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(CNN) The Justice Department has launched an investigation into the leak of a pile of apparently U.S. intelligence documents posted on social media in recent weeks.
The probe expanded on Friday after new documents surfaced that cover everything from US support for Ukraine to information about key US allies like Israel, expanding the implications of an already alarming leak. The Pentagon said Thursday it was investigating the matter after apparently classified documents about the war in Ukraine were posted on social media.
Additional leaked documents surfaced by open source intelligence researchers on Friday appear to have been posted online in the past few weeks. These documents included mercenary Wagner Group operations in Africa, Israel’s provision of deadly aid to Ukraine, information on the UAE’s relationship with Russia, and South Korea’s concerns about providing ammunition to the United States. It seems to contain sensitive information on various topics. Used in Ukraine.
CNN was unable to independently confirm that the document had not been altered. But they resemble a tranche of classified documents about Ukraine that have been circulating online in recent weeks, and on Friday morning a US official confirmed to CNN that he was genuine.
As with those documents, what was found Friday was also a photograph of a printed, wrinkled document. All had top secret markings and were of the highest level of classification. In addition, he is believed to have been manufactured from mid-February to early March.
It’s unclear who was behind the leak and where exactly it happened.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Friday that “the Department of Defense is actively reviewing this matter and has formally referred it to the Justice Department for investigation.”
A Justice Department spokesman told CNN that the Department of Justice “has been in contact with the Department of Defense regarding this matter and has initiated an investigation,” but declined to comment further.
the authorities rattled
The leak unnerved senior Pentagon officials, especially the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Staff is made up of the highest uniformed leadership in the Department of Defense, and its role is to advise the President. Many of the documents appear to be briefing documents, with markings indicating they were produced by the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s intelligence agency known as J2.
Earlier on Friday, U.S. officials confirmed that similar documents on Ukraine were part of a larger daily intelligence briefing deck produced by the Pentagon on the war over senior leaders.
U.S. officials have suggested that the leak investigation will look at potential culprits within the Pentagon. Some documents had markings indicating they were shared with Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. There is also
Other markings indicate the inclusion of material from other agencies, such as the Department of State’s intelligence agencies, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency.
However, many of the documents are also marked to indicate that they are of human intelligence and are not intended to be shared with foreigners, even those of the United States’ closest allies.
Some documents refer to classified CIA information. “We are aware of the social media posts and are investigating the allegations,” an agency spokesperson told CNN on Friday.
“No one noticed”
Images from some of the documents, including an estimate of Russian casualties and a list of Western weapon systems available to Ukraine, appeared on social media in early March, according to screenshots of a post seen by CNN. It was posted on the media platform Discord.
“This shit has been on a Minecraft Discord server for a month and nobody noticed,” said Aric Toler, a researcher at research firm Bellingcat, who followed the timeline of the posted documents. told CNN. Minecraft is a popular video game.
It wasn’t until this week that the leaked documents began to gain attention. After someone posted part of the document on 4chan, a web forum popular with extremists, a Russian speaker posted his one modified version of the document on Telegram. said the trailer.
U.S. officials believe that someone tampered with the document to make the estimated number of Ukrainians killed in the war far higher than it actually was.
The Pentagon said Thursday it was aware of the social media post and was investigating the matter.
Speculation and paranoia were rampant on Friday’s Discord, with some users wondering if reposting the document would cause problems as the US government is looking into the matter. The user who posted the photo of the document on March 1 appears to have deleted his Twitter and Discord accounts.
Thomas Rid, an expert in state-sponsored intelligence operations, told CNN, “The fact that unredacted and redacted and tampered versions of some files are available online indicates that this I am skeptical that it is an activity,” he said.
Historically, if an intelligence agency had access to an adversary’s confidential material and decided to falsify some of that material, it would not normally release both versions of those documents, says Johns Hopkins. Reid, a university high school professor, said. international research.
“It only facilitates fact detection and thus defeats the purpose,” Lidd said.
However, there are concerns that leaked documents may have real-world implications.
Russian analyst Dmitri Alperovich said, “Leakage of these documents could seriously damage the Ukrainian counterattack, as it effectively provides Russia with the Ukrainian order of battle.” there is,” he said. Executive Chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator.
This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.
Alex Marquardt and Jenny Hansler of CNN contributed to this report.
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