Access to sensitive govt documents should be limited, US Senate intel panel head says

The leak of highly sensitive US papers in an online chat group has led to panic in the government and now the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee has said that access to the US government's closest secrets should be limited. He said that a central entity should be created to oversee the classification process.

A US Air National Guardsman was charged on April 14 with leaking classified documents in an online gaming chatroom. He posted the documents in the chatroom on Discord and was earlier identified by members of the group as OG who worked on a "military base". Officials said that the leak was the most serious US security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, told ABC News that too many people are looking at the secret documents. "Once we get to that highest level of classification, we maybe have too many folks taking a look at them, over four million people with clearances," he said.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

President Joe Biden's administration has been examining how sensitive intelligence should be handled and is looking for ways to clamp down on future leaks. Amidst all this, the Virginia senator's powerful position gives weight to his recommendations.

Also Read |Jack Teixeira, the US airman behind intelligence leak charged by court

There are numerous intelligence-gathering entities in the country and Warner said the situation needed to be dealt with.

"We need somebody fully in charge of the whole classification process and I think for those classified documents there ought to be a smaller universe," he said.

Warner gave an example of the National Security Agency which has suffered leaks in the past. He said that internal controls limit the copying of documents now. Warner also said that not everyone handling a document needs to see the whole document and that just seeing the header could be enough.

The Pentagon has termed the latest leak a "deliberate, criminal act." The papers carried information about a range of issues, including the Ukraine war, South Korea's position on providing weapons to Kyiv, China's preparation to deploy supersonic drones and more.

The papers were proof that the US has been spying on its allies, potentially setting the stage to wreck relations with them.

Jack Teixeira allegedly leaked the documents in a chatroom for gamers, Thug Shaker Central, on Discord, an instant messaging platform. Washington Post had earlier reported that the man who leaked these documents was known as OG in the group. Teixeira is reportedly the same person who posted documents containing strange acronyms and jargon which not many paid attention to, a member of the group told the Washington Post. He described Teixeira as a "young, charismatic gun enthusiast".

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.