A recent leak of classified US documents, which has caused concern among officials, may have originated in a chatroom on the popular gaming platform Discord, according to a report by AP.
This illustration picture was taken on May 27, 2020, in Paris, showing the logo of the social network application Discord on the screen of a phone.
Classified Documents About the Russia-Ukraine War
The chatroom was initially created to discuss various topics, but it turned to the conflict in Ukraine. During the discussions, an unidentified poster shared classified documents, first typing them out with their own thoughts and later posting images of the papers.
The posts went ignored before they started to spread widely on social media and were picked up by significant news sites, according to AP.
The shocking and timely information concerning US and NATO assistance to Ukraine is found in the documents, which have revealed fresh details about American intelligence gathering. They also contain hints about alleged plans to support Ukraine in its fight with Russia, including a planned spring attack.
However, it must be noted that it is still unknown whether any government participated in sharing or manipulating the documents.
The extent of the exposure has not yet been confirmed, and some of the slides appear to have been altered, casting doubt on the document's veracity, as noted by AP. The Justice Department has opened an investigation following the leaks.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, stated that the US government was unsure whether more intelligence documents would surface online.
The Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Chris Murphy, issued a warning against publicizing or highlighting the documents.
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"Top-secret"
An individual who claimed to be a member of the Discord chat group where the documents were posted was interviewed by The Associated Press. The AP could not independently verify some of the information supplied by the person, and the original chatroom has been erased.
A "top-secret" investigation of growing intelligence service contacts between Russia's FSB and organizations in the United Arab Emirates is one of the documents the AP analyzed.
Signals information, according to the analysis, reveals that FSB officers reported that the UAE had agreed to cooperate with Russia "against US and UK intelligence agencies." But a spokesperson from the UAE government said that the allegations were not true.
In addition, the AP witnessed a study of potential "wild card" outcomes in the Russia-Ukraine war, such as the demise of either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The classification level for the analysis is Secret, which is beneath Top Secret.
The leak of these documents has raised concerns about national security and prompted the US government to investigate the source of the leak. It remains unclear how the documents were obtained and who was responsible for sharing them.
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