While authorities neither admit nor deny the documents are genuine, a full-scale investigation has been launched
The Pentagon may not be the source of leaked alleged US intelligence documents that recently surfaced online, Fox News has claimed, citing “conversations with various US defense and intelligence officials.”
The treasure trove of dozens of documents had been floating around online for weeks, if not months, but came under intense media and government scrutiny last week. The images of printed documents have been described by media as the largest US government leak since WikiLeaks released thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many of the articles focus on the Ukraine crisis and appear to be Pentagon briefings prepared for senior US officials. Fox noted that if secure devices were used “Investigators can track where they were printed.”
The news network also pointed out that some of the intelligence appears to come from outside agencies, such as the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA). These documents would not be readily available to Pentagon employees, so their inclusion suggests the leak came from outside the military, according to Fox News.
The US government has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the documents. However, he launched a full-scale intra-departmental investigation into the apparent violation.
Among other things, the batch of documents indicated that the United States was spying on some of its closest allies and that it publicly displayed more confidence in Ukraine’s military capabilities than it actually had.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured that his department is dealing with the situation “very seriously” and committed to “turn every rock” to get to the bottom of what happened. He could not explain how the leak went unnoticed for so long.