[Editor's note: heads did not roll]
Biden administration doesn't know extent of classified Pentagon document leak
April 11, 2023
The Biden administration is trying to manage the fallout from leaked classified intelligence documents that started circulating online in the past week.
Photos of pages of paper documents that appear to have been unfolded have appeared on social media, and some of the materials contain details from daily updates provided to senior leaders at the Pentagon about operations in Ukraine, as well as other intelligence updates, according to a Pentagon official.
CBS News has reviewed a number of slides so far, as the U.S. government continues to try to remove them from social media. Some include graphics and maps of the state of Russia's war in Ukraine as of March. Others depict combat sustainability assessments and an analysis of Ukraine's air defenses.
Some information about South Korea also leaked from the Pentagon, according CBS News' review of the slides. On Monday night, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop to discuss the leaked military secrets and told him he would closely communicate with him and cooperate with the Korean government on the issue, according to the South Korean Defense ministry. The office of the president of South Korea released a statement about the "suspicion of wiretapping by the US government" that said of the conversation between Austin and Lee that the two had "agreed on the fact that 'a significant number of the relevant documents were forged.'"
Asked by reporters Monday if the threat to national security has been contained, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby responded, "We don't know. We truly don't know."
The Biden administration is not yet sure how extensive the document leak is, and still doesn't know who is behind it. The Justice Department, at the request of the Defense Department, has opened a criminal investigation.
The Pentagon has not verified that the photos of the documents are authentic, and officials noted that some of them appeared to be doctored. But they also confirmed that some of the slides do appear to contain secret information.
Chris Meagher, assistant to the defense secretary for public affairs, told reporters Monday the "photos appear to show documents similar in format to those used to provide daily updates to our senior leaders on Ukraine and Russia related operations, as well as other intelligence updates."
cbsnews.com
Tom |
