Leaked Documents Reveal Depth of U.S. Spy Efforts and Russia’s Military Struggles

The information, exposed on social media sites, also shows that U.S. intelligence services are eavesdropping on important allies.

A trove of leaked Pentagon documents reveals how deeply Russia’s security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States, demonstrating Washington’s ability to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and providing an assessment of the strength of Moscow’s war machine.

The leak, the source of which remains unknown, also reveals the American assessment of a Ukrainian military that is itself in dire straits. The leaked material, from late February and early March but found on social media sites in recent days, outlines critical shortages of air defense munitions and discusses the gains being made by Russian troops around the eastern city of Bakhmut.

The intelligence reports seem to indicate that the United States is also spying on Ukraine’s top military and political leaders, a reflection of Washington’s struggle to get a clear view of Ukraine’s fighting strategies.

The leaks can potentially damage Ukraine’s war effort by exposing which Russian agencies the United States knows the most about, giving Moscow a potential opportunity to cut off the sources of information. Current and former officials say it is too soon to know the extent of the damage, but if Russia is able to determine how the United States collects its information and cuts off that flow, it may have an effect on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The leak has already complicated relations with allied countries and raised doubts about America’s ability to keep its secrets. After reviewing the documents, a senior Western intelligence official said the release of the material was painful and suggested that it could curb intelligence sharing. For various agencies to provide material to each other, the official said, requires trust and assurances that certain sensitive information will be kept secret.

The documents could also hurt diplomatic ties in other ways. The newly revealed intelligence documents also make plain that the United States is not spying just on Russia, but also on its allies. While that will hardly surprise officials of those countries, making such eavesdropping public always hampers relations with key partners, like South Korea, whose help is needed to supply Ukraine with weaponry.

Analysts say the size of the trove is likely about 100 pages. Reporters from The New York Times have reviewed more than 50 of those pages.

The documents appeared online as hastily taken photographs of pieces of paper sitting atop what appears to be a hunting magazine. Former officials who have reviewed the material say it appears likely that a classified briefing was folded up, placed in a pocket, then taken out of a secure area to be photographed.

Senior U.S. officials said an inquiry, launched Friday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, would try to move swiftly to determine the source of the leak. The officials acknowledged that the documents appear to be legitimate intelligence and operational briefs compiled by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, using reports from the government’s intelligence community, but that at least one had been modified from the original at some later point.

One senior U.S. official called the leak “a massive intelligence breach,” made worse because it lays out to Russia just how deep American intelligence operatives have managed to get into the Russian military apparatus. Officials within the U.S. government with security clearance often receive such documents through daily emails, one official said, and those emails might then be automatically forwarded to other people.

Another senior U.S. official said tracking down the original source of the leak could be difficult because hundreds, if not thousands, of military and other U.S. government officials have the security clearances needed to gain access to the documents. The official said that the Pentagon had instituted procedures in the past few days to “lock down” the distribution of highly sensitive briefing documents. <Source>

John Kerry’s Gmail account ‘discouraged’ but still defended by State Department, sort of

The U.S. State Department argues Climate Czar John Kerry can use a personal Gmail account for government business — despite the risky practice being “discouraged” in the very manual they cite.

The “Foreign Affairs Manual” referenced, particularly section 5 FAM 434, does not support outside messages.

“All Department personnel with an official State Department email account are discouraged from using a personal email account(s),” including Gmail, the manual reads. That section goes on to add Gmail can be used in “very limited circumstances.”

It also clearly states “convenience is not an appropriate reason” to use outside email.

The State Department’s push-back on Kerry’s behalf comes after the Herald reported Sunday that the former Massachusetts senator and onetime Democratic presidential candidate was cc’d a Climate memo to a Gmail account.

It’s all part of an ongoing struggle by the Herald and watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust to get Kerry to abide by the nation’s Freedom of Information Act.

Kerry has informed the Herald a list of his office staff will not be delivered until October of 2024 — a month before the next presidential election. An appeal to the State Department was denied leaving Kerry to continue to operate in near-secrecy as the nation’s first special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change.

Kerry’s “office is a brand-new unit with tremendous power that has operated under an extraordinary veil of secrecy and engaged in what appear to be unusual attempts to evade transparency,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust.

Also, if Kerry is using a Gmail account for Biden administration business, it would be similar to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state that triggered an FBI probe days before the 2016 election. She was never charged, but she lost that presidential race to Donald Trump. <Source>

[OCS: How many Americans remember when Kerry violated the law by carrying on private conversations with Iran on nuclear matters during the Trump Administration? Telling the Iranians to ignore and wait out the Trump Administration. When was Kerry investigated for violations of the Logan Act or the failure to register as a foreign agent under FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act)? But, then again, Kerry is an America-hating progressive communist democrat.]