The leaked Pentagon documents circulating on social media alleged that the leadership of Israel’s spy agency Mossad encouraged Israelis to participate in mass protests against the government’s judicial reform plan.
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The leaked materials contain an assessment by a Central Intelligence Update dated March 1. It said that the Mossad chiefs “advocated for Mossad officials and Israeli citizens to protest against the new Israeli government’s proposed judicial reforms, including several explicit calls to action that decried the Israeli government.”
According to The New York Times, senior U.S. officials confirmed that the leaked documents appear to contain legitimate intelligence reports. However, at least some of them had been modified and the accuracy of the documents is under question.
Despite several hundreds of former Mossad employees signing an anti-reform letter earlier in March, the agency’s rules prohibit the direct involvement of its leadership in political crisis. However, some Mossad employees received permission to participate in protests as private citizens, the report claimed.
According to the publication, Mossad chief David Barnea upon consulting with Israel’s attorney general also allowed junior employees to participate in demonstrations under the condition that they would not identify themselves as members of the agency.
Senior Israeli defense officials denied the reports, while the prime minister’s office told The New York Times that they were looking into them. The U.S. Department of Justice said earlier on Saturday that it had opened a probe into the leak.
"We have been in communication with the Department of Defense related to this matter and have begun an investigation," a Justice Department spokesperson told AFP.
Dozens of leaked documents, mostly related to the Ukraine war, have surfaced on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other social media in recent days. On Friday, the Pentagon said it was "actively reviewing the matter.
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