The FBI has launched an investigation into the unauthorized release of classified documents describing Israel’s preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran.
The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the Biden administration was still not certain if the classified information was leaked or hacked but that officials did not have any indication at this point of “additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain”.
The FBI confirmed the investigation for the first time on Tuesday and said in a statement that it was “working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community”. It did not comment further.
The documents are attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and note that Israel is still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on 1 October. They were shareable within the “Five Eyes”, an intelligence alliance comprised of the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Marked top secret, the documents first appeared online on Friday on the Telegram messaging app and quickly spread among Telegram channels popular with Iranians.
The first document is titled “Israel: air force continues preparations for strike on Iran and conducts a second large-force employment exercise” and the second is “Israel: defense forces continue key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity almost certainly for a strike on Iran”.
Kirby said on Monday that the Biden administration remained “deeply disturbed” by the unauthorized release.
