The United States has been in contact in recent days with some of its closest allies to reassure them after the leak of some secret Pentagon documents, which suggest that Washington could have spied on some of its partners such as South Korea, Ukraine and Israel.
In a press conference, John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, explained that senior US officials have been in contact with some of Washington’s closest allies “at the highest levels” in recent days to talk about the recent leaks.
Also read: Leaked documents leave US officials on high alert for impact at home and abroad
In addition, Kirby assured that the Joe Biden government is doing everything possible to identify the source of the leak, but has not yet been able to do so.
“We don’t know who is behind this, we don’t know what the reason is or what else may be out there,” he acknowledged.
At the request of the Pentagon, the Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation to determine the source of the leak of these documents, which appeared in recent days on social networks such as Discord and Twitter and were echoed by the US media, like The New York Times.
Kirby claimed that some of the documents, marked as “secret”, have been tampered with, so he asked the media to be careful when reporting on them.
According to Kirby, Biden was first made aware of those leaks late last week and is receiving updates whenever there is a new development.
For his part, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, received information about this leak for the first time on April 6, Chris Meagher, one of the Pentagon spokesmen, detailed to the press, according to local media.
Likewise, Meagher affirmed that the leak presents “a serious risk” to the national security of the United States and can potentially fuel disinformation campaigns since some have been manipulated.
Meagher explained that the Government is following “very carefully” and closely the impact of the documents and, especially, if their content is being amplified on the internet.
Like Meagher, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at another news conference that there was “no question” that the leaked documents pose “a national security risk” to the United States.
Neither the White House, nor the Pentagon nor the State Department explained with which allies the United States has been in contact in recent days.
Most of the leaked military and intelligence documents are related to the war in Ukraine and give details about US and NATO plans to bolster Ukraine’s offensive in the war against Russia.
In addition, the documents suggest that Washington could have been spying on some of its closest allies, such as Ukraine itself, South Korea and Israel.
Specifically, one of the documents suggests that the Mossad, Israel’s foreign espionage service, could have functioned as the engine of the protests against the judicial reform promoted by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, something that the Israeli prime minister’s office considered on Sunday that “has no foundation.”
Other documents show that the United States allegedly spied on South Korean officials in March who were discussing Washington’s pressure on Seoul to send weapons to Ukraine, in violation of South Korea’s policy of traditionally refusing to supply weapons to countries in conflict.
These revelations have had a strong impact in South Korea, where some opposition voices have called on South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to cancel his planned state visit to Washington this month or at least use that meeting to address that issue with Biden.
Other documents, echoed by NBC, show that the United States allegedly agreed to some Ukrainian government battle plans.
The impact of this leak of secret documents is still unknown, but it could be the most serious since 2013, when former analyst Edward Snowden exposed the scope of the massive espionage programs that the United States launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
