He is fond of guns and god, sceptical of US: The man responsible for Pentagon leaks

It’s being called the biggest intelligence leak in a decade and has left America shamed and red-faced. From revealing data about Ukraine’s grim situation in the ongoing war to the US spying on allies — the treasure trove of around 100 highly classified documents that found their way on social media platforms, is all that anyone wants to talk about.

While data keeps emerging from the leaks — about Ukraine’s true position in the ongoing war, the presence of Western special forces in Ukraine and Egypt’s involvement in the conflict — not much has been known about the person or people responsible for this entire fracas.

As TIME magazine writes, “When it comes to leaks of classified government documents, the way they are disseminated is often as telling as the actual information they contain.”

So, is anything known about the person behind the leaks? It wasn’t — until now.

Also read: The Pentagon Leaks: What has been revealed?

OG — the man behind it all

Investigations into the leak reveal that the information was first found on Discord — a social media platform popular among gamers. Now, the Washington Post reveals that the information was leaked by a man believed to be in his 20s and goes by the name OG.

According to the news outlet, OG and a group of around two dozen men formed a clubhouse in 2020 on Discord and they were bound by their love for guns, military gear and god. A member of the invitation-only group told Washington Post that initially OG had posted some information — mostly strange acronyms and jargon — which no one paid heed to last year. In the months that followed, the leaker posted messages in which he appeared to transcribe classified information from US documents.

The member told Washington Post that OG then indicated that he had transcribed the information from his job on a “military base”. The member said that OG leaked the information to “keep us in the loop” with government secrets he thought they should know. When group members ignored the classified files, OG got angry and started posting photographs of the files — several of them a week, beginning late last year.

Another member collaborating the same told the news outlet that OG was leaking the information and was enthralled with the type of information he was revealing, indicating that he was “someone with high clearance”.

The second member was quoted as saying, “He’s fit. He’s strong. He’s armed. He’s trained. Just about everything you can expect out of some sort of crazy movie.”

The second member adds that he knows OG from about four years ago when they met on a different server for fans of Oxide, a popular YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armour and military hardware.

It was from here that some members decided to break away and form a new server in which OG became the administrator and the undisputed leader. “We all grew very close to each other, like a tightknit family,” the member told the Washington Post. “We depended on each other.” He said that other members, and OG especially, counselled him during bouts of depression and helped to steady him emotionally. “There was no lack of love for each other.”

Both the members who have spoken to Washington Post say they know the true identity of OG, but won’t reveal it.

The Washington Post report also states that OG had a ‘dark view’ of the US government. But as the members say, he wasn’t hostile against the administration. “He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative.”

OG, according to one member, believed that US law enforcement and intelligence community is a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens. He noted that the government hid truth from the public. The leaker had said in the past that the government knew beforehand that a White supremacist would go on a rampage in a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022. He told the group that the officials let the killings happen to increase funding for law enforcement.

According to Bellingcat, the investigative outlet that traced the leaks from Discord to other outlets, said that it was from this server that OG managed that the information was subsequently posted to another invitation-only server. Some Discord users thought the documents were fake because they didn’t think anyone would be brazen enough to post them online.

Eventually, these leaks found themselves on Twitter and Telegram, where it got noticed and picked up by news outlets and became the scandal that it is now.

This new revelation of the person behind the leak debunks previous theories of it being an accident or unintentional. Thomas Rid, a German cyber-security expert in the US, had initially said that he thought that someone found the documents by accident, photographed them, and posted them online without thinking about the consequences. This would fit with the very unusual method of distribution, via the Discord gamer network.

US in damage control

Since the leaks became world headlines, the US has been scrambling to ensure that the leak is plugged. The US Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leaks, the Defense Department and several other government agencies are together assessing any impact on national security, and Pentagon leaders are angry and scrambling to undo the damage.

But experts — both in cybersecurity and in defence — are also asking as to why it’s taken so long for the US administration to react.

One US official told the Politico, “No one in the US government knew they were out there.” As to why they didn’t: “We cannot answer that just yet,” the official added, “We would all like to understand how that happened.”

Fallout from the leaks

The damage from the leaks is considerable. The Deutsche Welle quoting officials described it as the most serious betrayal of state secrets since the WikiLeaks affair.

The leaks could hurt Ukraine during the war. It has already, according to some reports, had to change plans. Moreover, Russia will no doubt try to use it to sow discord among Kyiv and the West. The disclosure of the information could also imperil human sources, former officials say.

The leaks could also cause a diplomatic headache for the United States. Allies won’t be happy that they have been spied on — governments of several US-friendly nations have already reacted with annoyance. South Korea said the majority of the documents concerning its country were “fake.” Israel’s prime minister also described the information relating to his country as “false and baseless.”

Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior director of the White House Situation Room and chief of staff at the CIA, told The Hill, “It potentially could be disclosing sources and methods, and it has an impact on trust between us and some of our friends. So I think it’s pretty bad.”

Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, also offered an interesting view on the matter. He was quoted as telling The Hill, “If you’re the Ukrainians, or you’re the allies, you’re pissed off as hell. Especially because the Americans are usually ones to lecture about security. It’s always a bad idea to wag your finger because it can be your turn.”

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.