The US government is investigating the unauthorized release of classified documents evaluating Israel's plan to attack Iran.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the investigation on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, saying the leak was “deeply troubling.”
“There are serious allegations,” the Louisiana Republican said. “The investigation is underway and I will receive an explanation regarding this within a few hours.”
Three U.S. officials previously spoke to The Associated Press about the investigation into the leak. A fourth U.S. official said the documents in question appear to be legitimate.
The documents have been attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and indicate that Israel is still moving military assets to launch a military strike in response to Iran's bluster. Ballistic missile attack on October 1. They can be shared within the “Five Eyes” of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
The documents, marked top secret, were posted on the messaging app Telegram and first reported by 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 focused on 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 released, the official said.
The United States has urged Israel to take advantage of the ouster of Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has urgently warned Israel not to further expand military operations in northern Lebanon and risk a broader regional war. However, Israel's leaders have repeatedly stressed that they will not allow Iran's missile attack to go unanswered.
In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports in the documents but had no further comment.
Johnson said he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday – referring to him as “my friend” – and explained how he did it to “cheer him up”. “There will be an explanation about the classified status and then there will be others, but we are following it closely,” he added.
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 Telegram channel, and the US Department of Defense later claimed that they had been disclosed by someone in the US intelligence community. This information was compiled through analysis of satellite images.
One of the two documents was similar in style to other material leaked by the US National Geographic Agency. Jack Teixeira is a member of the Air National Guard who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia's war against Ukraine and other national security secrets.
The Telegram channel involved in the leak is identified as being based in Tehran, the capital of Iran. He previously posted memes with content supporting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Tehran's self-described “opposition axis,” which includes the Islamic Republic's Middle East armed militant groups.
