Leaked Documents Put Nations at Severe Risk: Pentagon

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The US government says that the recently leaked documents about the Ukraine war pose a very dangerous threat to national safety. Leaders are now doing everything in their power to minimize the impact of this data being made public. Additionally, people in the White House are worried that there may be more leaks soon.

Chris Meagher, an assistant to the top person at the Pentagon said that the Secretary of Defense figured out on Thursday that a bunch of secret slides about how the U.S. is taking part in the war in Ukraine and what information they had on other countries was leaked.

Austin has been talking with his friends, having meetings everyday and forming a team to check what was lost in the information and who had access to it. The department is also trying to find out about how info is shared and who are getting it.

The Pentagon is working to make sure that fewer people have access to secret information. They are doing this by examining who needs to know the classified details. Someone from the White House was asked if we should anticipate more online secrets being revealed soon.

The person said “We don’t know what’s going on yet, but it is very important for us to figure out”. Kirby said that we don’t know who is behind this and why they did it. He also mentioned that the papers made available may have been changed or faked.

Documents show that there are fewer Russian troop deaths in the Ukraine war than what US officials said publicly. The estimates go up to 16,000-17,500 deaths for Russia and 71,000 deaths for Ukraine. However, General Mark Milley says that more than a hundred thousand troops from both countries have died. Recently, they no longer give exact numbers of casualties.

The speaker from the State Department, Vedant Patel, told reporters on Monday that U.S. officials are working with other countries around the world to show they are protecting their own secrets and staying true to their promises with them.

The U.S. government refused to give more information, such as how big the release was, how it happened, and who from the U.S. talked with other countries’ leaders. Ms. Patel said that these documents could be dangerous for our nation’s safety if released.

Experts who study social media, like the news organization Bellingcat, stated that some documents have been bouncing around online in secret chats on the Discord platform for weeks. When asked if the Pentagon has talked to Discord yet, Meagher sent those questions to the Justice Department, who launched an investigation into these document leaks.

The people shared slides, which was seen on popular sites such as Twitter, that told what the U.S. government is trying to do to help Ukraine like providing them with training and equipment support. The slides also described the losses they had, what the U.S. is watching out for on its friends and allies, and what Russia might be doing to damage those connections.

The Pentagon is being very careful about some documents that could be harmful and spread false information. Meagher said these papers have the potential to cause damage to our national security if they get shared around too much. So, the Pentagon is keeping a close eye on where these documents are being posted and shared.

The documents in question are marked as confidential and highly confidential, but outwardly look like updates that the U.S. military’s Joint Staff makes daily for internal use only; not for public release. Nomaan Merchant, Matthew Lee, and Zeke Miller wrote this report.