Suspect is national guard: 21-year-old arrested for document leak

Update
Suspect is National Guardsman
21-year-old arrested for document leak

04/13/2023, 8:21 p.m

In the end, the investigations by the US authorities based on US media reports quickly lead to a result. The 21-year-old suspect who is said to have leaked the documents from the secret services has been arrested. Apparently, his own photos were his undoing.

An Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking top-secret US documents has been arrested. This is reported by several US media, citing authorities. Going by the name of Jack T., the National Guardsman ran Thug Shaker Central, an online group where about 20 to 30 people shared their fondness for guns, racist memes and video games, according to the New York Times, citing interviews and by her examined documents reported.

According to the “Washington Post”, the editors received corresponding information about the suspect from two members of a group on the online platform Discord. According to them, the young Air Nationals Guard reportedly told the two Discord users interviewed that he took the paperwork home from his work on the base. The man, nicknamed “OG”, then published hundreds of documents on the platform for months, which is used particularly for video game exchanges.

Two group members reveal identity

The Discord group, to which the suspected disseminator of secret information belongs, has about two dozen members, including people from Russia and Ukraine, the Washington Post reported. What unites them is their “love of weapons, military equipment and God”. The group was founded in 2020 during the corona pandemic. T. was said to be admired by many members there. “He’s fit. He’s strong. He’s armed. He’s trained. Pretty much everything you could want from a crazy movie,” one of the members reportedly said of him.

According to the Washington Post, the man has a “bad opinion of the government” in Washington. A group member said OG had labeled the United States, and particularly law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as a “dark force” trying to oppress citizens and “keep them in the dark.”

“OG” is said to have reported to group members, according to the newspaper report, that he “slogged for hours” to copy the confidential documents and then shared them with the Discord group. In order to make his work easier, he finally switched to photographing the documents and then posting them. It was probably about “bragging about in front of his friends”, but also about informing them, said a member of the group.

Intelligence coordinator calls suspect ‘narcissistic’

The Washington Post wrote that “OG” had become frustrated that the other members of the group weren’t paying enough attention to his revelations. Former intelligence coordinator James Clapper told CNN that it sounds to him like this “OG” shares a certain “level of narcissism” with other whistleblowers before him. “There’s an ego element in feeling important about yourself by having access to such material and disclosing it.”

Taking pictures at home was apparently also his undoing: in the background of some of the photos that “OG” showed the others via video, there were pieces of furniture and objects that the investigators could track down – such as a tube of glue, manuals or a nail clipper. In addition, printouts of sensitive material in secured US facilities could be traced in some cases.

In the past few days, numerous secret documents have been spotted on Discord and other platforms such as Twitter and Telegram. They may have been circulating there for months before the media became aware of them. Some information was so sensitive that it was labeled “NOFORN,” the Washington Post wrote. This means that they may not be distributed among non-US citizens.

The secret documents from US agencies – allegedly from the CIA intelligence service and the Pentagon – concern, for example, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: information on arms deliveries, assessments of what is happening in the war. But also details of alleged US spying against partners. It is unclear what is authentic and what could possibly have been edited.