USA The government has been hit hard this week by leaks of sensitive Pentagon documents including a series of recent intelligence updates and Joint Chiefs of Staff briefings. Notably, the documents appear to be very new, dating from early January to early March. The archive was first posted to Discord a few weeks ago, before some of the documents were received more recently on Russian Telegram channels and later on Twitter.
Initial report on the situation—including by The New York Timesbroke the story—had focused on about 100 documents, but some reports indicates that more confidential documents may have been shared on Discord in the past few months. The documents are images of printed presentation slides. Some papers were folded and opened before being photographed, and some pictures were taken fragments of other objects it’s on the table with the papers.
The leak ranks high among other recent prominent revelations about secret US government operations—a list that includes information from Edward Snowden about the leak, researchers say. . NSA’s Mass Surveillance operation, details of CIA hacking capabilities in Vault7 . Revealed published by WikiLeaks and NSA hacking tools revealed in Shadow broker leak. But this latest leak has some specific characteristics that reflect the present moment: It’s relatively small and contains new information rather than a massive monthly or yearly trove of data. And while it’s still unclear who leaked the documents or what their motives were, early signs from Discord’s activity suggest the leaker may be trying to show off his gaming buddies. them and maybe even a teenager or young adult.
“I was intrigued by the idea of a small, political leak,” said Dan Meyer, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey who works on federal employment issues and national security. corpse. Meyer was previously a federal investigator and whistleblower expert in the United States government. The use of “strategic leaks” has been a tactic of top officials “for a very long time,” Meyer said. “But now the technology issue is very real with phones and the ability to move these documents in a way that the government didn’t anticipate.”
The latest leaked documents reveal details of the war in Ukraine, including information about the Ukrainian military’s air defense system and plans to counter-attack against Russia in the future. Notably, the document also reveals details of Russia’s war effort and shows the extent to which the US intelligence community has infiltrated Russia’s military and intelligence agencies.
As with any leak of state secrets, the revelations with the most lasting impact are often related to methods and access rights rather than specific information. That means Russian intelligence, for example, will likely make changes to its operations to deal with ties to evade American operators. The leak also included signs that the US was spying on allies such as South Korean and Israeli officials, a move that is not necessarily surprising but diplomatically embarrassing.
“We are still investigating how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem,” said Chris Meagher, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. speak reporters on Tuesday. “There have been steps to take a closer look at how this kind of information is distributed and to whom. We are still trying to assess what might be out there.”
