(Trends Wide) — The Joe Biden administration is racing to assess and contain the fallout from a major leak of classified Pentagon documents that has rocked US officials, members of Congress and key allies in recent days.
The Department of Justice (DOJ, for its acronym in English) investigates how the set of highly confidential documents, which include details about how the US spies on friends and enemies, as well as intelligence about the war in Ukraine, ended up in networks social.
But, until now, little is known about who may have been responsible for the leak or how some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets ended up on social media.
The Defense Department is still reviewing the matter and has taken steps to restrict the flow of these highly sensitive documents, the officials said, which are typically available on any given day to hundreds of people at various levels of government.
The Pentagon has launched an “interagency effort” to assess the impact of the leak, but US officials and their close allies already fear the disclosures could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relations.
Lawmakers in Congress also raised concerns about the apparent scope of the leak and the sensitivity of the documents posted online, but remain largely unaware of what happened.
Both the leaders of the Intelligence committee of the House of Representatives and those of the Senate demand answers from the Biden government. House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner is scheduled to receive a briefing on Monday, and his Senate counterparts also jointly requested one.
Here’s what we know so far about the leak:
What happened?
The documents appeared online last month on the social media platform Discord, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by Trends Wide.
The posts are photos of crumpled documents placed on top of magazines and surrounded by other random objects, such as zip-top bags and Gorilla glue. It’s as if they were hastily folded and put in a pocket before being removed from a safe place, a source familiar with such documents told Trends Wide.
A Discord spokesperson confirmed in a statement on Sunday that they are cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
All of the documents discovered Friday bore classification marks, some top secret, the highest level of classification.
It is unclear who is behind the leaks or where exactly they originated.
What do the documents contain?
Trends Wide has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been created between mid-February and early March.
They contain a wide range of highly classified information, providing a rare window into how the United States spies on allies and adversaries alike.
Some of the documents, which US authorities say are authentic, reveal the extent of US wiretapping of key allies including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.
Others reveal the extent to which the United States has penetrated the Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be disrupted or compromised.
Others reveal key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion size and readiness at a critical moment in the war, as Ukrainian forces prepare to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians, and just as the United States and Ukraine have begun to develop a relationship of greater mutual trust in intelligence sharing.
A document reveals that the United States has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is not surprising, a source close to Zelensky said, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated by the leak.
The US intelligence report, which is based on signals intelligence, says Zelensky “suggested attacking Russian deployment sites in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” using drones in late February, as Ukraine has no weapons of long range capable of reaching that far.
Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from signals and electronic systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radar, and weapons systems.”
Another document describes, in remarkable detail, a conversation between two top South Korean national security officials about the country’s National Security Council’s concern over a US ammunition request.
Officials were concerned that the ammunition supply, which the United States would later send to Ukraine, would violate South Korea’s policy of not providing lethal aid to countries at war. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way to circumvent the policy without actually changing it: sell the ammunition to Poland.
The document has already sparked controversy in Seoul, where South Korean officials told reporters that they plan to raise the issue with Washington.
Meanwhile, an intelligence report on Israel sparked outrage in Jerusalem. The report, produced by the CIA and sourced from signals intelligence, claims that Israel’s main intelligence agency, the Mossad, had been encouraging protests against the country’s new government, “including several explicit calls for action,” according to The report.
What has been the reaction of America’s allies?
Although America’s allies are aware that the US intelligence community collects information on friendly nations, diplomats from some of the named countries told Trends Wide it was frustrating — and damaging to America’s reputation — to see such information exposed publicly.
America’s allies are assessing the damage and trying to determine if any of their sources and methods have been compromised by the leak.
“We expect the United States to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we can’t wait for their assessment. Right now we are doing our own,” said an official from a country that is part of the US intelligence-sharing agreement. the Five Eyes with the United States, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“We are thoroughly studying these documents to find out if part of the information comes from our services,” the official said.
A second official from a Five Eyes country expressed concern about the leak of war information about Ukraine, which hurts the country on the battlefield.
The official also noted that it was alarming to see one of the February documents titled “Russia-Ukraine: Battle for Donbas Region Likely to Head for Stalemate Through 2023.” The document points out the difficulties in assessing the “resistance of Ukrainian operations.”
“It will be hard for Ukraine to come out on top, but it doesn’t help that the US private assessment that points to a probable one-year stalemate is made public,” the official said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated on his Telegram channel on Friday that he believes that the released documents are not authentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on ” a large amount of fictitious information” disseminated by Russia.
However, Ukraine has already changed some of its military plans because of the leak, a source close to Zelensky told Trends Wide.
US government officials “are in dialogue with high-level allies and partners on this matter, including to assure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and fidelity to securing our partnerships” following the leak, the chief deputy spokesman said Monday. of the State Department, Vedant Patel.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was appointed to lead the diplomatic response from the State Department, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Patel declined to elaborate on which countries the US has engaged with, saying only that “that work is ongoing.”
Who investigates?
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation, and the Department of Defense is also looking into the matter.
“The Department of Defense continues to review and assess the validity of photographic documents circulating on social media that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement over the weekend. week. “A focused interagency effort has been implemented to assess the impact these photographed documents could have on the national security of the United States and that of our allies and partners.”
Singh added that US officials spoke with allies and partners over the weekend regarding the leak, and briefed “relevant congressional committees.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, which comprises the highest-ranking uniformed leadership in the Defense Department who advises the president, is examining its mailing lists to see who receives these reports, a defense official said. Many of the documents bore markings indicating they had been produced by the intelligence section of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.
The Pentagon team working to determine the magnitude and scope of the leak includes the Department of Defense’s offices of legislative affairs, public affairs, policy, general counsel, intelligence and security, and joint staff, the aide said Monday. Defense Secretary for Public Affairs Chris Meagher.
Asked if the government has any idea who leaked the documents, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said Monday that the Defense Department had referred the case to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. and directed questions to that department.
“I am not aware that they have reached any conclusion at this time about its provenance,” Kirby said.
Asked if the Administration believes the leak is contained or if there is an ongoing threat, Kirby replied: “We don’t know. We really don’t.”
— Trends Wide’s Alex Marquardt, Jeremy Herb, Jennifer Hansler and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
Related Post
(Trends Wide) — The Joe Biden administration is racing to assess and contain the fallout from a major leak of classified Pentagon documents that has rocked US officials, members of Congress and key allies in recent days.
The Department of Justice (DOJ, for its acronym in English) investigates how the set of highly confidential documents, which include details about how the US spies on friends and enemies, as well as intelligence about the war in Ukraine, ended up in networks social.
But, until now, little is known about who may have been responsible for the leak or how some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets ended up on social media.
The Defense Department is still reviewing the matter and has taken steps to restrict the flow of these highly sensitive documents, the officials said, which are typically available on any given day to hundreds of people at various levels of government.
The Pentagon has launched an “interagency effort” to assess the impact of the leak, but US officials and their close allies already fear the disclosures could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relations.
Lawmakers in Congress also raised concerns about the apparent scope of the leak and the sensitivity of the documents posted online, but remain largely unaware of what happened.
Both the leaders of the Intelligence committee of the House of Representatives and those of the Senate demand answers from the Biden government. House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner is scheduled to receive a briefing on Monday, and his Senate counterparts also jointly requested one.
Here’s what we know so far about the leak:
What happened?
The documents appeared online last month on the social media platform Discord, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by Trends Wide.
The posts are photos of crumpled documents placed on top of magazines and surrounded by other random objects, such as zip-top bags and Gorilla glue. It’s as if they were hastily folded and put in a pocket before being removed from a safe place, a source familiar with such documents told Trends Wide.
A Discord spokesperson confirmed in a statement on Sunday that they are cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
All of the documents discovered Friday bore classification marks, some top secret, the highest level of classification.
It is unclear who is behind the leaks or where exactly they originated.
What do the documents contain?
Trends Wide has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been created between mid-February and early March.
They contain a wide range of highly classified information, providing a rare window into how the United States spies on allies and adversaries alike.
Some of the documents, which US authorities say are authentic, reveal the extent of US wiretapping of key allies including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.
Others reveal the extent to which the United States has penetrated the Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be disrupted or compromised.
Others reveal key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion size and readiness at a critical moment in the war, as Ukrainian forces prepare to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians, and just as the United States and Ukraine have begun to develop a relationship of greater mutual trust in intelligence sharing.
A document reveals that the United States has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is not surprising, a source close to Zelensky said, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated by the leak.
The US intelligence report, which is based on signals intelligence, says Zelensky “suggested attacking Russian deployment sites in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” using drones in late February, as Ukraine has no weapons of long range capable of reaching that far.
Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from signals and electronic systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radar, and weapons systems.”
Another document describes, in remarkable detail, a conversation between two top South Korean national security officials about the country’s National Security Council’s concern over a US ammunition request.
Officials were concerned that the ammunition supply, which the United States would later send to Ukraine, would violate South Korea’s policy of not providing lethal aid to countries at war. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way to circumvent the policy without actually changing it: sell the ammunition to Poland.
The document has already sparked controversy in Seoul, where South Korean officials told reporters that they plan to raise the issue with Washington.
Meanwhile, an intelligence report on Israel sparked outrage in Jerusalem. The report, produced by the CIA and sourced from signals intelligence, claims that Israel’s main intelligence agency, the Mossad, had been encouraging protests against the country’s new government, “including several explicit calls for action,” according to The report.
What has been the reaction of America’s allies?
Although America’s allies are aware that the US intelligence community collects information on friendly nations, diplomats from some of the named countries told Trends Wide it was frustrating — and damaging to America’s reputation — to see such information exposed publicly.
America’s allies are assessing the damage and trying to determine if any of their sources and methods have been compromised by the leak.
“We expect the United States to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we can’t wait for their assessment. Right now we are doing our own,” said an official from a country that is part of the US intelligence-sharing agreement. the Five Eyes with the United States, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“We are thoroughly studying these documents to find out if part of the information comes from our services,” the official said.
A second official from a Five Eyes country expressed concern about the leak of war information about Ukraine, which hurts the country on the battlefield.
The official also noted that it was alarming to see one of the February documents titled “Russia-Ukraine: Battle for Donbas Region Likely to Head for Stalemate Through 2023.” The document points out the difficulties in assessing the “resistance of Ukrainian operations.”
“It will be hard for Ukraine to come out on top, but it doesn’t help that the US private assessment that points to a probable one-year stalemate is made public,” the official said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated on his Telegram channel on Friday that he believes that the released documents are not authentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on ” a large amount of fictitious information” disseminated by Russia.
However, Ukraine has already changed some of its military plans because of the leak, a source close to Zelensky told Trends Wide.
US government officials “are in dialogue with high-level allies and partners on this matter, including to assure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and fidelity to securing our partnerships” following the leak, the chief deputy spokesman said Monday. of the State Department, Vedant Patel.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was appointed to lead the diplomatic response from the State Department, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Patel declined to elaborate on which countries the US has engaged with, saying only that “that work is ongoing.”
Who investigates?
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation, and the Department of Defense is also looking into the matter.
“The Department of Defense continues to review and assess the validity of photographic documents circulating on social media that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement over the weekend. week. “A focused interagency effort has been implemented to assess the impact these photographed documents could have on the national security of the United States and that of our allies and partners.”
Singh added that US officials spoke with allies and partners over the weekend regarding the leak, and briefed “relevant congressional committees.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, which comprises the highest-ranking uniformed leadership in the Defense Department who advises the president, is examining its mailing lists to see who receives these reports, a defense official said. Many of the documents bore markings indicating they had been produced by the intelligence section of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.
The Pentagon team working to determine the magnitude and scope of the leak includes the Department of Defense’s offices of legislative affairs, public affairs, policy, general counsel, intelligence and security, and joint staff, the aide said Monday. Defense Secretary for Public Affairs Chris Meagher.
Asked if the government has any idea who leaked the documents, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said Monday that the Defense Department had referred the case to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. and directed questions to that department.
“I am not aware that they have reached any conclusion at this time about its provenance,” Kirby said.
Asked if the Administration believes the leak is contained or if there is an ongoing threat, Kirby replied: “We don’t know. We really don’t.”
— Trends Wide’s Alex Marquardt, Jeremy Herb, Jennifer Hansler and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
