The leaker of classified documents of the US Department of Defense is a young American gun enthusiast who worked at a US military base, says the newspaper The Washington Post (you are moving to another service).
Two people who know the leaker’s name and home state tell the newspaper about the matter. According to them, the man shared the documents on the Internet in the instant messaging service Discord under a pseudonym OG.
It has already been reported that the first documents were leaked to Discord in March. From Discord, the documents slowly spread to other parts of the internet and by Easter became public knowledge.
Discord is a messaging service especially popular with computer gamers. At the center of Discord are the servers, the various discussion groups that you have to join in order to participate in the discussion on them.
According to The Washington Post, OG shared documents on Discord in a small group that had to be invited to join. The group of about 20 people was founded in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
The discussion in the group consisted of memes, inappropriate jokes and general banter. The group’s discussants were united by their faith in God and their passion for weapons and military equipment. In addition to those from the United States, the group also included foreign members, from Ukraine and Russia, for example.
A member of the group who spoke to The Washington Post says that OG was the leader of a small and tight-knit group who lectured others about “world affairs” and “secret government activities”. OG wanted to keep the others in the group “up to date”, a member of the group says.
According to the member, OG is a smart person who knew what he was doing when he shared the information on the documents.
– These leaks did not happen by accident, he told The Washington Post.
The man shared the information of the documents for a long time
According to a member of the group interviewed by The Washington Post, OG told other members of the group on Discord that he knew secrets the government was keeping from ordinary people.
According to the member, OG often hinted that he brought home documents from the military base where he worked. OG also said that he often spent time alone in a space where the use of smartphones and other electronic devices was prohibited.
The name of the military base in question is not yet known. Discord has said that it is working with the FBI to find the leaker.
According to the magazine, OG began sharing information from secret documents with the group last year by writing verbatim content from the documents directly into the group’s chat. According to the group member, OG’s messages were long and convoluted, and therefore a large part of the group members could not read them through at first.
OG also told the group that it took him hours to write the contents of the documents. Possibly because of the laboriousness of writing, this year he started sharing photos he took directly from the documents with the group.
The Washington Post has seen about 300 photos of the documents that OG shared with the group.
The documents are the worst US intelligence leak in years
The US secret documents that have ended up on the Internet are the most serious leak of the country’s intelligence in several years.
The information contained in the documents is intended in the US administration only for persons who have undergone an extensive security clearance lasting months.
After the data leak, the US Department of Defense has tightened the granting of security classifications so that in the future, a smaller number of administration employees will have access to classified documents. Newspaper of The Guardian (you will switch to another service) according to the US administration, more than one million employees currently have a top-secret security classification.
The documents have revealed that the United States has deeply infiltrated Russia’s intelligence organizations and armed forces. Thanks to espionage, the United States has often been able to warn Ukraine in advance of planned attacks by Russia.
Leaked documents have also revealed that the US has engaged in extensive spying on its own allies such as South Korea, Israel and Ukraine, including the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
In addition, it has been noticed from the documents that the United States is closely monitoring the UN Secretary General António Guterres. Based on the documents, the US considers him too sympathetic to Russia’s views, The British Broadcasting Company BBC (you will switch to another service) reported yesterday, Wednesday.
The documents also mention the arms aid provided by Finland to Ukraine, such as about 20 personnel transport vehicles sent to Ukraine. According to the documents, Finland has been training Ukrainian soldiers since the beginning of the year, but the location of the training is not clear from the documents.
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