Recent leaks of classified Pentagon documents reveal secrets regarding a number of sensitive security issues including with respect to the conflict in Ukraine. Some of the documents reportedly reveal US doubts about Ukraine being able to launch a spring offensive, in addition to revealing alleged weaknesses in Ukraine air defenses.
"They could easily be the actions of a single whistleblower but the leak could just as easily have been greenlighted to some extent by more higher ranking officials, if not the highest ranking one, the President," Rowley, one of three whistleblowers chosen as TIME Magazine's 2002 Persons of the Year, said.
Whether authorized or not the disclosures could well have had more than one purpose, Rowley said.
"The 'leaks' could even be mixed with some disinformation to mislead the Russians," the former intelligence agent added.
Rowley also said it’s hard to discern what is happening with these latest classified information dumps given the level of "information-disinformation warfare" that has been going on.
"It seems that at least some of the 'leaked info,' for instance about the high degree of US' assistance and control of Kiev's targeting and military operations, was already widely known whereas some other details, for example the bit about Mossad assisting Israeli protests, was not publicly or widely revealed before now," Rowley said.
Former UK Ambassador Peter Ford told Sputnik another motive for the leaks could be to illustrate the bellicose public narrative on Ukraine is some distance from reality, and expectations of success ought to be scaled back.
Ford said this is likely given US inventories are being seriously depleted by Ukraine's "endless" demands.
Some of the intelligence that emerged conflicted with earlier Pentagon assessments of the situation on the ground in Ukraine, US media said. However, even Russian officials have raised doubts about the intent of the leaks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow does not rule out the possibility the documents were leaked on purpose in an attempt to mislead Russia.
The US Justice Department opened a criminal case to investigate the leaks and the Pentagon launched an interagency effort to find out what happened.