CIA spokesman Ryan Tripani said the agency had “no comment on the authenticity of purported intelligence documents released by WikiLeaks or on the status of any investigation into the source of the documents”. If corroborated, the leak could represent a huge new embarrassment to USA intelligence, adding to Edward Snowden’s 2013 expose of the National Security Agency spying on Americans’ communications, and the arrest last year of an NSA official for removing massive amounts of top-secret material to his home over 20 years.