The State Department headquarters building as seen in Washington, D.C., on July 6, 2022. After the leaks of highly classified documents by a member of the Massachusetts National Guard, U.S. officials “are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
Washington's appetite for intelligence on friends and adversaries alike is well known to foreign governments - and should they ever forget, periodic leaks of classified information serve to remind them.
But as always in espionage, the devil is in the details, an extraordinary range of which were revealed in a recent leak of apparent highly classified documents revealing the extent of U.S. spying. U.S. officials are scrambling to respond as governments take stock of the damage.
The Defense Department is working "around-the-clock" to determine the scope and scale of any leaked material, the impact its spread could have and how to mitigate future leaks, Chris Meagher, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday.
In conversations with counterparts, defense officials and diplomats are on damage control duty. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday that U.S. officials "are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence."
In such instances in the past - including the WikiLeaks revelation a decade ago that Washington spied on the president of Brazil - foreign governments have expressed anger or irritation but continued working with Washington.
With the source and full extent of the recent leak still unknown, and the leaked information still to be verified, the ramifications could continue to develop.
The government of South Korea, a key U.S. ally, said over the weekend that it would discuss in a summit later this month "issues raised" by leaked memos detailing apparent U.S. spying on top officials in Seoul.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already navigating a growing rift with the Biden administration, issued a statement Sunday describing media reports about a memo detailing potential domestic meddling on the part of the Mossad intelligence agency as "mendacious and without any foundation whatsoever."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday called the revelations of U.S. espionage on other countries unsurprising. When asked about allegations of Russian involvement in the leaks, he said there was no need to comment, citing a "tendency to blame everything on Russia."
The Justice Department said Friday that it was opening an investigation into the dozens of images leaked online, and later obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets, appearing to show battlefield updates and assessments of Ukraine's capabilities and worldwide intelligence briefings on a host of countries, along with other intelligence. The authenticity of these documents has not been confirmed.
Meagher on Monday characterized the leak as "photos of purported documents" and said that he would not go into its validity.
Much of the leaked trove concerns Russia's war in Ukraine and details the extent of Washington's apparent infiltration of Moscow's military apparatus and foreknowledge of Russian plans.
Russia's spy services are likely to face a scramble to figure out which networks or human sources have been compromised. "It's basically leaky plumbing," said Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel at the National Security Agency. "You want to find out where the hole is and plug it immediately."
That will create more challenges for the NSA and other spy agencies whose mission is to obtain intelligence on foreign adversaries, he said. "And it gets more difficult if instead of plugging one particular leak, they decide to replace a big part of the entire plumbing system."
Much of the information is tactical, and so its value diminishes over time, former intelligence officials noted. But that doesn't mean there is no damage to sources and methods, especially in the near term, they said. And in the meantime, Russia can take advantage of what it learns to adjust its war plans.
The revelations, if verified, could endanger Ukraine's access to intelligence, as both sides prepare for spring offensives. Publicly, however, Ukraine has cast doubt on the documents' authenticity.
"The aim of secret data 'leaks' is obvious: divert attention, cast doubts & mutual suspicions, sow discord," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday on Twitter.
The leaks have so far elicited little or no public response from many European and NATO countries, perhaps in part because of the Easter holiday. Turkey - the subject of a memo among the leaked documents detailing efforts by the Wagner mercenary group to purchase arms from the NATO member - has not issued a public comment on the matter.
Canada's national cryptologic agency, the Communications Security Establishment, said in a statement Monday that as a matter of policy, it would not comment, including on a document that appeared to describe the breach of a Canadian pipeline by a pro-Russian hacker group.
Canada is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, which also includes the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. "We will continue to work hand in hand" with Five Eyes, Canadian Public Safety spokeswoman Audrey Champoux said Monday, Reuters reported.
France on Saturday also declined to comment on the ramifications of the documents, though it denied information contained in a leaked memo saying that French soldiers were in Ukraine, the Guardian reported.
In a statement released Monday, Bulgaria's Defense Ministry denied that it had held talks on donating MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, as one of the documents indicated.
The document of particular concern in Israel, labeled top secret, said that in February senior leaders of the Mossad external spy agency "advocated for Mossad officials and Israeli citizens to protest the new Israeli Government's proposed judicial reforms, including several explicit calls to action that decried the Israeli Government, according to signals intelligence."
The Mossad is forbidden from intervening in domestic matters, and any interference would be a major revelation.
"The Mossad and its serving senior personnel have not engaged in the issue of the demonstrations at all and are dedicated to the value of service to the state that has guided the Mossad since its founding," Netanyahu said Sunday in a statement released in the name of the Mossad - a rare move.
Israeli media outlets reported that Netanyahu met Monday with Mossad Director David Barnea, who told the prime minister that the memo was based on a U.S. misinterpretation.
A South Korean presidential official, speaking to reporters Sunday, declined to confirm or deny any details suggesting U.S. spying on South Korea, Reuters reported. An undated document included in the leak detailed apparent internal discussions between top South Korean officials about U.S. pressure on Seoul to help supply Ukraine with weapons. South Korean law bars the government from providing weapons to countries at war.
Korean officials expressed concern, according to the unverified CIA document, that any weapons sold to the United States might be sent to Ukraine.
The Korean presidential official, speaking on the condition of anonymity per official protocol, told reporters that Seoul's policies remained unchanged. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and President Biden are scheduled to meet April 26.
On Tuesday, South Korea's presidential office said in a statement: "The allegations of an eavesdropping breach are completely untrue."
U.S. officials have said the incident was not likely to have significant repercussions in its relationship with Seoul.
"Frankly, the Koreans have played it with grace and subtlety," said one senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
The Washington Post's Amanda Coletta in Toronto, Zeynep Karatas in Istanbul, Emily Rauhala in Brussels, and John Hudson and Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
