The Biden administration is scrambling to assess and contain the fallout from a major leak of classified Pentagon documents that has rattled U.S. officials, members of Congress and key allies in recent days.
The Justice Department is investigating how the trove of highly sensitive documents, which include details about how the U.S. spies on friends and foes as well as intelligence on the war in Ukraine, ended up on social media sites.
Congressional lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the apparent scope of the leak and sensitivity of the documents posted online but largely remain in the dark about what has occurred. The posts are photos of crumpled documents laid on top of magazines and surrounded by other random objects, such as zip-close bags and Gorilla Glue. It is as if they had been hastily folded up and shoved into a pocket before being removed from a secure location, a source familiar with these kinds of documents told CNN.
Some of the documents, which U.S. officials say are authentic, expose the extent of U.S. eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine. The U.S. intelligence report, which is sourced to signals intelligence, says that Zelensky in late February"suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia's Rostov Oblast" using unmanned aerial vehicles, since Ukraine does not have long-range weapons capable of reaching that far.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio The officials worried that supplying the ammunition, which the U.S. would then send to Ukraine, would violate South Korea's policy of not supplying lethal aid to countries at war. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way of getting around the policy without actually changing it — by selling the ammunition to Poland.
U.S. allies are doing damage assessments, scrambling to determine whether any of their own sources and methods have been compromised by the leak. The official also pointed out that it was alarming to see one of the documents from February titled"Russia-Ukraine: Battle for the Donbas Region Likely Heading for a Stalemate Throughout 2023." The document notes the challenges with assessing the"endurance of Ukraine's operations."
U.S. government officials"are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and the fidelity of securing our partnerships" following the leak, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Monday.
"The Department of Defense continues to review and assess the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites and that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material," Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement over the weekend."An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our Allies and partners.
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