the United States The government has been struggling this week, thanks to a leak of confidential Pentagon documents including a series of recent intelligence updates and Joint Chiefs of Staff briefings. In particular, the documents appear to be very recent, dating from January to early March. The treasure trove was first posted on Discord a few weeks ago, before some of the documents were picked up more recently on Russian Telegram channels and later on Twitter.
Initial report on the situation, including by The New York Timesthat broke the story, has focused on about 100 documents, but some reports indicate that even more secret documents may have been shared on Discord in recent months. Handouts are photographs of printed presentation slides. Some of the papers had been folded and unfolded before being photographed, and some of the photos capture splinters of other objects who were on the desk with the papers.
Investigators say the leak ranks high among other notable recent revelations about clandestine US government activity, a list that includes information from Edward Snowden about the NSA mass surveillance activity, details of CIA hacking capabilities in the Vault7 Revelations published by WikiLeaks, and NSA hacking tools revealed in the Shadow Brokers Leak. But this latest leak has some specific characteristics that reflect the current moment: it is relatively small and contains recent information instead of a great trove of data from months or years. And while it’s still unclear who leaked the documents or what their motivation was, initial indications of Discord activity suggest the leaker may have been trying to show off to their gaming friends, and could even be a teenager or young adult. .
“The idea of a small, precise leakage phenomenon intrigues me,” says Dan Meyer, a partner at the Tully Rinckey law firm who works on federal employment and national security matters. Meyer was previously a federal investigator and whistleblower expert within the US government. The use of “strategic leaks” has been a tactic of top officials “for a long time,” Meyer says. “But now the technology problem is very real with phones and the ability to move these documents in ways the government didn’t anticipate.”
The latest leaked documents reveal details about the war in Ukraine, including information about the Ukrainian army’s air defenses and plans for a future counteroffensive against Russia. Notably, the trove also reveals details about Russia’s war effort and exposes the degree to which the US intelligence community has penetrated Russia’s military and intelligence services.
As with any leak of state secrets, the most shocking revelations in the long run usually relate to methods and access rather than specific information. That means that Russian intelligence, for example, will likely make changes to its operations in response to the disclosures in order to evade US operators. The leak also includes hints that the US has been spying on allies such as South Korean and Israeli officials, a move that is not necessarily surprising but diplomatically embarrassing.
“We are still investigating how this happened, as well as the extent of the problem,” said Chris Meagher, assistant secretary of defense for US public affairs. said reporters on Tuesday. “There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom. We are also still trying to assess what might be out there.”