Pentagon chief says US taking document leak 'very seriously'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US is taking the unauthorized disclosure of a cache of apparent classified intelligence documents "very seriously," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday as he pledged to identify the leaker.

"We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this, and the extent of it," Austin said during a joint press conference alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Filipino counterparts.

"We will continue to investigate and try to determine the full scope of the activity," Austin said.

The Biden administration has repeatedly declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents even as they have sent shockwaves through some of the US's most important international relationships.

The Justice Department and Pentagon have opened investigations into how the cache was released without authorization and who might have been responsible.

Many are crudely taken photographs of documents with markings bearing varying levels of classification and appear to be folded, according to images circulating on social media. Some carry Joint Chiefs of Staff seals.

They had been circulating on Discord, a messaging platform popular with videogame streamers, for at least a month before they had been reported on by the New York Times newspaper on April 5, according to the investigative news website Bellingcat.

Many of the documents date back to March and relate to the war in Ukraine, including force and casualty levels for Kyiv and Moscow's militaries. Others paint a dire picture of Ukraine's munitions levels ahead of an expected counteroffensive to further roll back Russia's occupation.

Bellingcat said it has seen evidence that some documents that date to January could have been posted prior to the tranche that initially gained media attention after they were re-posted to Russian Telegram channels.

Asked if the documents circulating on the internet for weeks or potentially months before they were widely discovered marks an intelligence failure, Austin said the US is only aware of documents from Feb. 28 and March 1.

"I don't know if there are other documents that have been online before that. These are things that we will find out as we continue to investigate," he said. "We will continue to investigate and try to determine the full scope of the activity."

The Pentagon has maintained the documents pose "a very serious risk" to US national security and "have the potential to spread disinformation."

Their release has led to diplomatic fallout among close US allies and partners in Ukraine, Israel, South Korea, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Blinken said the US has "engaged with allies and partners at high levels over the past days, including to reassure them about our own commitment to safeguarding intelligence, and of course our commitment to our security partnerships."

He said he spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday and "reaffirmed our enduring support for Ukraine and for its efforts to defend its territorial integrity."

"We are determined to assist Ukraine in the efforts that it's making to regain the territory that's been seized from it. And I reaffirmed that commitment today and speaking to Foreign Minister Kuleba," he said.