| Advertisement |
April 8 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say they have opened an investigation into the leak of American intelligence documents that have appeared on the social media platform Discord in recent weeks. The documents relate to sensitive matters involving Iran's nuclear program, North Korea's missile program, support for Israel and the campaign to defeat the Islamic State group.
Advertisement
More documents about Ukraine appeared on Friday, including information about losses by both Ukraine and Russia during the fighting. According to Yahoo! News, the Defense Department confirmed that the material was genuine, but said it had been selectively edited before being released.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told media outlets Friday the Department of Defense is actively reviewing the matter and has made a formal referral to the Justice Department for investigation.
A Justice Department official later confirmed a probe had been launched.
The documents posted online appear to be photographs of printed-out wrinkled documents. Each of them contained classified markings, with some being labeled top secret. They also all appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March, according to CNN.
The documents gained more attention after a portion of them were posted to 4chan, a web forum popular with right-wing extremists. Some of the documents were altered to make the number of Ukrainians killed in the war appear higher than the actual number, leading some to speculate that Russia was behind the dissemination.
"The fact that unedited and edited -- doctored -- versions of some files are available online makes me skeptical that this is a professional Russian intelligence operation," Thomas Rid, an expert on state-backed information operations, told the broadcaster.
