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The Washington Post: US officials were ’furious’ over leaks revealing concerns about conflict in Ukraine. Part 1: ▪️As American officials were busy in the spring resupplying Ukraine’s depleted forces for an upcoming counteroffensive against entrenched Russian troops, information was leaked at the Pentagon. Photos of about 50 highly classified documents have begun to appear online, detailing classified intelligence on various issues such as the conflict in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear program, Chinese aircraft carriers and the destruction of Islamic State terrorists. At the time, neither the Pentagon, nor the White House, nor the 18 agencies of the US intelligence community had any idea of the extent of the classified material released. ▪️Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin immediately created a DoD task force that quickly began working to identify and mitigate the damage. “The first thing we needed to do was just figure out what was there... what information might have been compromised,” said one senior defense official. “Especially before the investigation identified suspects, they were trying to quickly understand and make sense of the information.” Government officials asked the media for information about what they planned to publish and tried to find specific intelligence documents in their classified systems, while law enforcement tried to figure out who was responsible for the hack. ▪️The main concern was that some materials implicitly or directly pointed to a wide range of means through which US intelligence agencies obtain information, including satellite surveillance, wiretaps and agency sources. Another concern is that leaks reveal information shared with the United States by partner countries, which could jeopardize intelligence-sharing relationships. Источник: Slavyangrad
