The man shared the secret information with a small group of like-minded people who share his “love of weapons, military equipment and God” on the popular Discord platform among gamers.
Secret American documents leaked on the Internet continue to be enjoyed by the media around the world. Who exactly released the secret documents is still unknown, although on Wednesday, February 12, the Washington Post newspaper said that it was a 20-year-old young man who worked at a military base.
Gamer Chat
The publication says the man shared secret information with a small group of like-minded people who share his “love of weapons, military equipment and God” on the popular Discord platform among player.
On Wednesday, Discord said it was cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the leak.
The private Discord chat that obtained the files was created in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It consists of about 20 people, including teenagers. They were all interested in weapons and military affairs, in particular, they discussed the situation in Ukraine.
In this chat there is a user under the nickname OG. Another member of the chat described him as a charismatic young man at the age of 25. According to a Washington Post interlocutor, OG began publishing classified documents in 2022, hundreds of messages – almost verbatim transcripts of secrets intelligence documents, which, as the military himself said, he brought home from work at a “military base.” However, for a long time they did not catch the attention of other chat users because of the specific military jargon that none of them knew. OG sometimes annotated some of the posted documents, such as explaining that “NOFORN” meant that the information in the document was so sensitive that it could not be shared with foreign nationals.
Lectures on the world situation
OG tells the group that he spent a lot of time writing secret documents to share with them. He teaches them about what’s going on in the world and secret government operations – he wants to “keep us up to date”, says one chat participant.
“He’s a smart guy. He definitely knew what he was doing when he posted these documents. These weren’t some random leaks,” he said.
His account was corroborated by a second member of the group, who read many of the same secret documents. Both members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they knew OG’s real name and the state where he lives and works, but declined to share that information. His name is still unknown, but journalists have found a video in which OG shoots at a target shooting range and utters racist and anti-Semitic slogans.
OG tells the group that he spent a lot of time writing secret documents to share with them. He teaches them about what’s going on in the world and secret government operations – he wants to “keep us up to date”, says one chat participant.
“He’s a smart guy. He definitely knew what he was doing when he posted these documents. These weren’t some random leaks,” he said.
His account was corroborated by a second member of the group, who read many of the same secret documents. Both members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they knew OG’s real name and the state where he lives and works, but declined to share that information. His name is still unknown, but journalists have found a video in which OG shoots at a target shooting range and utters racist and anti-Semitic slogans.
Which side?
Then, OG, according to users, began to take pictures of real documents and post them in a chat. Some of them include detailed maps of the conflict in Ukraine and secret satellite imagery of the aftermath of a Russian missile attack on Ukrainian power plants, sketching potential North Korean ballistic nuclear missile trajectories that can reach the United States.
According to a member of the group, OG insists that he is not working for the interests of any country, that he is not a Russian or Ukrainian operative. He is not against the US government, but believes that the authorities seek to suppress their citizens and keep them in the dark.
According to the publication, OG has been uploading documents to the server throughout the winter. On February 28, another user under the nickname Thug Shaker Central began posting several dozen photos of secret documents in another open chat, after which they appeared on Russian Telegram channels .
Biden did not anticipate the consequences
US National Security spokesman John Kirby said the US government is doing everything it can to get to the bottom of it.
“This is a whole series of dangerous leaks. We don’t know who exactly is responsible for them, we don’t know why it was done. But we are trying to assess what are its consequences that threaten national security, and a criminal investigation is underway right now,” he said. on Wednesday “We want to get to the bottom of it, we want to know who did it and why.”
“Washington is actively talking to its allies to answer their questions and show how serious we are about this,” he added.
Kirby also said that while the authenticity of some of the documents has yet to be determined, it is clear that they came from various intelligence sources used by the government.
US President Biden said he was concerned about what had happened, but, as far as he knew, without new data, its leak could have serious consequences.
The head of the White House reiterated that the United States is continuing a large-scale investigation, involving the intelligence community and the Department of Justice.
“We’re getting closer (to identifying those involved),” Biden said.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.