The concern in the high command of the Pentagon is real before the leak of military documents, some of them classified as “top secret”. This is not only an embarrassing situation for the US military establishment, but one that could alter the course of the war in Ukraine. According to CNN, Kiev has already decided to modify its attack plans on Russian troops in response to documents that could also disrupt diplomatic relations with South Korea, Israel and other countries affected by what appears to be a resounding ruling by security.
The situation is serious and differs from previous leaks, such as the already famous Wikileaks leak between 2010 and 2014, which ended up becoming a major scandal, exposing deaths of civilians in Iraq and internal communications between diplomats, among other issues. In this case, the documents are only weeks old and not years old, which increases their relevance to matters in full swing, such as the aforementioned conflict in Ukraine.
They also reveal the alleged spying practices of the United States on some of its closest allies, such as the eavesdropping on conversations between senior South Korean national security officials about the sale of weapons for use in Ukraine. The reaction was swift in the Southeast Asian country. Opposition members in Seoul called it a “clear violation of our sovereignty by the United States” after the initial agreement between the South Koreans and the Americans emerged that the artillery in question would stay in the US and not be used in the war in Korea. east of Europe.
Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, has already been quick to send a reassuring message to affected nations to reaffirm “their commitment to safeguarding intelligence.” However, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, has stated that “it is not clear” what else may be circulating on the networks. Nor have they clarified who was able to leak the documents and for what purpose or benefit.
Theories there are several. Some experts believe that he may have been a low-ranking official, since the first documents appeared on a forum about a well-known video game, Minecraft. He may have done it with the intention of creating a dispute among Internet users, but there are also sources that point to a Russian intervention for much darker purposes in its attempt to make progress in Ukraine after a year of conflict.
Meanwhile, in Washington there is fear of the various ramifications that this scandal may have. Jim Himes, Democratic representative from Connecticut and member of the Congressional Intelligence Committee, maintains that some of the closest US allies “will think twice” before sharing intelligence documents as a result of this leak, countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Himes also fears that this Pentagon blunder will cost lives in Ukraine. “It won’t be hard for the Russians to cut off [intelligence] gathering avenues that could have been saving lives every day,” he said. “Anything that points to sources and methods carries a very real risk of those sources and methods disappearing. And that can mean people dying, as well as shutting down technologies.”
Investigations to verify the validity of the leaked documents could take months, as confirmed by Pentagon sources, and they do not rule out that more confidential information will come to light on social networks in the coming days given the number of people with access to those files. On Tuesday it was learned that Egypt was planning to secretly manufacture 40,000 rockets for Russian troops, according to information obtained by The Washington Post, all with the approval of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. From Cairo they have denied it outright, calling the information false.
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