Biden officials scramble to explain classified Israel intelligence leak to Iran

The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press. A fourth official said the documents appeared legitimate.

The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and highlight that Israel was still moving military assets to carry out a military strike in response to the ballistic missile attack from Iran on October 1. Eyes”, which are the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted on the Telegram messaging app and were first reported by CNN and Axios.

The investigation is also looking into how the documents were obtained, including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or whether it was obtained through another method, such as hacking, and whether any other intelligence was compromised, one of the officials said. . As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were released, the official said.

The United States has urged Israel to take advantage of its removal of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has also urgently warned Israel not to further expand military operations in northern Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. . However, Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stressed that it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.

In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the documents’ reports but had no further comment.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the leak of the two documents.

The documents first appeared online on Friday via a Telegram channel, claiming to have been leaked by someone in the US intelligence community, then the Defense Department. The information appeared to be gathered entirely through the use of satellite image analysis.

One of the two documents resembled the style of other US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency material leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents classified on Russia’s war against Ukraine and other national security secrets.

The Telegram channel involved in the leak is identified as being based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. He previously posted memes featuring Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material supporting Tehran’s self-styled “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle Eastern militant groups armed with the Islamic Republic