The Pentagon considers the threat to US national security “extremely serious”.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation, which appears to be a growing concern for his administration, “last weekend,” his spokesman John Kirby said.

The Pentagon said on Monday that the leak of classified US documents poses a “very serious” risk to US national security. These documents were leaked online on Thursday The New York TimesOne picks up on the state of the conflict in Ukraine at the beginning of March, while others pin the situation on specific fronts, such as Bagmouth or the critical anti-aircraft defenses of Q.

Some also point to intelligence-gathering by the US and targeting of some of its allies: for example, one document suggests that leaders of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad may have supported demonstrations against the controversial reform. Justice system in Israel.

While he declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, which is joined by Joe Biden, spoke of the concerns of U.S. officials.

“We don’t know who is responsible for this. And we don’t know if they have more (documents) to post,” he said, before adding, “Is that a concern for us? Absolutely.”

Relations with American allies

The circulation of the documents online “represents a very serious risk to national security and has the potential to fuel disinformation,” US Department of Defense spokesman Chris Meagher told reporters on Monday.

“We are continuing to investigate how this happened and the extent of the problem. Steps have been taken to further investigate how this type of information was distributed and to whom,” he added. The Justice Department has opened a separate criminal investigation.

A steady stream of photos of the classified documents have been found on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other sites in recent days, although some may have circulated online for weeks before attracting media attention.

Many of them are no longer available on the sites they originally appeared on, and US authorities are reportedly working to remove them all.

US officials have reached out to Washington’s allies about the matter, “including assuring them of our commitment to protecting intelligence and our ability to protect our partnerships,” US diplomatic spokesman Vedant Patel said.

The Pentagon previously said it had notified relevant congressional committees.