The Recent US Intelligence Leak
On April 13, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, who served with the Air National Guard in Massachusetts, was arrested for leaking highly classified US documents on Discord, an online chatting website.
Teixeira initially photographed and posted these documents to a Discord channel of about 25 members with a shared interest in military and God. After being rather ignored in this channel, the pictures were later posted to a much larger Discord server dedicated to YouTuber Wow Mao and spread from there.
The photographs display crumpled documents beside miscellaneous household items, including plastic seal bags and hunting magazines. The documents themselves appeared to be hard copies of briefing materials and slides, dating from mid-February to early March. The crumples in these papers suggest that they were stuffed in someone's pocket, indicating some sort of access to a secure location.
This is not the first time leaks like this have happened in the past few years. In just 2016, Hal Martin was arrested for stealing more than 500 million pages of documents. The same year, the so-called "Shadow Brokers" released some of the National Security Agency's most dangerous cyberweapons online, which were downloaded by North Korea and Russia and ended up being used to attack other countries.
The leaked documents, in this case, reveal the extent of US eavesdropping on both its allies and its foes. Some expose that the US has infiltrated the Russian Ministry of Defense through intercepted communications, and others point out weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry and readiness for war, which has allegedly caused Ukraine to change its military plans upon hearing about it.
However, some documents and country officials offer contradicting information, which has sparked a debate on whether or not these reports are credible. While US officials declare them authentic, Mykhailo Podolyak—the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine—said that he believes these documents are “a large amount of fictitious information" spread by Russia. Some documents posted to Russian channels even seem to have been altered, such as casualty reports changed to decrease Russian losses and emphasize Ukrainian ones.
Israel agrees with Ukraine's sentiment. Leaked documents state that Israel’s main intelligence agency, the Mossad, is encouraging protests against the country’s new government. This was denied by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, who said the report was “without any foundation whatsoever.” Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu also denies reports that say French soldiers were engaged in operations in Ukraine.
There is some degree of truth to these documents, as they align with information the US has previously provided to the public. One intelligence report said that Zelensky considered striking Russian deployment locations using aerial vehicles since Ukraine does not have enough long-range weapons. This explains why the US has publicly refrained from giving Ukraine long-range missile systems. Another leaked report explains that an attack like this would have been unfavorable, given that China could use these strikes to paint NATO as the aggressor and increase its aid to Russia.
While it is true that any denial from other countries could be out of embarrassment, The Guardian makes the point that although there is factual information in the leaked documents, intelligence "is not foolproof and…could reflect only what US agencies think they know."
by KATIE LIN