Washington: US President Joe Biden said that investigators were closing in on source of leak of highly classified US intelligence documents, in what is believed to be most serious security breach in decade.

Department of Justice opened  formal criminal probe last week after matter was referred by Pentagon, which is assessing damage done by release.

Some of most sensitive leaked details are purportedly related to Ukraine’s military capabilities and shortcomings, and information about US allies including Israel, South Korea and Turkiye. Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of documents, labelled “Secret” and “Top Secret” but has not independently verified their authenticity.

Number of documents leaked is likely to be over 100. Number of countries have questioned veracity of some of documents, including Britain, which said there was “Serious level of inaccuracy” in information. Biden, on three-day tour of Ireland, said he was not overly concerned about leak.

“There’s full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with intelligence community and Justice Department and they’re getting close but I don’t have an answer,” Biden told reporters.

“I’m not concerned about leak, I’m concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of.”

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 14 2023

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