According to the “Washington Post”, the US secret service documents recently made public, especially on the war in Ukraine, were leaked by a young man who worked on a US military base. He initially regularly shared the explosive documents as transcripts with a chat group he led on the Discord platform popular with video gamers, the newspaper reports, citing two members of the group.
The man was known to them as “OG” and said he obtained the documents at a military base – where he worked – the group members told the newspaper. According to his own account, he also spent parts of the day there in a secure facility where cell phones and other electronic devices that can be used to take photos or videos were forbidden. Therefore, he initially copied the documents.
When copying proved too tedious, the man began posting pictures of the sensitive papers, according to the Washington Post. How he was able to do this is unclear. In mid-March, however, “OG” stopped sharing documents with the chat group. He did not reveal which military base it was.
According to the “Washington Post”, the group was founded in 2020 during the corona pandemic. Their roughly two dozen members—mostly men and boys—have in common their fondness for guns, military equipment, and their belief in God. “OG” itself has a gloomy opinion of the US government. He is not a whistleblower who wants to uncover abuses. Members interviewed by the newspaper said they knew OG’s real name and where he lived, but declined to say.
The release of the classified documents has sparked criminal investigations by the US Department of Justice and considerable concern in Western countries. The documents, which are now largely no longer visible on the Internet, are said to contain information about Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion troops.
According to one of the documents, the US secret services are said to have doubts about the success of a possible counter-offensive by the Ukrainian army, the Washington Post reported. There are “permanent Ukrainian backlogs” in the training of soldiers and in the supply of ammunition.
The documents should also contain information that the US services have spied on allied governments. However, the US government has not yet confirmed the authenticity of the published documents.
