(Original Caption) 1968-Washington, DC: Exterior aerial view of the Pentagon.
The person behind the leak of highly classified documents that found their way to Discord chat servers before spreading on social media sites like Twitter works at a U.S. military base, according to a bombshell new report from the Washington Post. The leaker, who’s only identified as OG, is never named in the new story, but the Post spoke with people who were members of the Discord server where the leaks originated, reportedly called Thug Shaker Central.
Bellingcat first reported over the weekend that classified documents had been found on at least two Discord servers, including one that focused on the popular video game Minecraft. The other Discord server, Thug Shaker Central, was taken offline but contained classified documents as early as January 13, according to Bellingcat.
But this new report from the Post provides more details, gathered from a source who’s reportedly just a kid. The Post reporters note they obtained permission from the source’s mother before talking with them about OG, the leaker who has yet to be identified.
“OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers,” the Post reports.
“He annotated some of the hand-typed documents, the member said, translating arcane intel-speak for the uninitiated, such as explaining that ‘NOFORN’ meant the information in the document was so sensitive it must not be shared with foreign nationals,” the report continues.
The leaks were positioned by OG as an act that was supposed to keep his fellow gamers informed about the world—at least that’s how it was presented to the Post’s source. OG shared “several documents a week, beginning late last year,” according to the Post.
The leaked documents reportedly included everything from troop movements in the war between Russia and Ukraine to CIA assessments of geopolitical adversaries like Iran and North Korea. The leak has been described as the worst since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave files to reporters in 2013.
The FBI is working on tracking down the source of the leaks, but the teen source who spoke with the Post has apparently refused to tell the agency the name and location of the leaker, both details the source reportedly knows. The Post also reports the leaker is thought to be in his mid-20s and video of the alleged leaker was reviewed by the newspaper.
“In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target,” the Post reports.
The Post reviewed 300 documents, many more than are publicly known to have found their way to mainstream social media sites like Twitter and Telegram. The leaker even shared photos of the Chinese spy balloon, according to its source. Only one official photo of the spy balloon that traversed the U.S. back in February has been released while it was in the air and it’s not clear whether the leaker shared more photos on Discord.
The OG apparently claimed on Discord that the government had information in advance of a white supremacist carrying out a massacre at a Buffalo supermarket, killing 10 people in May 2022, according to the Post.
“OG said federal law enforcement officials let the killings proceed so they could argue for increased funding,” according to the newspaper.
Discord, for its part, released a statement to Reuters late Wednesday saying it was cooperating with investigators over the breach of classified material, but didn’t go into any detail.
The kid in the Post’s story may be tight-lipped about his online friend, but you can bet investigators are right on the leaker’s tail if the Post already has this much information, especially with Discord giving a helping hand.
