WhatsappA senior official at the Pentagon revealed to the “Sky News” network in Arabic that a senior employee in the office of the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is suspected of leaking the classified documents concerning Israeli preparations for an attack in Iran. The employee serves as the office manager of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, and enjoys access to highly classified information.
A senior Pentagon official revealed today (Tuesday) to the “Sky News” network in Arabic that a senior employee in the office of the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is suspected of leaking the classified documents concerning Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran. According to the report, the employee serves as the office manager of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, and enjoys access to highly classified information.
As mentioned, this is a leak that is considered one of the most dramatic in recent years, two highly classified documents dealing with preparations for an Israeli attack on Iran. The documents, intended for the “Five Eyes” forum, which is the intelligence partnership between the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to a CNN report, were written on October 15 and 16, and were revealed on the evening between Thursday and Friday of last week on the Telegram and Twitter channels Middle East Spectator, which is considered pro-Iranian.
One of the leaked documents deals with the transfer and movement of heavy and advanced aerial weapons at Israel Air Force bases, apparently as part of the preparation for arming fighter jets that may participate in the attack. Another document describes exercises carried out by the IDF Air Force, which include launching air-to-surface missiles.
Following the leak, an investigation was opened at the Pentagon in collaboration with the FBI, with the aim of trying to find out its origin. Various sources have expressed severe shock at the leak, which is occurring at a tense time in the Middle East, amid concerns in the US of a possible escalation into a regional conflict between Israel and Iran, or a deterioration into a round of mutual attacks.
According to an official American source interviewed by CNN, “These two documents are bad, but not terrible. The real concern is whether additional information has been leaked that has not yet been revealed.” It is also claimed that the leak aggravates the existing tension in US-Israel relations, and may affect the sharing of information between the two countries in the future.
This is the second time in a year and a half that there has been a serious intelligence leak in the Pentagon. In April 2023, documents were leaked that dealt, among other things, with the war in Ukraine and protests in Israel, and caused a great shock in the American security system.
