U.S. hit by worst national security breach since WikiLeaks

U.S. national security agencies are reviewing how they share their most sensitive secrets inside the government

 
U.S. officials are scrambling to identify the source of what could be the most damaging leak of highly classified intelligence since the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of government documents a decade ago.

At a press briefing at the White House, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said they were working on getting to the bottom of it.

“We’re taking this very, very seriously. There is no excuse for these kinds of documents to be in the public domain. They don’t deserve to be in the public domain. They deserve to be protected. If there are actioned that need to be taken as we learn more about the extent of what happened here, we’ll obviously take those.”

Three U.S. officials told Reuters that national security agencies were reviewing how they share their most sensitive secrets inside the U.S. government after the recent release of dozens of confidential documents that appeared online and are dealing with the diplomatic fallout.

Some of the most sensitive information is purportedly related to Ukraine’s military capabilities and shortcomings.

Information about multiple U.S. allies was also leaked.

One of the documents gave details of internal discussions among senior South Korean officials about U.S. pressure on Seoul to supply weapons to Ukraine, and its policy of not doing so.

On Monday, South Korean lawmakers said they “strongly regret that the U.S. had been illegally spying on allies.”

Ticker News’ affiliate has reviewed more than 50 of the documents, labeled “Secret” and “Top Secret,” that first appeared on social media sites in March.

The Department of Justice meanwhile has opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of the documents.

Although the release appears to be the most serious public leak of classified information in years, officials say it so far does not reach the scale and scope of the 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables that appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.