Pentagon tries to rein in source of highly sensitive documents widely shared online

The leak of highly sensitive United States documents — many of them related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and allies — has created a diplomatic headache for Washington as they appear to show the US spying on close allies, including South Korea and Israel.

The US Justice Department is investigating the breach while the Pentagon labelled it a risk. US officials reportedly believe many of the documents are real.

Dozens of photographs of documents have been found on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other sites in recent days, but may have been online for longer before they began to receive media attention last week, according to media outlets. 

Following disclosure of the leak, Reuters reviewed more than 50 documents labeled “Secret” and “Top Secret” that first appeared last month on social media. While some of the documents were posted weeks ago, their existence was first reported on April 7 by The New York Times.

According to a report by The Washington Post, senior Pentagon leadership restricted the flow of intelligence on April 7 in response to the revelations. One official described the clampdown as unusually strict and said it revealed a high level of panic among Pentagon leadership.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement: “An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on US national security and on our allies and partners.”

Some US officials and their foreign allies were stunned, and occasionally infuriated, at the extraordinary range of detail the files exposed about how the US spies on friends and foes alike.

In Canberra, Angus Campbell, chief of Australia’s Defense Force, said on April 11 that the US intelligence leak was a “serious” incident, adding that the US was engaging with its partners to understand the consequences.

“The issue of maintaining security of information is critical to the development of national capability and to the trust and confidence across allies and partners,” Campbell said in response to questions after a speech at the Lowy Institute.

A document, dated Feb 23 and marked “Secret”, outlines in detail how Ukraine’s S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate.

The leak would prove valuable to Moscow by showing how deep US intelligence has penetrated parts of the Russian military apparatus, US media commented

On April 10, the Kremlin said there was a general tendency to always blame Russia for everything when asked about Western accusations that Moscow may have been behind the leak.

Another document, marked “Top Secret” and from a CIA Intel update from March 1, said the Mossad intelligence agency was encouraging protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court.

The document said the US learned this through signals intelligence, suggesting the US had been spying on one of its most important allies in the Middle East.

One document, obtained by Reuters, showed details about internal discussions among top South Korean officials about US pressure on Seoul to help supply weapons to Ukraine, and its policy of not doing so.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on April 10 that fact checks on the documents are a priority and that it would request the US to take “appropriate” steps after confirming details.

The document, which does not appear to have a date on it, said South Korea had agreed to sell artillery shells to help the US replenish its stockpiles, insisting that the “end user” should be the US military. But internally, top South Korean officials were worried that the US would divert them to Ukraine.

South Korea has signed major deals providing hundreds of tanks, aircraft and other weapons to NATO member Poland since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. But Yoon said a South Korean law that forbids supplying weapons to countries engaged in conflict makes it difficult to send arms to Ukraine.

Agencies, Xinhua and Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.