The person who leaked classified military documents online is a gun enthusiast who works on a military base and shared secrets for months in a private Discord chatroom with around two dozen members, according to two members who spoke to the Washington Post. One member, who is under 18 and spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, says the leaker was known as "OG" and was the undisputed leader of the "Thug Shaker Central" server. He says OG boasted of knowing secrets unavailable to the general public and started posting transcripts of classified documents last year. The member says that out of around 25 people with access to the server, about half were from overseas.
The group was made of gamers, most of them teenagers, while OG is in his early to mid-20s, according to the member. The member describes it as a "tightknit family" made of people who felt isolated during the pandemic. The Post says it reviewed hundreds of documents, most of which have not been made public, along with recordings of a person the member identifies OG, including one in which he "yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs" before firing at a shooting range target. The member says OG ranted about "government overreach" and saw the US government, especiably intelligence agencies, as a sinister force. He says OG didn't support either side in Russia's war on Ukraine, and titled the room in which he posted classified information "Bear vs Pig."
The member says OG ranted about other users' lack of engagement with the classified information and, late last year, started posting photos of documents instead of transcripts. He says the members most interested in the material were from the "Eastern Bloc and those post-Soviet countries." He says another teen user started posting the information on another server in early March, though it would be weeks before authorities discovered the leak. "I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest," says the member, whose account was supported by a second server member.
story continues below
Both members said they know OG's real name and state of residence but won't share that information with authorities. The first member says he has been in touch with OG in recent days and he seemed "distraught" and "very confused and lost as to what to do." (More leaked documents stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
