The security services of the United States are engaged in a race, trying to identify those responsible for the leak of dozens of classified documents and to manage the consequences concerning both the operation of government services and Washington’s relations with other countries. At the same time, they are looking for the motive behind the leak of the sensitive information.

In fact, one of the documents, marked “Top Secret” includes information about a meeting of Russian private intermediaries with Turkish “contacts” for the purchase of arms from Ankara.

Some of the most classified information has to do with Ukraine’s military capabilities and shortcomings.

The classified documents have appeared since March on social media sites with information about Ukraine’s military weaknesses or information about US allies such as Israel, South Korea and Turkey, without the material making much of a splash until it was published. article in the New York Times last Friday.

The matter has already been transferred from the Pentagon to the Ministry of Justice and a judicial investigation is being conducted into the leaking of the documents.

According to two U.S. Pentagon officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, one of the issues the U.S. Defense Department is looking at is the procedures governing the scope of the scale of disclosure of classified information both within the U.S. intelligence agencies as well as outside the US to allied governments.

The two officials note that while the leaks are extremely troubling, many of the classified documents are nothing more than snapshots that refer to specific points in time in February and March and do not relate to future operations.

Although the incident is the most significant leak of classified information in decades, it falls short of the scale of the 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables leaked to the WikiLeaks website in 2013.

Creating confusion and suspicion in the Western camp could be the motive

Pentagon investigators are trying to determine who would be motivated to spread such information, whether it is authentic or not. US officials have found, for example, that some estimates of Ukrainian battlefield casualties have been altered so as to downplay the losses of the Russian side.

Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA agent, states that given past actions by Moscow’s intelligence services, it is “very likely” that Russian agents posted the documents concerning Ukraine as part of a disinformation operation.

Such operations are aimed at creating confusion or discord among Russia’s adversaries and are a “classic” practice of Russian intelligence agencies leaking authentic classified documents to which they have added false information.

Their purpose, says Daniel Hoffman, is to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the US, Kiev’s major arms supplier.

Some national security experts and US officials say that the person in charge may be American, given the range of topics covered by the documents, but “does not rule out” the Russian factor.

Reactions to US allies

The leaks have already sparked backlash among US allies.

In a statement yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described as “false and baseless” a document alleging that Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, encouraged recent protests against Netanyahu’s plan to introduce judicial reform.

A South Korean official said yesterday that Seoul is aware of the leaked documents and plans to discuss “issues that have arisen” with Washington.

One of the documents, labeled “Top Secret,” details internal discussions among South Korean officials about U.S. pressure on Seoul to supply arms to Ukraine and about South Korea’s policy of not responding to U.S. pressure. .

It is common for the US and other countries to spy on their allies, but public exposure of the event puts tthe governments of these allied countries.

“It will take some time to restore trust with our allies,” said one of the US officials who spoke to Reuters.
However, Michael Mulroney, a former Pentagon official, downplays the implications of the leak. “It is of course embarrassing when these actions are revealed publicly. They may cause short-term problems in the relationship, but I believe that in the long-term the common interests between the countries will prevail.”

THE Ukraine was also forced to amend some of its military plans ahead of its long-awaited counterattack due to the leak of classified US documents, CNN reported Monday, citing a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.