Oct. 20 (UPI) — A team of independent bloggers in the Middle East who purportedly spread classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for a strike against rival Iran have explained how the information leaked.
On Friday, the self-described “news aggregator” Middle East Spectator shared documents appearing to have originated from the U.S. intelligence community on Telegram. UPI has reviewed the documents but has not been able to verify their authenticity.
The documents were marked as “top secret” and appear to have come from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which generates intelligence from satellite and aerial imagery.
Markings on the documents indicate that they required special handling to protect data provided by a contributing foreign government, Israel, and could only be shared with America’s “Five Eyes” allies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Specifically, the documents detail recent military activities by the Israeli Air Force including the purported launches of air-launched ballistic missiles, drones and air-to-surface missiles in preparation for an attack on Iran.
The documents specifically note the possible existence of previously unknown to the public weapons including “Golden Horizon” ABLMs. Another weapon mentioned, ROCKS, is developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the creator of the Iron Dome.
“We are independent journalists and are not tied to any government entity or organization,” Middle East Spectator said in a post, hitting back at claims in American media that the collective has ties to Iran.
Middle East Spectator shared that one of its acquaintances had received the documents from an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify themselves after they first appeared in a private Telegram group with just 7,000 members.
“Middle East Spectator is not aware of any additional leaked classified U.S. documents. We also reiterate that we have no connection to the original source, which we assume to be a whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Defense,” the collective said.
“As far as we are aware, the documents first appeared in a private Telegram group with just over 7,000 members, where the leaker was likely present. Somehow, the documents found their way out of the group.”
The collective clarified that it does not know the identity of the original leaker, and also cannot verify the authenticity of the documents.
But American officials have confirmed the authenticity of the documents to news outlets including CNN, calling the leak “deeply concerning.”