Initial investigation into US intelligence leak on Israeli attack planning focusing on who had access to documents

The publication on social media of two classified US intelligence documents detailing Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran has set off a scramble inside the US government to discover how they were leaked, a closely held investigation in its early stages that is zeroing in on who had access to the documents.

The publication on social media of two classified US intelligence documents detailing Israeli preparations for an attack on Iran has set off a scramble inside the US government to discover how they were leaked, a closely held investigation in its early stages that is zeroing in on who had access to the documents. On Monday, the White House said publicly that there are presently no indications that more documents beyond those two had been leaked or would be published. But the exposure of the two documents — which appeared to have been produced by two Defense Department intelligence entities, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency — has deeply alarmed American officials at a profoundly sensitive moment in US-Israel relations. The FBI is leading the investigation, working with Pentagon investigators and the intelligence community, according to US officials briefed on the matter. In recent days, investigators have worked to authenticate the documents and determine who could have had access to them, the officials said. That focus is one indication that, for now, the FBI and other investigators are working off the theory that the breach most likely came from a government insider and not from a cyber intrusion.