Key lawmakers were given access to classified documents

The Ukranian Counteroffensive: What’s Happening after the Snowden Leaked Its Officials, as viewed by the NPR Investigative Reporter

Greg Myre, NPR’s national security correspondent, told Morning Edition that the documents viewed by the NPR show maps and charts of both troops and weapons in a focused on the Ukranian situation.

Their discovery comes as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive sometime this spring, and it’s not yet clear what kind of impact the new material could have on the trajectory of the war.

While there’s still a lot we don’t know, former Justice Department “leak czar” Brandon Van Grack says national security damage has certainly been done.

The threat is still live, and the only debate is how much damage was done. “We don’t know if the individual or individuals still have access to classified information and whether there could be additional leaks, and so right now this has to be the top priority.”

Van Grack held multiple national security-focused roles at the Justice Department, including leading the investigation into Edward Snowden after the then-National Security Agency contractor leaked thousands of documents in 2013. Van Grack is now a partner at Morrison & Foerster, which represents Discord — one of the sites where the Ukraine documents were shared.

He spoke about what could be going on behind the scenes when it comes to plugging the leak and figuring out how to clean it up.

The FBI along with the DOJ is trying to figure out what companies have relevant information for and issuing search warrants and subpoenas in order to get it. The intelligence committee in coordination with the the FBI is also reviewing the leaked documents to see if they can identify … who had access to them and any other identifying features.

There are multiple places to start, which is from the FBI, DOJ perspective, all of the reporting of companies and individuals who may have posted this or where it may have been posted, you’re collecting that evidence. At the same time, you are closely coordinating with the intelligence community. There are multiple documents, and there are images in those documents … and I think you are culling through that information to try to narrow the group of individuals who may have had access to it.

You’re walking and chewing gum at the same time. Identifying who this person or those people are is the only focus right now. That has to be the priority. To the extent that they identify someone, then you’re starting to make a charging document and figure out what’s going on. Ensuring that there are no further leaks is the priority right now.

We don’t know what the overlap is because of special counsel appointments, but we should have it. There will probably be a few people who need to pivot for the time being since they’ve been sprinting for the last few months on those cases.

This case shows why it is so critical that we enforce criminally the laws that make it unlawful to willfully retain or disclose classified information. There’s millions of Americans that have access to … untold amounts of classified information, and they can’t all be monitored. The only way to make sure that access is not disclosed to people that don’t have access is to enforce the laws.

The Biden administration is scrambling to assess and contain the fallout from a major leak of classified Pentagon documents that has rattled US officials, members of Congress and key allies in recent days.

It is not known who or how some of the nation’s most tightly guarded secrets ended up on social media sites.

The Defense Department is still reviewing the matter and has taken steps to tighten the flow of such highly sensitive documents, officials said, which are normally available on any given day to hundreds of people across the government.

Congressional lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the apparent scope of the leak and sensitivity of the documents posted online but largely remain in the dark about what has occurred.

The Intelligence Committee leaders were demanding answers from the Biden administration. House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Turner is scheduled to receive a briefing on Monday and his Senate counterparts have jointly requested one as well.

Collected documents reveal the extent of US espionage on key allies: the case of South Korea, Ukraine, and Russian spying on Ukraine

There are random objects surrounding the photos of crumpled documents, such as zip-close bags and Gorilla Glue. It is as if they had been hastily folded up and shoved into a pocket before being removed from a secure location, a source familiar with these kinds of documents told CNN.

The documents expose the extent of US espionage on key allies such as South Korea and Israel, according to US officials.

Others reveal the degree to which the US has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be cut off or put in danger.

The US spied on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A source close to Zelensky said that it was unsurprising, and that Ukrainian officials were angry about the leak.

Zelensky suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast using aerial vehicles due to Ukraine’s inability to attack that far, according to a US intelligence report.

Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems.”

Yet another document describes, in remarkable detail, a conversation between two senior South Korean national security officials about concerns by the country’s National Security Council over a US request for ammunition.

The officials were worried that the US supply of the weaponry, to be sent to Ukraine, would affect South Korea’s policy not to give lethal aid to war-torn countries. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way of getting around the policy without actually changing it – by selling the ammunition to Poland.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/10/politics/classified-documents-leak-explainer/index.html

U.S. Response to the Mossad Leakage in Israel and the War for the Donbas Region: What Do Diplomats Tell Us About Ukraine?

An intelligence report about Israel, meanwhile, has sparked outrage in Jerusalem. The CIA produced a report which says that the Mossad encouraged protests against the new government and made explicit calls to action.

Key allies who are part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) have not yet been given a briefing by the US on where they are on the damage assessment or efforts to identify the leaker, two Five Eyes diplomats told CNN on Monday.

We cannot wait for a damage assessment from the US, but we expect them to share it in the coming days. Right now we are doing our own,” said an official from a country that is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement with the US, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The official pointed out that it was alarming to know that one of the documents from February was titled Russia-Ukraine: Battle for the Donbas Region Likely. Heading for a long stay at a Stalemate. The document notes the challenges with assessing the “endurance of Ukraine’s operations.”

“Gains for Ukraine will be hard to accomplish, but it does not help to have the private US assessment pointing to a likely yearlong stalemate revealed publicly,” the official said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel Friday that he believes the documents that have been disseminated are inauthentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information” disseminated by Russia.

The US government is engaging with allies and partners at high levels in the wake of the leak to assure them of the fidelity of securing their partnerships, the State Department said Monday.

A US official says Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of State, has been tapped to lead the diplomatic response.

One of the diplomats said they expect a briefing from US officials in the coming days and noted that the Easter holiday had slowed the pace of discussions in recent days.

The Joint Staff, which comprises the Defense Department’s most senior uniformed leadership that advises the president, is examining its distribution lists to look at who gets these reports, a Defense official said. Many of the documents had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.

The Pentagon team working to determine the scale and scope of the leak includes the Defense Department’s legislative affairs, public affairs, policy, general counsel, intelligence and security, and joint staff offices, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Chris Meagher said Monday.

The Department of Defense referred the case to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation, John Kirby said Monday, after being asked if the government had any idea who leaked the documents.

CNN has learned that Warner heatedly talked to Monaco about the lack of Congressional access to the classified documents in the possession of Biden, Trump and Pence.

For several months, leaders of the intelligence committees have been pushing for more information about the kinds of documents found, offering harsh criticism for the lack of information they received early on.

The Senate Intelligence Committee wants to understand the contents of the documents found at each residence in order to better understand the risk they could have posed if the documents had fallen into the wrong hands.

In January, Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia and Vice Chairman Marco Rubino, a Republican from Florida blasted the administration for lack of transparency over documents.

At the time, Rubio wanted to know what the information was. What were the materials that they had? So that we can make an honest assessment when they give us a risk assessment of whether or not they took the right precautions.

Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News Tuesday morning, “it is very disappointing that it has taken the government this long to allow the Gang of Eight to have access” to the classified documents.