The top British defense official has cast doubt on the veracity and impact of the recently leaked American intelligence documents, going further than US officials in questioning the contents of the hundreds of pages of classified intelligence.
“I know for a fact, having read what I’ve seen in the open source, that some of those assertions are untrue,” Ben Wallace, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defense, told journalists in Washington on Tuesday morning.
Asked about the impact on British intelligence gathering, Wallace responded: “Haven’t skipped a heartbeat.”
“I have seen in that leak a number of inaccuracies, significant inaccuracies, or manipulation of information,” he said. “My advice is don’t take it at face value. There are definitely things in there that I’ve seen that I know not to be true.”
While members of the US government from President Joe Biden to his top national security officials have repeatedly said they are taking the leak seriously, engaging with allies to smooth things over and referring to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation, Wallace was more dismissive and said he wouldn’t “be the only one who would look at those reports and see they’re not entirely accurate.”
“We’re all vulnerable to whistleblowers, leakers, I wish it wasn’t so but we all are,” Wallace said. “I don’t like people leaking my things or anybody else’s things but fundamentally that is the price we pay for being a liberal, open democracy where we trust people.”
He declined to comment on specific subjects in the documents which range from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to American spying on allies like Israel and South Korea.
Wallace acknowledged that portions of the leaks, “might be a bit compromising, might be a bit difficult for a number of nations.”
“But if…
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