The Gist A massive leak of confidential American documents is worrying many political leaders across the Atlantic. Because the consequences could be significant. We explain it to you.
This could be one of the worst leaks of confidential information since the Snowden affair. According to US authorities, the security of the United States is “very seriously” threatened after the massive leak of secret documents related to the war in Ukraine. What do we know about the extent of these leaks? What are these documents and why is their proliferation on the web worrying? La Dépêche explains it to you.
What we know about these documents
Among these documents, leaked online by the New York Times on Thursday, April 6, one takes stock of the conflict in Ukraine in early March, others refer to the situation on specific fronts, such as in Bakhmout, or the crucial anti-aircraft defense of Kiev.
Some also seem to point to intelligence being carried out by the United States and targeting some of its allies: one document, for example, mentions that leaders of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, defended the demonstrations against the controversial judicial reform system in Israel.
AFP consulted certain documents marked “secret” or “top secret” without being able to confirm their authenticity.
A steady stream of photos of classified documents have been spotted on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other platforms in recent days, although some circulated online for weeks before attracting media attention. Many of them are no longer available on the websites they originally appeared on, and US authorities are reportedly working to have them all removed.
Are we sure these documents are genuine?
Defense Department spokesman Chris Meagher said a team was working to determine whether the documents were genuine, noting that the photos released certainly appeared to contain sensitive information.
“Photos appear to show documents in a format similar to that used to provide daily updates on our high-level operations in Ukraine and Russia, as well as other intelligence updates,” he said, but some “appear to have been edited. “
At least one of the documents appears to have been altered to indicate that Ukraine suffered greater casualties than Russia, despite what the purported original claimed to the contrary.
When secret US slides were leaked yesterday, Russian propaganda channels were quick to repost them – but after a bit of Photoshop. Suddenly, 43.5,000 \ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa fatalities became 17.5,000, while 17.5,000 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 KIA became 71.5,000. Russian vehicle losses fell from 6,004 to 600. Spot the differences. pic.twitter.com/8lyoWaKcwj
—Yaroslav Trofimov (@jarotrof) April 7, 2023
Why do these leaks pose a risk to the United States?
This massive leak is causing growing concern in the Biden administration. “We don’t know who is responsible for this. And we don’t know if they have more[documents]to post,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council at Joe Biden, before adding, “Do we care? Absolutely.”
The fact that these documents are circulating online “poses a very serious risk to national security and has the potential to fuel disinformation,” Chris Meagher told reporters Monday.
“We continue to investigate how this happened and the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to further analyze how and to whom this type of information was distributed,” he added. “The release of classified and sensitive information can not only have enormous consequences for our national security, but also result in death,” warned Chris Meagher.
What is the American reaction?
According to Chris Meagher, the United States continues to investigate how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to further analyze how and to whom this type of information was distributed.
US officials have also reached out to Washington’s allies on the matter, “among other things, to reassure them of our commitment to protecting intelligence and our ability to secure our partnerships,” US diplomacy spokesman Vedant said.
The responsible parliamentary committees had been informed, the Pentagon had previously indicated. The Justice Department has launched a separate criminal investigation.