The apparent leak of classified American documents, in particular related to Ukraine and which seem authentic for the most part, poses a “very serious” risk to the national security of the United States, estimated Monday the Pentagon.
The fact that these documents are circulating online “can potentially fuel misinformation,” spokesman for the US Department of Defense, Chris Meagher, told reporters.
“We are continuing to investigate how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to further analyze how this type of information was distributed and to whom,” he added.
A leak revealed by the New York Times
A steady stream of photographs of classified documents have been discovered on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other sites in recent days; although some may have circulated online for weeks before gaining media attention.
Many of them are no longer available on the sites where they originally appeared, and US authorities are reportedly working to have them all removed.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin himself was not made aware of the problem until the morning of April 6 – the day the leak was revealed later that day by the New York Times -, said the Pentagon spokesman.
American espionage
Many of these documents concern the war in Ukraine: one takes stock of the state of the conflict at the beginning of March, others evoke the situation on specific fronts, such as Bakhmout, or the anti-aircraft defenses of Kiev.
Some also seem to indicate that the United States is spying on some of its allies: one mentions that leaders of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, would have defended the demonstrations against the controversial reform of the judicial system in Israel.
US officials have contacted Washington allies about the matter, and relevant parliamentary committees have been briefed, the Pentagon had earlier said.
Authentic? Sensitive to say the least
Chris Meagher declined to comment Monday on the authenticity of the documents, saying a ministry team was working to determine if they were genuine, but noted that the photos released appeared to contain sensitive information.
“Photos appear to show documents in a format similar to that used to provide daily updates to our senior Ukraine and Russia-related operations, as well as other intelligence updates,” he said. he said, but some “seem to have been modified”.
Manipulated leaks
At least one of the documents seems to have been altered to suggest that Ukraine suffered greater losses than Russia, when the supposed original said the opposite.
The consequences of these leaks could be significant, even deadly for US intelligence sources. “Disclosure of classified and sensitive information can not only have enormous consequences for our national security, but also lead to death,” the spokesperson said.
The Ministry of Justice has opened a criminal investigation.