Online Bloviators Spill US Classified Secrets

[Copernicus]

It's fair to say that we all bloviate from time to time in online forums like our own. Our egos get the best of us, and we sometimes like to impress others with our knowledge, cleverness, and importance. This can get really toxic at times as people seek to promote or defend their online reputations. Gaming communities such as World of Warcraft (WOW) and virtual world environments such as Second Life add dynamic visual and aural channels to the social interactions. It turns out that the latest breach of classified secrets in the US comes from the online gaming community:

Pentagon leak traced to video game chat group users arguing over war in Ukraine​

The sensitive documents, some of which were marked Top Secret, likely came from a government employee or contractor with a high security clearance who just couldn't resist impressing his audience with inside information from his job. It seems to have occurred first at least as far back as January, but the illegally copied materials got passed around quickly in chat rooms that naive gameplayers probably felt were secure and insulated enough from the public to do no real harm. In fact, the security breach caused grave damage to US national security and its reputation for being able to safeguard sensitive information. People would have discussions and arguments over strategy and tactics in the Ukraine war, and that led to someone deciding to win an argument by exposing classified documents to prove a point. The government is frantically trying to figure out who the reckless fool was, and I suspect that they will track the individual down.

 

[TV and credit cards]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging. The Russians appear to be sitting on their hands about it. As far as I'm concerned, this is expected. What can they do about any of it?

And their milbloggers' opinions are all over the place.

I'm still not on board that this wasn't intentionally put out in an attempt to confuse Russia and possibly get them to alter their strategy of how they might combat or if they can combat the pending Ukrainian counteroffensive.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging. The Russians appear to be sitting on their hands about it. As far as I'm concerned, this is expected. What can they do about any of it?

And their milbloggers' opinions are all over the place.

I'm still not on board that this wasn't intentionally put out in an attempt to confuse Russia and possibly get them to alter their strategy of how they might combat or if they can combat the pending Ukrainian counteroffensive.

If I came upon such information I'd always consider whether it was planted. It might be they are thinking exactly that, if in fact it's only bait.

 

[Patooka]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging.

The WatThunder stuff is a little bit worrisome. I can't imagine the US military being comfortable with the actual specs of their current generation Abrams and kit like Javelins and Switchblades being common knowledge.

 

[Copernicus]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging. The Russians appear to be sitting on their hands about it. As far as I'm concerned, this is expected. What can they do about any of it?

Top Secret documents invariably get classified because there is information in them that was judged to cause significant "grave harm" to US national security. There could be references to foreign operatives that cooperated to give information, or the information itself could be traced back to a specific source. Obviously, the government cannot list and make public any specific information about what was considered damaging in the documents. In fact, the government has admitted that some of the documents are authentic, and they are taking steps to try to wipe as much of it from the internet as possible. Unfortunately, this stuff has been floating around in closed gaming forums for so long that it is just playing whack-a-mole to even try.

And their milbloggers' opinions are all over the place.

I'm still not on board that this wasn't intentionally put out in an attempt to confuse Russia and possibly get them to alter their strategy of how they might combat or if they can combat the pending Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Most of the damage seems to be to US and Ukrainian secrets, and Ukraine has already been forced to change its plans. Among the assessments is one that the US thinks the so-called spring offensive by Ukraine will be weaker than predicted and make very little progress. The documents also contain detailed information on troop strength and deployments. It's a real disaster for the Ukrainians.

 

[Copernicus]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging.

The WatThunder stuff is a little bit worrisome. I can't imagine the US military being comfortable with the actual specs of their current generation Abrams and kit like Javelins and Switchblades being common knowledge.

I don't do much online gaming anymore, but I am familiar with the Discord platform and Telegram that some of the documents showed up on. Discord is popularly used for text and voice chat among team players. The particular game I am familiar with--Eve Online--is pretty much dominated by Russians, so I get practice with my Russian sometimes while playing. Many games simulate tank battles and the use of other military equipment where there is some attempt to make accurate models of the weapons. These games apparently attract a lot of players from the military and intelligence community. The informal discussions that take place online seem to be where someone got worked up to the point of posting these documents to prove a point about the status of the war in Ukraine.

 

[Bronzeage]

I think the fact that no one has yet been singled out as the culprit points to this being an intentional disinformation leak, along with all the hand wringing over the possible damage. There's no better place to get disinformation into the hands of Russian operatives than a gaming site.

I'm sure there are Russian controlled accounts on our forum.

 

[bilby]

In fact, the government has admitted that some of the documents are authentic, and they are taking steps to try to wipe as much of it from the internet as possible.

That's exactly what they would do if the whole thing was a plant.

If I were in Russian intelligence, I would be very doubtful of the authenticity of any information obtained in this fashion.

 

[Copernicus]

In fact, the government has admitted that some of the documents are authentic, and they are taking steps to try to wipe as much of it from the internet as possible.

That's exactly what they would do if the whole thing was a plant.

If I were in Russian intelligence, I would be very doubtful of the authenticity of any information obtained in this fashion.

I hope they are, but I suspect that they simply take it as a windfall intelligence coup that has landed in their laps at exactly the time they needed it. Whether true or not, it is a wonderful propaganda tool. They've already been distributing it, albeit doctored to change estimates of Ukrainian and Russian losses to be more in line with what the Kremlin wants Russians to believe.

 

[Copernicus]

This NY Post article gives a lot of details on the alleged leaker, including his online moniker as "OG". He is being sought by authorities and has been advising his online followers to delete information about him that might lead the authorities to his identity. It just seems a matter of time before they catch up to him.

See:

Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says​

 

[TV and credit cards]

WTF did I just read? I am completely nonplussed. I found myself looking to see if I was actually at the Washington Post website. Maybe OG is Ben Affleck. This reads like some ham-fisted version of Argo. That story had everything, too much of everything. Fuck "need to know", OG has access to it all.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I keep reading words like "damaging" and "significant" but I've yet to dig up any analysis as to how it is damaging. The Russians appear to be sitting on their hands about it. As far as I'm concerned, this is expected. What can they do about any of it?

Top Secret documents invariably get classified because there is information in them that was judged to cause significant "grave harm" to US national security. There could be references to foreign operatives that cooperated to give information, or the information itself could be traced back to a specific source. Obviously, the government cannot list and make public any specific information about what was considered damaging in the documents. In fact, the government has admitted that some of the documents are authentic, and they are taking steps to try to wipe as much of it from the internet as possible. Unfortunately, this stuff has been floating around in closed gaming forums for so long that it is just playing whack-a-mole to even try.

And their milbloggers' opinions are all over the place.

I'm still not on board that this wasn't intentionally put out in an attempt to confuse Russia and possibly get them to alter their strategy of how they might combat or if they can combat the pending Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Most of the damage seems to be to US and Ukrainian secrets, and Ukraine has already been forced to change its plans. Among the assessments is one that the US thinks the so-called spring offensive by Ukraine will be weaker than predicted and make very little progress. The documents also contain detailed information on troop strength and deployments. It's a real disaster for the Ukrainians.

True, but also speaks as to how feckless Russia is.

 

[Copernicus]

True, but also speaks as to how feckless Russia is.

Right, and that explains why the Russian troll farms put out a doctored version of the casualty figures and maybe a few other things that contradicted their narrative. They are also putting out the meme that these documents were intentionally leaked to make Russia look bad.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The idiot's ID is now known and said idiot is in deep doo doo. Like Ms. Reality Winner, he is going to do time. His name is Jack Tiexiera. There will be a massive reform in the U.S. as to who has access to such records.

New York Times names alleged leaker of secret Pentagon documents on Ukraine

The Washington Post revealed Wednesday night that they had information indicating the leaker of the Pentagon reports on Ukraine was "described as a gun enthusiast who worked on a military base."On Thursday morning, however, the New York Times revealed the name and base in which the alleged...

www.rawstory.com

 

[Copernicus]

The idiot's ID is now known and said idiot is in deep doo doo. Like Ms. Reality Winner, he is going to do time. His name is Jack Tiexiera. There will be a massive reform in the U.S. as to who has access to such records.

New York Times names alleged leaker of secret Pentagon documents on Ukraine

The Washington Post revealed Wednesday night that they had information indicating the leaker of the Pentagon reports on Ukraine was "described as a gun enthusiast who worked on a military base."On Thursday morning, however, the New York Times revealed the name and base in which the alleged...

www.rawstory.com

The kid is now frantically searching for a lawyer. He appears to be a naïve young guy who just didn't understand the importance of keeping those documents secret. He was more interested in impressing his friends than anything else. The real question here is whether he had the clearance to possess the documents. If so, how did he get it? If not, how did he get the documents? He would have needed Top Secret clearance. You need to be vetted and go through a training program for that. (Unless, of course, you get elected to Congress or the presidency. They get clearances automatically.)

Here is the NY Times article that the above Rawstory article is based on, but it is behind a paywall. You may need to register an account with NYT to view it. They do give very free limited access to an article or two periodically.

Leader of Online Group Where Secret Documents Leaked Is Air National Guardsman​

The leader of a small online gaming chat group where a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked over the last few months is a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The national guardsman, whose name is Jack Teixeira, oversaw a private online group named Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games.

Two U.S. officials confirmed that investigators want to talk to Airman Teixeira about the leak of the government documents to the private online group. One official said Airman Teixeira might have information relevant to the investigation.
...

Starting months ago, one of the users uploaded hundreds of pages of intelligence briefings into the small chat group, lecturing its members, who had bonded during the isolation of the pandemic, on the importance of staying abreast of world events.

The New York Times spoke with four members of the Thug Shaker Central chat group, one of whom said he has known the person who leaked for at least three years, had met him in person, and referred to him as the O.G. The friends described him as older than most of the group members, who were in their teens, and the undisputed leader. One of the friends said the O.G. had access to intelligence documents through his job.

While the gaming friends would not identify the group’s leader by name, a trail of digital evidence compiled by The Times leads to Airman Teixeira.

The Times has been able to link Airman Teixeira to other members of the Thug Shaker Central group through his online gaming profile and other records. Details of the interior of Airman Teixeira’s childhood home — posted on social media in family photographs — also match details on the margins of some of the photographs of the leaked secret documents.

The Times also has established, through social media posts and military records, that Airman Teixeira is enlisted in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Posts on the unit’s official Facebook page congratulated Airman Teixeira and colleagues for being promoted to Airman First Class in July 2022.

 

[bilby]

Shouldn't this investigation have already been done by the FBI? When did newspapers become the primary investigative agencies of the US counterespionage community?

 

[Copernicus]

Shouldn't this investigation have already been done by the FBI? When did newspapers become the primary investigative agencies of the US counterespionage community?

It's hard to say where the FBI investigation is, because they don't issue public progress reports on ongoing criminal investigations. Often, they don't even admit they are conducting them. The press is free to do its own research, and the young culprits in this sad story left a lot of online bread crumbs to follow, not to mention posting personal details about themselves in supposedly closed chat rooms where they interacted with strangers in Eastern Europe.

What I suspect will happen is that heads will roll in the Massachusetts Air Nation Guard over this incident, because they are the real source of this leak. How did such sensitive material end up being copied and posted on the internet? One thing is for certain. This incident will be given prominent display in future training materials on how important it is to safeguard sensitive information.

When I worked at Boeing, I got as far as a Secret clearance and was trying to get Top Secret, because I needed access to security manuals with that marking for a project we were working on at the time. A government contractor has very few security billets available to hand out, so it takes time to get that kind of clearance. (I never got it, because the project budget ran out before we could complete the process.) This kid either got Top Secret access to documents that were only supposed to be viewed in a SCIF and not copied or removed. So how did he get his hands on them? Just having TS clearance doesn't give one access to all documents marked that way. You still have to have some reason for needing access to the materials. He was in the military, and, apparently, there are so many military sites that have access to these materials that leaks of this sort can happen. That is a serious scandal and a great embarrassment to the US intelligence community.

 

[bilby]

Shouldn't this investigation have already been done by the FBI? When did newspapers become the primary investigative agencies of the US counterespionage community?

It's hard to say where the FBI investigation is, because they don't issue public progress reports on ongoing criminal investigations. Often, they don't even admit they are conducting them. The press is free to do its own research, and the young culprits in this sad story left a lot of online bread crumbs to follow, not to mention posting personal details about themselves in supposedly closed chat rooms where they interacted with strangers in Eastern Europe.

What I suspect will happen is that heads will roll in the Massachusetts Air Nation Guard over this incident, because they are the real source of this leak. How did such sensitive material end up being copied and posted on the internet? One thing is for certain. This incident will be given prominent display in future training materials on how important it is to safeguard sensitive information.

When I worked at Boeing, I got as far as a Secret clearance and was trying to get Top Secret, because I needed access to security manuals with that marking for a project we were working on at the time. A government contractor has very few security billets available to hand out, so it takes time to get that kind of clearance. (I never got it, because the project budget ran out before we could complete the process.) This kid either got Top Secret access to documents that were only supposed to be viewed in a SCIF and not copied or removed. So how did he get his hands on them? Just having TS clearance doesn't give one access to all documents marked that way. You still have to have some reason for needing access to the materials. He was in the military, and, apparently, there are so many military sites that have access to these materials that leaks of this sort can happen. That is a serious scandal and a great embarrassment to the US intelligence community.

I'm wondering why the Massachusetts Air National Guard would need access to any intelligence at all about the war in Ukraine, much less Top Secret stuff.

Are they expecting Putin to open a new front in Boston? They're five thousand miles away from the nearest Russian invaders FFS.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

From Raw Story....

....
Federal law enforcement has identified and arrested a suspect in the leaking of secret defense and intelligence documents that have circulated online for weeks, according to reports.

Jack Teixeira, 21, was taken into custody this Thursday. CNN aired footage showing law enforcement outside Teixeira's "family home" in Massachusetts.
....

Poor, dumb little bastard.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

From Raw Story....

....
Federal law enforcement has identified and arrested a suspect in the leaking of secret defense and intelligence documents that have circulated online for weeks, according to reports.

Jack Teixeira, 21, was taken into custody this Thursday. CNN aired footage showing law enforcement outside Teixeira's "family home" in Massachusetts.
....

Poor, dumb little bastard.

Quite obviously there is more than one poor, dumb, little bastard. The person may in fact be a naive little twit but how did he get the documents?