Initial investigation into US intelligence leak on Israeli attack planning focusing on who had access to documents
A man crosses the street amid traffic on a rainy day on a main road in northern Tehran on September 28.
(CNN) — The publication on social media of two classified US intelligence documents detailing Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran has set off a scramble inside the US government to discover how they were leaked, a closely held investigation in its early stages that is zeroing in on who had access to the documents.
The FBI is leading the investigation, working with Pentagon investigators and the intelligence community, according to US officials briefed on the matter.
The FBI confirmed the probe Tuesday.
“The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. As this is an ongoing investigation, we have no further comment,” the bureau said in a statement.
On Monday, the White House said publicly that there are presently no indications that more documents beyond those two had been leaked or would be published.
But the exposure of the two documents — which appeared to have been produced by two Defense Department intelligence entities, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency — has deeply alarmed American officials at a profoundly sensitive moment in US-Israel relations.
In recent days, investigators have worked to authenticate the documents and determine who could have had access to them, the officials said.
That focus is one indication that, for now, the FBI and other investigators are working off the theory that the breach most likely came from a government insider and not from a cyber intrusion.
Both documents were widely accessible products, according to two sources familiar with US intelligence. But at least one appears to be scanned from an officially printed briefing book. That could provide investigators with a critical jumping-off point: The Defense Department, like other federal agencies, tracks when employees print classified documents. The pool of people who printed these pages would be relatively small, these sources said.
But the investigation is still considered to be in its early stages, so no conclusions have been made, the officials say.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday that officials do not yet know how the documents were released and that the Department of Defense is continuing its investigation.
Kirby also said that “at this time” they have no reason to believe similar documents will be released.
“We don’t have any indication at this point that there’s an expectation that there will be additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain,” he said.
The documents, dated October 15 and 16, began circulating online Friday after being posted on Telegram by an account called “Middle East Spectator.” They are marked top secret and have markings indicating they are meant to be seen only by the US and its “Five Eyes” allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
One of the documents, which says it was compiled by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, says the plans involve Israel moving munitions around.
Another document says it is sourced to the National Security Agency and outlines Israeli air force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles, also believed to be in preparation for a strike on Iran. CNN is not quoting directly from or showing the documents.
Highlighting the sensitive nature of the leak, American officials were extremely tight-lipped about the investigation on Monday. Officially, multiple agencies declined even to confirm that an investigation is ongoing.
In a statement over the weekend, the Middle East Spectator account said it was “not aware of any additional leaked classified U.S. documents” and that it had “no connection to the original source, which we assume to be a whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Defense.”
According to one US official, it wasn’t what the documents described that is so worrying to the intelligence community but rather the fact that they leaked at all. Although it’s quietly accepted that the US spies even on its allies, to have American surveillance of Israel leaked publicly risks straining relations at a moment when the US is desperately trying to bring to a close the series of interconnected conflicts in which Israel is now embroiled.
A major leak of US intelligence last year also strained the US’ relationships with allies and partners, including South Korea and Ukraine, after 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira posted highly classified information on the social media platform Discord.
In that instance, the FBI was able to move quickly to identify Teixeira, who had left behind an electronic trail that helped investigators quickly narrow their lens. Texeira is now serving a 16-year sentence for the leak, and the Pentagon has since said that it has narrowed the number of people with access to certain documents.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
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