Evgeniya Sokolenko09:48, 20.10.24

This situation could cause serious discontent in Tel Aviv.

The US has launched an investigation into the leak of highly classified intelligence data regarding Israel’s plans for a “retaliatory” operation in response to the missile attack on Iran that took place in early October.

CNN reported this, citing three informed sources. One of them confirmed the authenticity of the documents. A representative of the American government admitted that this raises serious concerns.

As the publication writes, on October 18, documents began to spread on the Internet that were dated October 15 and 16, were marked “top secret” and were intended only for the United States and its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain).

It describes Israel’s preparations to strike Iran. In particular, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency noted the movement of munitions, and the National Security Agency – about the Israeli Air Force’s training flights using air-to-surface missiles. At the same time, it is indicated that the United States did not record signs that Israel was planning to attack Iran with a nuclear weapon.

According to the American official, the investigation is identifying individuals who had access to the documents. As added, such incidents automatically trigger an investigation by the FBI, the Pentagon and US intelligence services.

It is noted that the leak occurred at an extremely tense moment for US-Israeli relations. This situation could cause serious discontent in Tel Aviv.

“If there was indeed a leak of Israeli tactical plans, that would be a serious breach,” said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern affairs.

US Document Leak

As is known, last year in April, documents with classified Pentagon data appeared on the Internet. They included information about the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the supply of military equipment from allies to Ukraine.

On April 13, the FBI arrested 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard intelligence officer Jack Teixeira .

Already in May, another massive data breach occurred in the United States – the personal information of 237,000 current and former federal government employees was exposed as a result of a data breach at the Department of Transportation.

(c)UNIAN 2024