A massive leak of classified US military intelligence documents from the Department of Defense exposed important global and national security information, according to a report.
Staggering Leak
At least 50, and possibly several hundreds, of classified Pentagon papers have been leaked online, in what allegedly started on the Discord social media platform in a Minecraft group, last month.
Many of the leaked records concern the brutal war of aggression that Russia has been waging on pro-Western Ukraine for almost 14 months now.
Hence, US and foreign experts commented at least part of the papers might have been “doctored” or just altered by Russian intelligence to try to cut US and Western support for the plucky Ukrainians.
According to a CBS News report cited by the Gateway Pundit, the Pentagon documents were probably stolen physically before they were posted online, rather than being obtained through cybercrime.
At least two US government officials have pointed in the direction of the physical theft version.
JUST IN: Classified Doc Leak Appears to be Physical Theft, Not a Cyber Leakhttps://t.co/lNPNcaVdvl
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) April 12, 2023
#PentagonFiles
Pentagon Classified Doc Leak Appears to be Physical Theft, not a Cyber Leak
– The US Defense Secretary Llyod AustinSo Mr. Secretary @SecDef some cool Harry walked into the Pentagon to say hello to his Sally and Sally gifted him the documents as souvenirs!!… https://t.co/Hbcej08eKs pic.twitter.com/gvQ42XPi9R
— The Story Teller (@I_am_the_Story) April 12, 2023
Two officials tell @CBSNews it does not appear to be a cyber leak, but rather a physical theft of classified material. Tonight, SEC Austin acknowledged the leaked docs were exposed on the web, “where exactly + who had access at that point, we don't know.” pic.twitter.com/iskQQA4pH8
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) April 12, 2023
Folded and Unfolded
The Defense Department has launched a full-scale investigation into the matter.
The report quotes a US official as saying “some clues” for finding the leaker might result from the fact that US government printers with authorization to print classified records “register a unique ID” number during the printing.
Last week, John Kirby, the spokesman of the National Security Council, stated the administration has no idea who might be behind this and what their motive could be.
The CBS report points out the embarrassing leak caused the Defense Department to downsize the number of officials who get classified information updates.
Before the leak, some 1,000 US government officials were entitled to access the respective papers. It remains unclear how much that number has now been reduced.
The report, which reviewed a number of such leaked Pentagon military intelligence papers, notes those are “color printouts” which seem to have been folded and unfolded before they were photographed and posted on Discord and 4Chan.
It’s like a Snowden leaks, if Snowden dropped the NSA files in a Grand Theft Auto discussion forum to win an argument about police surveillance https://t.co/e7ru8W8Jk4 pic.twitter.com/ZVbqtEU8cg
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) April 9, 2023
Classified Doc Leak Appears to be Physical Theft, Not a Cyber Leak@AKA_RealDirty @saltinesnack pic.twitter.com/sYY8uzGKlA
— AɯƙɯαɾԃMαɱα™® (@Aspiemama_107) April 12, 2023
This article appeared in The State Today and has been published here with permission.
