Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup engage in a bilateral exchange at the Pentagon, Nov. 3, 2022. The recent leak online of U.S. documents about the Ukraine war and sensitive information about other countries has created a serious national security risk, the Pentagon said Monday, April 10, 2023. (Alexander Kubitza/Defense Department)
WASHINGTON — The recent leak online of U.S. documents about the Ukraine war and sensitive information about other countries has created a serious national security risk, the Pentagon said Monday.
The first discovery that some documents were revealed on social media sites happened last week, but it was reported during the weekend that more information was leaked than originally realized. The documents included information about various issues, including Ukraine’s defense efforts against Russian forces and intelligence efforts relating to some American allies.
“We are still investigating how this happened,” Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters Monday afternoon. “These [documents] are highly classified and contain sensitive information. I would like to highlight that they present a very serious risk to national security.”
He said the Defense Department is taking every step available to mitigate the damage of the leaks and is reviewing how such intelligence is distributed, and who sees it.
The leak of Ukraine documents was first reported Thursday by The New York Times, and the following day more documents related to non-Ukraine information were found on social media sites. Those records included intelligence gathering on U.S. allies such as South Korea and Israel. Some of the information was posted weeks ago.
Meagher said the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation to determine who posted the documents, and a separate review is being conducted by the Defense Department and other federal agencies to assess the leak’s impact on the United States and allies and partners. None of the documents posted online are high-quality scans, but rather they are photos taken of the physical papers.
While Meagher didn’t say all the documents posted online are authentic, he did say some of it appears to “contain sensitive and highly classified material.” He also said some of the images appear to be altered.
“We are not going to get into the validity of the purported documents posted online, but a Pentagon team continues to review and assess the veracity of the photographed documents,” he said.
Meagher also did not say how many documents are involved, which ones might have been doctored, who had access to them or whether U.S. officials have apologized to allied countries that were included in some of the records.
“I’m not going to get into those details,” he said. "Regardless of the situation, any leak of classified information is deeply damaging and hurts trust.”
The Pentagon underscored it’s been communicating with allies, partners and congressional lawmakers about the leaked materials.
“Those conversations are underway and ongoing and happening at high levels throughout government,” Meagher said. “It’s kind of the comprehensive effort that the department is taking to wrap our arms around what happened, what may have happened and the way ahead.”
Several times during Monday’s briefing, he urged people to be mindful of posting and reposting sensitive documents that could have an impact on safety.
“Disclosure of sensitive, classified material can have tremendous implications — not only for our national security, but [it] could lead to people losing their lives,” Meagher said.
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Sunday that ties between Seoul and the United States remain strong, despite some of the leaked documents saying the U.S. had eavesdropped on the country’s plans to help Ukraine defend against Russian forces.
