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The classified documents that have surfaced online, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, have US officials scrambling to determine the source of the leak, with some experts saying it could be American.
Officials say the breadth of subject matter covered in the documents, which deal with the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, indicate they may have been leaked by an American rather than an ally.
“The focus now is that this is an American leak because many of the documents were only in the hands of the United States,” Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters in an interview.
The authenticity of the documents remains in doubt as experts suggest they could have been altered or used as a disinformation campaign to suit Russia’s agenda. They pointed out how some documents providing estimates of battlefield losses from Ukraine were modified to reduce Russian losses.
An initial batch of documents labeled “secret” and “top secret” – said to contain blueprints about the war in Ukraine as well as the strengths of the various brigades – first circulated on Russian Twitter and Telegram channels last month.
Another trove of more than 100 Pentagon Documents – also this time detailing US national security interests related to regions including China and Israel’s Mossad spy agency – was shared on Twitter on Friday, The New York Times mentioned.
The classified documents that have surfaced online, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, have US officials scrambling to determine the source of the leak, with some experts saying it could be American. Pictured: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrives at the Pentagon on March 30
A Ukrainian soldier fires a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) from a launcher during an exercise in the Donetsk region on April 7.
One of the leaked Western documents regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war
The Department of Justice has now launched a criminal investigation into the possible release of top-secret documents, mostly related to the war situation in Ukraine.
Two US officials told Reuters on Sunday that they did not rule out the possibility that the documents had been tampered with to mislead investigators about their origin or to spread false information that could harm US security interests.
Inaccuracies — including estimates of Russian troop deaths that are well below figures reported by U.S. officials — have led some to question the authenticity of the documents.
“It is very important to remember that in recent decades the most successful operations of the Russian special services have been conducted in Photoshop,” Andrei Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate, said on Ukrainian television.
“From the initial analysis of this material, we see erroneous and distorted casualty figures on both sides, with part of the information gathered from open sources.”
The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that it was reviewing the authenticity of the video documents, which “appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material.”
Two US defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the Pentagon is examining procedures that govern the spread of some of America’s most sensitive secrets.
One of the officials said some of the documents were likely available to thousands of people with security clearances from the US and allied government despite being highly sensitive, because the information directly affected those countries.
The Pentagon said Sunday in a statement that the interagency effort is assessing the impact of the photographed documents on the national security of the United States as well as on the security of close American allies, a standard procedure known as a ‘damage assessment’ for leaks of classified information.
Ukrainian soldiers stand in a trench near their position near the town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on April 8.
The first official said the number of people who gained access to the documents confirms that sensitive information may have been shared widely with individuals who may not need the level of detail contained in some of the documents.
“The Pentagon has needed to limit unbridled access to some of the most sensitive intelligence when they have no justifiable reason to have it,” said the first official.
The two officials also said that while the leaks were deeply troubling, many of them only provided snapshots of the time in February and March — when they were dated — but didn’t seem to reveal anything about future operations.
Although the disclosure of the documents appears to be the most serious public leak of classified information in years, officials say it does not yet reach the size and scope of the 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables that appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.
One of the documents, dated February 23 and marked Confidential, details how Ukraine’s S-300 air defense systems will be depleted by May 2 at the current rate of use.
Such closely guarded 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.
Another document, marked “top secret” and from a CIA Intel update from March 1, says that the Mossad intelligence agency has been encouraging protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to tighten oversight of the Supreme Court.
The document said that the United States learned of this through intelligence signals, indicating that the United States was spying on one of its most important allies in the Middle East.
In a statement Sunday, Netanyahu’s office called the assertion “absolutely false and baseless.”
Another document detailed 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.
South Korean President Yoon Sok-yol’s office said on Monday that verifying the authenticity of the documents was a priority and that it would ask the United States to take “appropriate” steps after confirming the details.
These are two of the leaked documents shared by The New York Times
This document appears to show the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February, and in May when they are expected to be severely depleted
Yoon’s office said it could not rule out the possibility that the documents were fabricated or the product of third-party interference, warning that any attempts to “disrupt the alliance will face repercussions.”
Some lawmakers from South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party expressed “deep regret” over the spying allegations, describing them as a clear violation of national sovereignty and a major security failure of the Yoon administration.
“We strongly demand a thorough investigation and urge that no similar incidents occur,” the deputies said in a joint statement.
The Pentagon did not address the contents of any specific documents, including the apparent Allied Surveillance.
One of the officials who spoke to Reuters said officials were looking into what motives a US official or group of officials might have for leaking such sensitive information.
The official said investigators were looking into four or five theories, from a disgruntled employee to an insider threat that actively wanted to undermine the national security interests of the United States.
Daniel Hoffman, a former undercover CIA officer, said that given the past activities of Russian intelligence agencies, it was highly likely that Russian agents would release documents relating to Ukraine as part of a Russian disinformation operation.
He said such operations—aimed at sowing confusion, if not discord, among Russia’s adversaries—was a “classic” practice for Russian spy services to leak original documents into which they inserted false information.
He said the aim appeared to be to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the United States, Kiev’s largest provider of military support.
Some national security experts and US officials say they currently suspect the leaker to be American, given the breadth of topics covered in the documents, but they are not ruling out pro-Russian actors. They said more theories could develop as the investigation progresses.
The Kremlin and the Russian embassy did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was involved in the leak.
Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent the leaks.
The White House has refused to publicly discuss who might be responsible for the breach, and has referred all questions about the leak to the Pentagon. The Pentagon said that over the weekend, US officials spoke with allies and informed the relevant congressional committee about the leak.
“I am deeply troubled by the potential extent and nature of the information that was revealed, and I expect to be fully briefed in the coming days,” said Rep. Jason Crowe, a former Army Ranger and member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee. Committees.
The Pentagon Papers: Scramble to determine who leaked classified documents