FBI investigating leak of U.S. intelligence on Israeli strike in Iran
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An Israeli fighter jet in in Eilat, Israel on July 20. Photo: Israel Defense Forces (IDF)/Anadolu via Getty Images
The FBI has opened an investigation into the leak of top secret U.S. intelligence documents regarding Israel's preparation for an attack against Iran.
Why it matters: The leak was one of the most serious security breaches within the U.S. intelligence community in years.
- It exposed sensitive U.S. spying on one of its closest allies, and potentially risked disrupting Israel's plan to retaliate against Iran for its ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
Driving the news: A Telegram channel by the name "Middle East Spectator" claimed on Friday that it had received documents from a source in the U.S. intelligence community about Israel's preparations for an attack on Iran.
- The Telegram channel routinely publishes pro-Iranian content, and the profile of the X account affiliated with the channel says it is located in Iran.
- The documents include an alleged Visual Intelligence report by the Department of Defense National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) distributed inside the U.S. intelligence community last week.
- The report states that according to U.S. signals intelligence, the Israeli Air Force conducted a large exercise involving intelligence planes and likely fighter jets trained for a possible attack against Iran.
What they're saying: "The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. As this is an ongoing investigation, we have no further comment," an FBI spokesperson said Tuesday.
Behind the scenes: U.S. officials told Axios the Biden administration made clear to the Israeli government that it considers leak extremely seriously and is taking steps to ensure such a breach will never happen again.
- White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that President Biden is "deeply concerned" about the leak and will be "actively monitoring the progress of the investigative effort."
- Kirby stressed that at this time there's no indication or reason to suspect that additional documents have been leaked.
