Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The recent leak of United States (US) intelligence data has damaged the trust of Washington’s allies. This was disclosed by the former US Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama, Bill Lynn.
Moreover, the document that was leaked on Discord’s social media contains leaks from highly classified Pentagon documents. That dismantling intelligence methods, exposing America’s strategy in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and raising news regarding Washington’s monitoring of its allies.
America’s control of its secrets has come into question amid the fallout from the most damaging intelligence leak since the Edward Snowden breach more than a decade ago. Lynn said there would be intelligence sources put at “danger” as a result of this.
“It’s hard to trust us, with your secrets, if we can’t protect them,” Lynn said, describing the feelings of Washington’s allies quoted as saying CNBC InternationalMonday (17/04/2023).
“This gives Russia insight into how we collect that information, which puts those sources at risk.”
Apart from the Russia-Ukraine link, the data also contains intelligence gathering on America’s allies, including South Korea and Israel. This may offend some of those US counterparts
“It is heartbreaking for our allies to see such information being disseminated,” he added.
“There’s always an intention in intelligence to get information to people who need it so it can be used, and then protect it from disclosure. Clearly, in this case, we didn’t do enough to protect it.”
Previously, due to this leak, several US allies also expressed concern regarding the possible impact. This primarily concerns Ukraine, where the document could reveal Kyiv’s war plans with Russia.
“We expect the US to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we cannot wait for theirs. We are currently conducting our own,” said an official from a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement which besides the US also includes Australia, Canada , New Zealand, and England
It is known that until now secret pieces of spying from US documents are still being shared by a number of media. Last weekend, the US arrested Jack Teixeira, 21, a low-ranking member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who was allegedly linked to the leak.
(sef/sef)
