Intel leak has U.S. officials bracing for impact at home and abroad

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Two US officials said the US national security community is grappling with the implications of the release of dozens of classified documents, including the impact on the sharing of sensitive information within the government and relations with other countries.

Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of these documents, labeled “secret” and “top secret,” which first appeared on social media in early March and reveal details of Ukraine’s military vulnerabilities and information about allies including Israel, South Korea and Turkey. The article had not gained much attention until an article was published in the New York Times on Friday.

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Reuters has not independently verified the authenticity of the documents. U.S. officials said some of them provided battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine that appeared to have been adjusted to reduce Russian casualties.

The leak alarmed enough within the Pentagon that it referred the matter to the Justice Department, which opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of the documents.

Two US defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the Pentagon is examining procedures that govern the spread of some of America’s most sensitive secrets.

One of the officials said some of the documents were likely available to thousands of people with security clearances from the US and allied government despite being highly sensitive, because the information directly affected those countries.

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The Pentagon said Sunday in a statement that the interagency effort is assessing the impact of the photographed documents on the national security of the United States as well as on the security of close American allies, a standard procedure known as a “damage assessment” for leaks of classified information.

The first official said the number of people who gained access to the documents confirms that sensitive information may have been shared widely with individuals who may not need the level of detail contained in some of the documents.

“The Pentagon has needed to limit unbridled access to some of their most sensitive information when they have no justifiable reason to have it,” said the first official.

The two officials also said that while the leaks were deeply troubling, many of them only provided snapshots of the time in February and March — when they were dated — but didn’t seem to reveal anything about future operations.

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Although the disclosure of the documents appears to be the most serious public leak of classified information in years, officials say it does not yet reach the size and scope of the 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables that appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.

Find a motive

The senior defense official said Pentagon investigators were trying to determine who would have an incentive to leak this type of information.

The first official added that since the leak first came to light in March, investigators have been pursuing theories that range from someone simply sharing documents to show the work they were doing to a mole within the intelligence community or the US military.

Daniel Hoffman, a former undercover CIA officer, said that given the past activities of Moscow’s intelligence agencies, it was “highly likely” that Russian agents published documents relating to Ukraine as part of a Russian disinformation operation.

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He said such operations—aimed at sowing confusion, if not discord, among Russia’s adversaries—was a “classic” practice for Russian spy services to leak original documents into which they inserted false information.

He said the aim appeared to be to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the United States, Kiev’s largest provider of military support.

Some national security experts and US officials say they currently suspect the leaker to be American, given the breadth of topics covered in the documents, but they are not ruling out pro-Russian actors. They said more theories could develop as the investigation progresses.

The Kremlin and the Russian embassy did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was involved in the leak.

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Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent the leaks.

The White House has refused to publicly discuss who might be responsible for the breach, and has referred all questions about the leak to the Pentagon. The Pentagon said that over the weekend, US officials spoke with allies and informed the relevant congressional committee about the leak.

said Rep. Jason Crowe, a former Army Ranger who sits on the US House Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees.

Influencing allies

The leaks have sparked reactions from some foreign governments.

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In a statement on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the document “false and totally baseless” asserting that Mossad, one of the country’s intelligence services, encouraged recent protests against Netanyahu’s plan to tighten oversight of the judiciary.

A South Korean presidential official said on Sunday that the country was aware of reports of the leaked documents and that it planned to discuss the “issues raised” with Washington.

One document gave details of internal discussions among senior South Korean officials about US pressure on Seoul to supply arms to Ukraine, and its policy of not doing so.

One document marked “top secret” allegedly details how Russian military contractors met with Turkish “contacts” to buy weapons from Ankara.

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The Turkish embassy in Washington declined to comment.

Some of the most sensitive information allegedly relates to Ukraine’s military capabilities and shortcomings.

It is not uncommon for the United States and other countries to spy on their allies. But public exposure of such espionage is uncomfortable for these allies, who need to explain to their people how they will respond.

“It will take some time to rebuild trust with our allies,” the second US defense official said in an interview with Reuters.

Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, downplayed the lasting impact of the leak.

“It is, of course, embarrassing when these activities are publicly disclosed,” Mulroy said. “It may cause short-term problems for the relationship, but I think in the long term the common interests between the two countries will remain strong.”

(Reporting by Idriss Ali and Jonathan Landay. Additional reporting by Hamira Pamuk. Editing by Jerry Doyle Editing Don Dorphy)