the US is investigating the leak of classified documents on Israel's plannned strike against Iran former State Department spokesperson Morgan OAS is with us now Morgan what's the significance of this is there a mole maybe inside us intelligence it's incredibly bad I mean what was leaked on uh telegram what we know from publicly available information looks like it was from our geospatial uh agency this is to put it in context this is some of the most highly classified material that the US government is in possession of um unfortunately there has been a pattern of this uh
not only in the Biden Administration if you go back into the Obama Administration uh there was a leak in the Obama Administration in 2012 about Israel's plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities uh now I believe that the Obama Administration likely leaked that because they wanted the jcpoa which was the Iran nuclear deal they didn't want Israel to strike Iran uh so unfortunately there is a pattern of this Behavior I think this should be prosecuted at the highest levels we're talking about uh top secret information likely compartmentalized uh this should not be taken lightly and whoever
has leaked this information on telegram should go to jail for 30 years but it would have been somebody probably inside us intelligence with access to the highest level security stuff it could be an intelligence professional it could be a policy professional as well so uh intelligence professionals will have access to to this information if they are read in on the policy side uh at the White House State Department uh those there are a limited number of individuals that would have access as well including at the Department of Defense so it should be a small number
of people that would have eyes uh on this information there shouldn't be like thousands of people uh for example that have it but one thing that's really important to note a leak like this makes it dangerous what makes the operation a very tricky operation much more dangerous uh for the Israelis if puts everybody at risk whenever operational details are leaked ahead of time that's right Israel is blowing up Banks firing rockets at banks in Lebanon if they're linked to Hezbollah part of the financial structure of Hezbollah what do you make of this so uh the
banks that Israel hit were uh sanctioned by the US government by the treasury Department uh for uh the funneling and the aiding and the abetting of illicit Finance to Hezbollah so we have targeted the banks in the United States from a sanctions perspective uh Israel is making it very clear as it relates to Hezbollah and Hamas that they're going to uh work to destroy them militarily operationally uh I spent many many years at the treasury Department so I can tell you that one of the key ways that you try to take down a terror organization
is by going after the money you know who funds the organization how do they get their money what other bank ledgers look like and so basically uh these banks in Beirut and throughout Lebanon have been uh operating as if they're a part of the normal financial sector the treasury designation of them in 2021 was incredibly important because that puts a red flag so that Banks who operate in the US dollar around the world can no longer operate uh with these Banks but I I think it was a a very targeted and important strike to Hezbollah
financially if they can't get the money then it's harder to get the Weaponry it's harder to pay the fighters do you get the sense that uh the American Administration is still RIS straining netanyahu's response to Iran I mean I think they're certainly trying at least again what I'm reading for publicly available information uh there's no doubt that an attack on Iran's oil infrastructure would be controversial and I think again from what we know from public reporting attacks on their nuclear facilities would be incredibly difficult for Israel to do alone uh it's clear President Biden has
indicated that he has no appetite and help in the US helping or participating in in such a strike uh but we've seen the pattern of behavior over the past year it was both Biden and Harris that urged Netanyahu for example not to go into dafa where not only there was a successful capture of some of the hostages but of course ultimately where the Israelis were able to get senir it's why you see the Israelis often not telling this Administration about their operations in advance certainly none of their Hezbollah operations and even why the ukrainians uh
frankly made the same decision not to tell this Administration before they into into K uh our allies unfortunately are worried that leaks like we just saw overnight will happen if you give this information uh to our Administration it's sad yes it's a sad situation Morgan oras thanks so much for joining us this morning we do appreciate it always
