts suspect that it originated in the United States.
The United States is trying to assess the risks of leaking classified documents about its national security. This was announced by the Pentagon on Sunday, April 9 and also assured that it is looking for the origin of the leak.
The variety of topics covered in the documents —related to the war in Ukraine, but also to China, the Middle East and Africa— suggests they were leaked by an American.
“The emphasis now is that this would be an American leak, as many of the documents were only in the hands of the United States,” Michael Mulroy, a former Pentagon official, told Reuters.
The apparent leak of classified US documents poses “a very serious national security risk and has the potential to fuel disinformation,” Defense Department spokesman Chris Meagher told reporters. He added: “We are continuing to investigate how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to look into how this type of information was distributed and to whom.”
US officials say the investigation is still in its early stages and those leading it are not ruling out the possibility that pro-Russian supporters were behind the leak, considered one of the most serious security attacks since the WikiLeaks case in 2013.
The Russian embassy in Washington and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment.
The documents would have been altered
After the leak was revealed, Reuters reviewed more than 50 documents marked “top secret” and “top secret” that first appeared last month on sites including Discord and 4Chan. Several of the documents were published weeks ago, but their existence was first reported on Friday by ‘The New York Times‘.
Some Ukrainian battlefield casualty estimates appear to have been altered with the possible aim of minimizing Russian casualties.
For unknown reasons, a document containing sensitive information is marked as “unclassified”.
Some documents are marked ‘NOFORN’, which means that they cannot be issued to foreign citizens.
According to two US officials interviewed by Reuters on Sunday, the texts may have been altered to mislead investigators as to its origin or spread false information that could harm US interests.
One of the documents — dated February 23 and marked “Secret” — details how Ukraine’s S-300 air defense systems could, at the current rate of use, be depleted by May 2.
The information could be of great use to Russian forces, and Ukrainian authorities reported that the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks.
Israel spied on by Washington?
Another document marked “Top Secret” says Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency encouraged protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform bill. One that would give the government greater influence over the Supreme Court.
The document claims that the United States found out about this through its intelligence services, which would imply that the Americans spied on one of its main allies in the Middle East.
In a press release published on Sunday, Netanyahu’s office denounced the information as “misleading and unfounded.”
Another document details discussions among senior South Korean officials about US pressure on Seoul to supply weapons to Ukraine. A South Korean presidential official said on Sunday that the country was aware of the above information and planned to discuss the “issues raised” with Washington.
Separately, two US officials — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said the leaks were cause for concern, but that the documents related to old material, more than a month old.
The Pentagon reiterated Sunday that it was reviewing the situation and had formally asked the Justice Department to investigate the incident. The latter claimed that he was in contact with the Ministry of Defense and had opened an investigation into the leak, without further comment.
“Interagency cooperation has been initiated to assess the impact that (the leak of) these photographed documents may have on national security and on our allies and partners,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
An official told Reuters that investigators were considering four or five hypotheses, ranging from a disgruntled employee to an insider threat trying to harm US national security interests.
With Reuters and AFP
This article was adapted from its original in French.
