Pentagon document leak causes allies to lose trust in the US

Former intelligence officials interviewed by CNBC on April 14 said that the leak of extremely sensitive Pentagon documents has eroded “trust” between the US and its allied countries.

According to former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn, now CEO of weapons company Leonardo DRS, the incident has left a big rift in relations with US allies, who will now be more cautious when sharing their intelligence.

“It’s hard to trust someone with your secrets if the other party can’t protect them. It’s heartbreaking for our allies to see this information being made public,” Lynn told CNBC.

The leaked top-secret documents had been circulating on social media for some time before they caught the attention of the media and the US government last week. The incident prompted a large-scale investigation and led to the arrest of suspect Jack Teixeira, a specialist with the US National Guard in Massachusetts.

According to Marty Martin, a veteran intelligence officer who served in the CIA, NSA and US military, the view that the leaked documents were probably accessed illegally, printed and posted on an online chat application by Teixeira is a huge loss for the US.

“The fact that a 21-year-old soldier had access to this kind of material? America’s allies are seeing this scandal as a result of negligence and irresponsibility from the Pentagon itself,” Mr. Martin stressed.

Mr. Martin added that broader intelligence sharing within the Pentagon was implemented after the 9/11 event, and he also warned of the risk of important information being leaked because of this sharing method.

Another executive at a U.S. military industrial complex, who spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity, said he doubted there was a single suspect in the scandal. He argued that some of the documents, specifically a top-secret CIA report that was among the leaked documents, would never have been released to the Pentagon or other U.S. intelligence agencies. CNBC’s source did not believe a National Guard soldier had access to the reports.

“I just don’t believe a state-level National Guard facility has access to these types of documents,” the source told CNBC.

The Pentagon neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the leaked documents, only acknowledging that it was taking the situation “very seriously” and pledging to “turn over every rock” to determine what led to the leak of classified documents.

However, many US and foreign officials have questioned the authenticity of these documents, claiming that some of them appear to have been doctored or are outright forgeries.

According to VTC