FBI Announces Investigation Into Leak of Classified US Intel on Israel’s Planned Strike on Iran

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday announced a probe into the leak of highly classified US intelligence documents describing Israel’s plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran.

“The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” the FBI said in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, we have no further comment.”

Documents pertaining to Israel’s planned response to Iran, which earlier this month fired a salvo of 181 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state in a large-scale attack, were leaked and circulated around a pro-Iran Telegram channel last Friday. The confidential documents, dated Oct. 15 and 16, were considered “top secret” and were only intended to be seen by high-ranking officials in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. 

The leaked documents reportedly outlines Israel’s plans to deploy aircraft and weapons against Iran but did not expose its planned targets within Iran. However, it is not currently known if more confidential Israeli documents are within the possession of the alleged leaker.

Thus far, the identity of the alleged leaker has yet to be publicly revealed. Some media outlets reported that a high-ranking Pentagon official’s security clearance was suspended after an investigation indicated she was the one who likely leaked the intelligence.

However, Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin emphatically denied the reports as “not true” on X/Twitter.

“This story is NOT TRUE,” Griffin wrote. “I have spoken with the person the reporter alleges was behind the leak of Israeli preparations and she is at work at the Pentagon today, has her security clearance and has NOT been contacted by … investigators.”

The Pentagon on Tuesday denied that Ariane Tabatabai, chief of staff of the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, was a “subject of interest” in the investigation.

“To my knowledge, this official is not a subject of interest,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday afternoon

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the document leaks were “unacceptable.”

“That is not supposed to happen, and it’s unacceptable when it does,” Kirby told reporters. “And you can rest assured that he [US President Joe Biden] will be actively monitoring the progress of the investigative effort to figure out how this happened, and obviously he’ll be very interested in hearing any mitigation measures and recommendations that come as a result of the investigative efforts and how to prevent it from happening again.”

The investigation into the leak came after Robert Malley, the diplomat who led the Biden administration’s negotiations with Iran, was suspended from his role as US special envoy and placed on leave last year over his handling of classified information. Malley’s security clearance was suspended, although details remain murky about what happened. US lawmakers in Congress had demanded greater transparency from the State Department to inform them why the senior official was removed from his position.

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