The United States Pentagon has been rocked by a series of leaked documents containing highly classified intelligence about the ongoing Ukraine war and the United States’s closest allies.
The documents have emerged online recently, and officials have responded cautiously. Pentagon spokesman Chris Meagher confirmed that the photos of the documents “appear to show documents similar in format” to those provided to senior military leaders. However, he also stressed that the defense department was still assessing their authenticity.
Officials have warned that some files are changed and could be used to funnel misinformation across the web. On Monday, Meagher stated that the documents could pose “a very serious risk to national security.” The documents are categorized with “Top Secret” markings.
Some also contain the marking NOFORN, meaning they cannot be shared with foreign intelligence agencies.
The documents first appeared in photos posted on Discord, an online social media platform. The photos are bent and creased and seem to be photographed in a home, leading former officials who reviewed them to believe they had possibly been taken from a secure location.
Bellingcat, an investigative website, was able to track the files on the web as early as June, with some dated as early as January.
The secret leaks first appeared on Discord and quickly emerged on more mainstream social media platforms. The Pentagon has not commented on who may have been responsible for the leak, and it remains unclear whether any sensitive information has been compromised. However, the emergence of the documents is a cause for concern, and officials are likely to continue to investigate the leak’s source to prevent future security breaches.