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The US government is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran.
The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, confirmed the investigation in remarks to CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday, saying “the leak is very concerning”.
“There’s some serious allegations being made there,” the Republican from Louisiana said. “The investigation’s underway, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours.”
Three US officials had earlier told the Associated Press about the investigation into the leak. A fourth US official said the documents in question appear to be legitimate.
The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and they note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on 1 October. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes”, which are the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app and first reported by CNN and Axios. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained – including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack – and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said. As part of that investigation, officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official said.
The US has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a cease-fire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.
In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.
Johnson on Sunday said he spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – referring to him as “my friend” – and explained how he had made it a point “to encourage him”. He also said there would be “a classified level briefing, and then others, but we’re following it closely”.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the leak of the two documents.
The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the US intelligence community, then later the US Defense Department. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.
One of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira, an air national guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.
The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran’s capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and material in support of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle East militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.