The leak of classified US documents, namely those related to Ukraine and most of which appear to be authentic, poses a “very serious” risk to US national security, the Pentagon said Monday.
The fact that these documents are circulating on the Internet poses “a very serious risk to national security and could potentially feed disinformation,” Chris Meagher, a spokesman for the US Defense Ministry, told the media.
“We are continuing to investigate how this all happened, and even the magnitude of the problem. Steps have been taken to analyze how this type of information was distributed and to whom, ”she added.
A steady stream of classified photos and documents has been revealed via Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other digital outlets in recent days, though some circulate online for weeks without attracting media attention.
The Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on their authenticity, saying a ministry team was trying to determine their origin, but acknowledged that the published photos appear to contain confidential information.
Various ‘media’ have indicated that various US officials consider many of the documents to be authentic.
“The photos appear to show documents in a format similar to that used to provide daily updates to our senior officials on Ukraine and Russia-related operations, as well as other information updates,” Meagher said, but some “appear to have been doctored.” .
According to the Americans, one of the documents appears to have been altered to imply that Ukraine recorded more combat losses than Russia, while the original assumption indicated otherwise.
On Sunday, the Pentagon had already mentioned that the United States is assessing the risks to the security of the country, following the disclosure of secret documents, including those related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The documents, published last week by media outlets such as the New York Times, include assessments and reports from US intelligence agencies related to the war in Ukraine, but also with US allies.
“Inter-institutional cooperation began to assess the impact [que a fuga] of these documents may have on the security of the country and our allies and partners,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
Posted on social media, the documents could prove valuable to Moscow as they reveal the extent to which US secret services have penetrated parts of the Russian military apparatus, according to US media.
The US Department of Justice, which opened an investigation on Saturday, is trying to identify the source of the leak and is still examining the validity of the released documents.
For its part, the Washington Post quoted officials as saying that some documents appear to have been forged. But most correspond to reports from the CIA (secret services), present in the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, said the same source.
Source: TSF
