Journalists of The Washington Post spoke with an alleged member of the Discord chat, where more than hundreds of classified documents of the US Department of Defense were sent. The authors of the material assume that a "weapon enthusiast" who worked at a military base is behind it.
According to the publication, a "young charismatic" American is behind the leak of secret documents. For a long time, he shared classified information with a group of online acquaintances on the gaming platform Discord.
The manʼs friends call him OG. According to them, they saw the first secret documents more than six months ago. OG regularly shared them in a private chat called Bear vs Pig with about 25 people. Many of them are teenagers, some participants are allegedly from Russia and Ukraine.
Later, someone from the group took these documents outside the chat — thatʼs how they got into social networks. Everyone was shocked and OG was "confused". He warned chat participants about the risks of arrest and asked them to delete the data and all related information. According to WP interlocutors, most chat participants, especially teenagers, did not really understand the weight of the information they had access to.
At first, he provided friends with notes from classified files about the war, and later he began posting photos of printouts that he supposedly managed to get at work. The publication indicates that the authors reviewed approximately 300 images, most of which have not yet been reported by the media.
In the chat, he sent top-secret reports on the location and movements of high-ranking political leaders, tactical information, geopolitical analysis, data on foreign governmentsʼ attempts to interfere in elections.
At the same time, OGʼs friends reject the suggestion that he is a Russian agent or has pro-Russian views. They say that the man does not support any of the sides of the war and is not interested in helping any country, and published the documents because he criticized the American government, especially the security forces and intelligence, for "abusing power and hiding the truth."
Two participants in that chat confirmed that they know OGʼs real name, as well as the state where he lives and works, but declined to share that information while the FBI investigates the source of the leak.
"We all became very close, like a close-knit family," recalls a chat participant. "We depended on each other."
Journalists write that OG was an undisputed leader who wanted to attract the attention of others because he had access to classified data.
“Then OG changed tactics. Instead of wasting time copying documents, he took pictures of them and threw them on the server. These were more vivid and impressive documents than ordinary text images. Some of them contained detailed diagrams of military operations in Ukraine and highly classified satellite images of the consequences of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities. Others described the potential trajectory of North Korean nuclear ballistic missiles that could reach the United States. Another document contained human-height photographs of a Chinese spy balloon that flew over the country in February, likely from a U-2 spy plane, as well as a diagram of the balloon and its attached surveillance technology," the WP authors write.
Journalists claim to have seen a video purporting to show OG. They saw a man in gear standing in the middle of a shooting range, shouting racist and anti-Semitic slurs before firing at targets.
- On April 6, it became known that classified military documents related to the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the war against Russia were published on social networks (Twitter and Telegram). The published documents seem to differ from the initial version — they overestimate American estimates of the losses of the Ukrainian army and underestimate the probable number of Russians killed. But the photos of schedules of arms deliveries, the number of troops and battalions, and other plans look authentic. The Pentagon is conducting its own investigation.
- On April 7, it became known that the second batch of secret documents of the American authorities was published on the network. They are talking not only about Ukraine, but also about the activities of the USA in the Indo-Pacific region, in the Middle East, actions to fight terrorism and rivalry with China.
- On April 9, Bellingcat reported that documents from the Pentagon began to appear on the Internet as early as January 2023 on some Discord servers where video game fans chatted.
- On April 10, the Pentagon confirmed that due to the leak of documents, "very sensitive secret" information became public.