The US government is investigating the unauthorized release of classified documents assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the investigation, saying the leak was “deeply troubling” on CNN’s State of the Union program Sunday.
“There are some serious allegations out there,” said the Republican from Louisiana. “The investigation is ongoing and I will have an explanation on that in a few hours.”
Three U.S. officials previously spoke to The Associated Press about the investigation into the leak. A fourth US official said the documents in question appear to be legitimate.
The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and they indicate that Israel is still moving military assets to launch a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on October 1. They are shareable within the “Five Eyes” of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Documents marked top secret were posted on the Telegram messaging app and reported first CNN And Axios. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
An official said the investigation is into how the documents were obtained, including whether they were intentionally leaked by someone in the U.S. intelligence community or through another method, such as a hack, and whether any other intelligence information was compromised. . As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.
The United States has urged Israel to take advantage of the removal of Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar to press for a cease-fire in Gaza, and has 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.
Johnson said he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday – whom he refers to as “my friend” – and explained how he did it to “encourage him”. He added that “a classified status will explain, and then there will be others, but we are following it closely.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the leak of the two documents.
The documents appeared online on Friday via a channel on Telegram, later claimed by the US Department of Defense, to have been released by someone in the US intelligence community. This information was collected through satellite image analysis.
One of the two documents was similar in style to other US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency material leaked by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty in March to leaking top-secret military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.
The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. It previously posted memes with content supportive of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Tehran’s self-described “opposition axis,” which includes the Islamic Republic’s armed Middle East militant groups.
