The man who leaked “sensitive and highly classified” U.S. intelligence has reportedly been identified by a member of a group he’s in, who said the alleged culprit worked on a military base and brought home top secret reports, sharing them with his online clubhouse.
The one purportedly behind the leaks, known to some of the group as “OG,” is a young gun enthusiast who last year posted a message on a Discord channel “laden with strange acronyms and jargon,” the Washington Post reported. The group, made up of about 25 people, mostly men and boys sharing interests in guns, military gear, and God, was created as an invitation-only online platform during the height of the pandemic in 2020, according to the news outlet. Discord is a chat service popular with people interested in gaming.
This group, where “OG” allegedly shared hundreds of pages of leaked intelligence, reportedly included foreigners.
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The leaked U.S. intelligence concerns national security and foreign policy interests. Included in the documents are reports that a Russian fighter jet nearly shot down a British aircraft last year, which could have launched the United States into a direct war with Russia, and that the U.S. has apparently spied on allies, including Israel, South Korea, and Ukraine.
From a humanitarian perspective, perhaps the most troubling fear of the leaked intelligence is that spies helping the U.S. in its foreign policy pursuits, such as its aid to Ukraine’s territorial defense against Russia, could be outed and imprisoned or killed for their actions. One leaked file reportedly said the U.S. had penetrated Russian security and intelligence, allowing officials to warn Ukraine of coming attacks.
Officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom have said some of the released documents appear to be fake or changed.
Three people who work for a U.S. government agency in northern Virginia have been given polygraph exams in connection with the Pentagon and Justice Department’s investigation into the source of the leaks, according to a report in Soldier of Fortune magazine, which described the people as “civilians who do not work for the Department of Defense.”
The Washington Post’s report into “OG,” the man who allegedly leaked the intelligence, detailed that its journalists reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, “most of which have not been made public.” According to the paper, “OG” apparently wrote out some of the text documents.
The outlet said its source is a boy under the age of 18 who met “OG” in 2020 and whose parents allowed the paper to speak with him.
The U.S. government is treating the investigation as an “insider’s leak,” the Wall Street Journal reported early Thursday morning. However, according to people the paper spoke with, officials have not “homed in on key suspects.”
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The majority of the documents appear to originate from the Central Intelligence Agency’s Operations Center and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the outlet said. And because some of the especially restricted classified documents would only be available to a small group of decision-makers, investigators are narrowing their search for who could have leaked the documents. The Wall Street Journal article made no reference to an “OG.”
Even once the investigation into the leak concludes, the fallout will almost assuredly continue for some time, as the U.S. government will have to tighten up its security as well as convince its staunchest allies, and its citizens, that it can be trusted and act with the best interests of all parties in mind.
