A devout gun nut who is looking for attention – this is how alleged acquaintances describe the man who is said to have leaked hundreds of US secret information.
Washington – A huge scandal about leaked US secret service documents – triggered by a bored young man who was looking for attention during the corona lockdown? According to two informants from Washington Post it should have been like that. In detailed interviews, they told the US newspaper that an employee at a US military base regularly provided them with secret information from the US government via an online network. Until the whole thing blew up and now more and more Details from the leaked papers to the public.
US leaks: military employee probably smuggled documents from the workplace
The originator of the leaks is said to have smuggled the secret information from his workplace and published it on the Discord gaming platform since last winter. Around 20 young people and young men from different countries got together there in a private group.
What they have in common: A fondness for guns and military equipment, a strong belief in God and the search for like-minded people during the Corona lockdown. Racism and anti-Semitism are also said to have played a certain role in the group.
The unofficial leader of the group was a member named OG, writes the US newspaper, about 25 years old. “He’s fit. He is strong. He’s armed. He’s trained. Pretty much everything you would expect in a crazy movie,” describes one of the informants of the washington post, an 18 year old. OG would have said he works at a US military base and spends part of his days in a secure facility that bans cell phones and electronic devices.
Secret documents received little attention on “Discord”
One day, OG started posting messages with strange technical terms – apparently verbatim addresses of Secret Service papers that he shared with the other members of the Discord group. He is said to have published hundreds of such messages in the coming months.
Only a few in the group read the complicated texts, which the man had apparently typed out and provided with explanatory notes. OG is said to have been frustrated that he was getting so little attention with it. After a while, the typing was probably too tedious for him: he apparently smuggled the documents from his workplace and photographed them in his room, which the background of some pictures should prove.
“Definitely not a whistleblower”: Leak should not have been politically motivated
So a whistleblower who wanted to wake up the public with his news? one like Edward Snowden? Not at all, reported the 18-year-old acquaintance of the Washington Post: “I would definitely not call him a whistleblower.”
OG’s motive was “a bit of showing off in front of friends, but also a desire to keep us updated.” He would have wanted to educate the younger members and set himself up as a leader. However, he was “not hostile” to the US government and also insisted “not to work for the interests of any country”. Also in Ukraine war I think he took a neutral position.
US secret documents should remain within the group – but that went wrong
OG is said to have strictly instructed the approximately two dozen members who were able to see the photographed documents to keep the matter secret. This seemed to work for some time, until February 28, 2023, when a member apparently published several photos published by OG on another server of the gaming platform “Discord”.
The path of the documents took on a life of its own. They ended up on Russian Telegram channels, the message board 4chan and finally on Twitter. The US media became aware of it there and with their reporting it the full extent of the leak scandal.
Author of the US leaks: informants are hiding their name and country of residence
Meanwhile, US officials are looking for the man who is said to have illegally published secret documents on the Ukraine war and other politically sensitive topics. The two young men with whom the Washington Post spoke, should know the name and whereabouts of the alleged originator of the scandal, but do not want to reveal him. Their belief: OG will disappear to Guantanamo or elsewhere without due process if found.
According to his acquaintances, the alleged originator of the leaks did not want the papers he posted to find their way into the general public: When the documents he posted appeared on Twitter, he is said to have reacted very hectically and nervously. “He said that something had happened and he prayed to God that this event would not happen,” says the 18-year-old. But by then it was already too late. (smu)
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