The leak of highly sensitive US documents, many of what related to the Russia-Ukraine war, poses a "very serious" risk to US national security, the Pentagon said on Monday, reports AFP.
The Justice Department investigated about the breach and they found it include secret information on the war in Ukraine as well as sensitive analyses of US allies, whom American officials are now seeking to reassure.
A steady drip of dozens of photographs of documents have been found on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other sites in recent days, though some may have circulated online for weeks, if not months, before they began to receive media attention last week.
The documents circulating online pose "a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation," said Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, without confirming their authenticity.
"We're still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue. There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom," Meagher told journalists.
Many of the documents are no longer available on the sites where they first appeared, and the United States is reportedly continuing to work to have them removed.
Meagher said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was not initially briefed on the issue until the morning of April 6 -- the day a New York Times story on the documents was published.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told journalists that President Joe Biden was briefed on the leak "late last week," but did not provide a specific date.
Many of the documents relate to Ukraine, such as one that provides information on the country's air defenses or another on international efforts to build up its military forces.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
