Officials say the breadth of topics addressed suggests they were leaked by an American rather than an ally
\n WASHINGTON:
\nClassified documents that appeared online, with details ranging from Ukraine\u2019s air defences to Israel\u2019s Mossad spy agency, have US officials scrambling to identify the leak\u2019s source, with some experts saying it could be an American.
\nOfficials say the breadth of topics addressed in the documents, which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggest they may have been leaked by an American rather than an ally.
\n\u201cThe focus now is on this being a US leak, as many of the documents were only in US hands,\u201d Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters in an interview.
\nUS officials said the investigation is in its early stages and those running it have not ruled out the possibility that pro-Russian elements were behind the leak, which is seen as one of the most serious security breaches since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.
\nThe Russian embassy in Washington and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment.
\nFollowing disclosure of the leak, Reuters has reviewed more than 50 documents labelled \u201cSecret\u201d and \u201cTop Secret\u201d that first appeared last month on social media websites, beginning with Discord and 4Chan. While some of the documents were posted weeks ago, their existence was first reported on Friday by the New York Times.
\nReuters has not independently verified the authenticity of the documents. Some giving battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine appeared to have been altered to minimize Russian losses. It is not clear why at least one is marked unclassified but includes top-secret information. Some documents are marked \u201cNOFORN,\u201d meaning they cannot be released to foreign nationals.
\nTwo US officials told Reuters on Sunday that they have not ruled out that the documents may have been doctored to mislead investigators as to their origin or to disseminate false information that may harm US security interests.
\nThe White House referred questions to the Pentagon.
\nIn a statement on Sunday, the Pentagon said it was reviewing the validity of the photographed documents that \u201cappear to contain sensitive and highly classified material.\u201d
\nThe Pentagon has referred the issue to the Department of Justice, which has opened a criminal investigation.
\nOne of the documents, dated February 23 and marked \u201cSecret,\u201d outlines in detail how Ukraine\u2019s S-300 air defence systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current usage rate.
\nSuch closely guarded information could be of use to Russian forces, and Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officials say the breadth of topics addressed suggests they were leaked by an American rather than an ally WASHINGTON: Classified documents that appeared online, with details ranging from Ukraine\u2019s air defences to Israel\u2019s Mossad spy agency, have US officials scrambling to identify the leak\u2019s source, with some experts saying it could be an American. Officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-325095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n