2024-10-23 05:49:00
The FBI said on Tuesday that it is investigating the leak of classified documents regarding Israel‘s preparation for a retaliatory attack on Iran.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the Biden administration is still unsure whether classified information has been leaked or compromised, but that officials have no indication at this time that “documents another to leak.”
At the Pentagon, Lieutenant General Pat Ryder said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken with his counterpart, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad, about releasing the documents. But Ryder, who is press secretary, said he could not provide details or say when the conversation took place.
The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency and detail the preparations at military bases in Israel while giving details of the weapons Tel Aviv plans to use.
Targeting and retaliation against employees
Classified as top secret, the documents first appeared online on Friday on Telegram and were published on the app by pro-Iranian channels.
Ryder said that “the investigation is in its early days, so it’s important to let it run its course,” adding that the department takes the protection of sensitive information very seriously and will continue to do so .
Meanwhile, the name of a Pentagon official as a suspect in the leak has already been circulated on social media and in media reports. She is an American of Iranian descent.
Republican senators had expressed concern that the official in question was influenced by Tehran, and one of them said yesterday that he was wondering why she remained in her job.
However, when asked about the employee involved, Ryder said it was “not a matter of interest and the department remains fully committed to supporting the investigation”.
Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai has often been targeted on social media because of her background.
Who is Tabatabai?
She is a political scientist, author, and senior policy advisor at the United States Department of Defense. She is a graduate of King’s College London and the daughter of Javad Tabatabai, an Iranian philosopher and professor at the University of Tehran.
Tabatabai is also a former research fellow at the RAND Corporation think tank, program director and associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University, international political advisor to NATO and participating in various research projects.
Tabatabai, in a Foreign Policy magazine op-ed ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, argued that Iran’s economy is fragile and will be forced to negotiate, agree and make concessions, requiring the winning US presidential candidate without going back to nuclear. deal and push for more points.
After the Biden administration took office in January 2021, he joined the US negotiating team in the nuclear negotiations with Iran, but along with Richard Nephew left the team after a few months due to disagreements with Robert Malley, the head of the US negotiating team, but also because he believed that the US would raise too many sanctions on Iran and therefore the possible deal would not be strong enough.
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