Fears of a catastrophe in national security and allied information are growing at times in the Pentagon. Two series of sensitive documents about the war in Ukraine, as well as the conflict in the Middle East and tensions with China, have appeared in the last two days on different social networks, including Twitter and Telegram, The New York Times advanced.
First there were reports of secret US and NATO plans to bolster the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russian troops. The initial leak contained military planning reports, tables of future arms deliveries, and data on troops and battalions.
Among the reproduced documents was an assessment of Ukraine's air defense capabilities with a slide dated February 23 and labeled "Secret/NoForn (abbreviation of foreign)," meaning it was not intended to be shared with foreign countries.
The Ukrainian government played down the first part of the leak even though the Pentagon was giving it to them. "If someone really had access to that information, they would pretend not to know anything to take advantage of it on the ground," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhaylo Podolyak said, calling the publication a "bluff."
But on Friday night a second package of reports was released. One of the documents appeared on 4chan, an anonymous fringe message board. It is an alleged situation map of the war in the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, where one of the most terrible battles of the war has been fought.
And there is more. Security analysts who have reviewed the leaked papers and images in the various cite sensitive briefing slides on China, the Indo-Pacific military theater, the Middle East and terrorism.
A former senior Pentagon official quoted by the New York newspaper, Mick Mulroy, opined that this is "a significant security breach" that, in terms of defense against the Russian invasion, "could hinder Ukrainian military planning." . And, in contrast to the opinion of the Kyiv Executive, he added: "It seems that it is a deliberate leak at the hands of someone who wants to harm the efforts of Ukraine, the United States and NATO."
"Pentagon officials acknowledge that they are legitimate Department of Defense documents, but the copies appear to have been altered in certain parts of their original format." reported The New York Times. And he added that the modified versions exaggerate the US estimates of deaths in the Ukraine war.
The worst thing is that nobody knows when and at what point the leak can stop. A senior official spoke of a "constant trickle of classified information." There is fear.
