Both Western experts and American service personnel believe that it is an American actor who is behind the leak, and not someone from an allied country. – The focus now is on this being an American leak, as many of the documents were only in American hands, says Michael Mulroy to the Reuters news agency. Mulroy was previously high up in the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon. The leak that became known over the Easter weekend is being investigated, and a source in the US civil service emphasizes to Reuters that the investigation is still in an initial phase. They have not denied that pro-Russian actors are behind the leak. It is considered one of the most serious breaches of security since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic communications appeared on Wikileaks’ websites in 2013. Anders Romarheim, associate professor at the Norwegian Defense Academy. Photo: news – Embarrassment for the USA Anders Romarheim believes that what has happened is serious for the USA, and could lead to friction between the USA and several of the country’s friends and allies around the world. – It is embarrassing for the USA, and something that the USA would very much like to be ahead of. But there was a bigger scandal when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was tapped by American intelligence, he says. Romarheim does not believe that what has happened now will have consequences for the relationship between the allies in the long term. – It’s always a bit controversial, and it creates turbulence in relationships. But one usually uses to get on, and smooth over it. The relationship between the US and South Korea, for example, is very strong. Appear on online forums Reuters has gone through over 50 of the documents that first appeared on the communication platform Discord and the online forum 4Chan. They are labeled as secret or very secret. Some of the documents were published several weeks ago, but were not known until the New York Times mentioned the matter on Friday. Reuters has not verified the document. Some of them deal with estimates of losses in the Ukraine war, which seem to understate the Russian losses. At least one document contains highly classified information, but is not classified. Some documents are marked with “NOFORN”, which means that they cannot be shared with foreigners. Two US officials told Reuters that they have not ruled out that someone could have tampered with the documents to confuse the investigators or spread disinformation that could be harmful to US interests. The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that it is assessing whether the document, which “appears to contain sensitive and highly classified information”, is genuine. The Ministry of Justice has started an investigation into the case. Ukrainian air defense may run out of ammunition One of the documents, dated February 23 and marked as secret, describes in detail how Ukraine’s S-300 air defense system will run out of ammunition by May 2, given that consumption continues at the same rate as now . The New York Times writes that there is great concern that this could happen. Such information can be very useful for Russia. From the Ukrainian side, it has been reported that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with security experts on Friday to talk about how leaks can be prevented. Spying on allies Another document is marked as top secret. It appears to be a report from the intelligence service CIA. In the document, which is dated 1 March, it is said that the Israeli Mossad called for the protests against the controversial judicial reform of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US must have obtained the information via espionage. The Israeli e-service Mossad is said to have encouraged the protests against the government, according to the leak. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP Another document describes in detail internal discussions among high-ranking South Korean officials about the US putting pressure on South Korea to help supply Ukraine with weapons. It has also been revealed that the Americans should have spied on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. – Not surprising, but frustrating, victory is a source in Ukrainian governing powers. The Pentagon has not commented on the specific information in the document. Other theories Two anonymous service personnel tell Reuters that there is concern about the leak both in the Pentagon and the intelligence services, but emphasize that the documents are a month old and do not reveal more recent assessments. Efforts are being made to map out what kind of motivation may lie behind the leaks, whether it has been an American official or a group. The investigators will work with four or five theories, ranging from a disgruntled employee being behind it, to a threat from the inside that wants to work against the US’s security interests. Anders Romarheim thinks it is difficult to say what is behind the leak. – It can be untrustworthy servants, it can be effective agents, it can be interception and signals intelligence that captures correspondence between those who have produced the information and those who will use it. The very fact that the information is useful and sensitive and relevant in terms of time means that you cannot just sit on it, you are forced to share it with those who need it. And for each person you share with, the sources of error for the information to go astray increase. British spy plane close to being shot down In September, a British reconnaissance plane came very close to being shot down by the Russian air force over the Black Sea. Write it in the Washington Post. In the document, it is referred to as a “close shot down of UK RJ”, a reference to River Joint, a code word for the RC-135 spy plane used by the British Air Force. If the leak is true, the incident is more serious than what came to light when British Defense Minister Pen Wallace told about the incident in parliament in October. Then he is said to have said that two Russian planes flew very close to the British spy plane, and that one of them fired a missile. He said at the same time that it was probably a technical error, and that he had discussed it with Russian defense officials. This was several months before Russian fighter jets caused an unmanned American drone to crash over the Black Sea. Deep into the Kremlin and Wagner CNN writes that the revelations show how deeply American intelligence has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner Group. It also shows that the Americans not only spy on enemies, but also on friends. This causes many to fear that the leaks not only put the lives of agents in danger, but that they could also put relations with friendly countries in danger. In 2021, it was revealed that American intelligence must have secretly spied on Norwegian, Swedish, German and French politicians via Danish internet cables in collaboration with the Danish e-tenesta. Has tightened The leak has already led to the flow of such intelligence information being tightened into the US Ministry of Defence, writes CNN. Normally, such daily intelligence reports are available to several hundred employees across the government apparatus. Now the list of who receives them will be scrutinized, and probably tightened. At the same time, the potential damage from the leak is mapped in the countries concerned. – American authorities are probably doing everything they can to avoid this, especially in cases where it could put intelligence methods, sources and agents in the Kremlin and elsewhere in danger. It is impossible to completely avoid such leaks, and if you tighten too much, parts of the system will no longer get the information they need to be able to do their job, says Anders Romarheim.
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– The Pentagon leak put the USA in a bad light – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
