Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office denies that the Mossad, a foreign spy service, encouraged protests against the government’s judicial reform, as one of the files points out.
As the Pentagon scrambles to implement the damage containment strategy, the The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the leak of military documents and intelligence, largely related to the war in Ukraine, on the Internet. The excesses of the flight are multiplying, pitting Ukraine even more against Russia, and vice versa, in addition to exposing vulnerabilities and debates within countries allied to the United States. role of the Mossad, the foreign spy service, as the engine of the protests against the legal reform of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Relations between the United States and Israel are going through one of their tensest moments in weeks.
Since the leak became known last Friday, revelations have followed one another. The umpteenth concerns the possible attack by a group of Russian hackers against Canada’s energy infrastructure, on which the supply of the United States partly depends. in its Russian acronym; KGB heir), may have compromised the IP address of a Canadian gas pipeline network in February and caused damage to its infrastructure, according to leaked Pentagon documents.
The leaks contain projections on the course of the war in Ukraine and the real capacity of the two opposing armies, not very rosy in both cases; combat plans ahead of a supposed spring offensive, but also secret intelligence reports that affect US allies, and have been leaked since last month on Twitter, Telegram (an equivalent messaging service to WhatsApp popular in Russia), Discord, 4Chan and other social networks. It’s one of the most serious since WikiLeaks released more than 700,000 diplomatic cables in 2013.
The Pentagon said on Friday that it was “actively examine the matter” and that he had referred the matter to the Department of Justice, so the investigation is in its early stages. US officials told the Washington Post that some documents had been tampered with, indicating likely Russian authorship, but many others were consistent with CIA World Intelligence Review reports shared at the highest levels by the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department.
Defense analysts say such a leak furthers Moscow’s story and propaganda by demonstrating how well US intelligence has penetrated Russia’s military apparatus, according to local media. Other documents, cleared in principle by federal investigators, contain information about internal debate within US-allied governments like South Korea under US pressure to supply artillery shells to Ukraine, according to The New York Times newspaper.
One of the main allies of the United States, Israel, was also affected by the rebellions, at a time of high internal and external instability. The Mossad (foreign espionage) has categorically denied the information contained in one of the documents, labeled Top Secret and updated on March 1, which accuses the intelligence service of encouraging demonstrations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his controversial judicial reform, now on hold. . The mobilization, which for three months brought tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets, caused friction within the government and criticism from institutions such as the country’s presidency and the army.
Good relationship with Putin
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet was forced this Sunday to stand out from the crowd in the face of the information, categorically denying any participation of Mossad agents in the mobilizations against the plans of his government. However, the denial adds fuel to the fire of differences between the two allies, especially after President Joe Biden’s criticism of judicial reform encouraged by Netanyahu. Another of the released documents points to Washington’s pressure on the Israeli government to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, contrary to current Jewish state policy and at the risk of blowing Netanyahu’s balance with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The leak of the Pentagon papers, still in its infancy judging by the trickle of revelations, is already a thunderclap. Details of military and spy plans are detailed, such as Ukraine’s air defenses or the weak flanks of the Ukrainian and Russian armies, so experts believe they were leaked by an American and not an ally . Other issues reflected in the documents also refer to China, the Middle East and Africa. “Careful [de los investigadores] emphasizes that this is an American leak, as many of the documents were only in the hands of the United States,” Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters.
For the unfolding of the Ukrainian war, the most worrying are military intelligence reports, with estimates of battlefield casualties appearing to have been doctored to minimize Russian casualties. One of these documents is unclassified although it contains top secret information. Some files are marked as NOFORN, i.e. they cannot be delivered to strangers. Another file, dated February 23 and marked secret, describes how Ukrainian S-300 air defense systems would be depleted by May 2 at the current rate of use.
“Entrepreneur. Amateur gamer. Zombie advocate. Infuriatingly humble communicator. Proud reader.”