How an online meme group convinced a US airman to leak government secrets

so I was in multiple Ukrainian counteroffensives. I saw the bravery of the Ukrainians fighting and all the amount of work that goes into their operations and this is a civilian army made up largely of people who have recently taken up arms and really anything like that. damage Ukraine's position on the battlefield will have a huge impact because we are the Ukrainian military that is learning a lot as we go and needs all the help we can get. What do we know about Jack's mistake? So he's 21 years old and he was a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard uh very Junior uh essentially in the rank of enlisted personnel and not even the senior so he's not an officer um it's not exactly clear how he would have had access to this uh High these types of highly classified documents, but many people say that through their own experiences working in the US intelligence community, it is relatively common, especially for the younger members involved in the analysis, to prepare slides for senior officers obviously the news just broke. that he will be arrested and uh, I mean, if he is found guilty, he will face a fairly extensive prison sentence.

Yes, my question was going to be: "Do you know how someone so Junior can get that amount of documentation?" He said it may have arisen from administrative tasks. I guess if I boil it down to its most basic form for the most senior members of staff and we know there are about 300 documents in total, we've only seen a fraction of them so far, what have we learned today? We're getting snippets of information every day, right? What have we learned today in terms of New Revelations? And just from your point of view, taking a retrospective stance on what are some of the most serious elements of these leagues and I would also add that they are not just the documents that people have seen that are slides verbatim copies of what was produced by US military intelligence, but also apparently went along with the Washington Post writing summaries of classified data even earlier, so it's hard to put a real number on how many pieces of classified information were revealed, the vast majority news that we've had in the last day is that of course, his identity, but also a better picture of what exactly this community was like that he was sharing these documents in, is essentially a

group

of about 20 young men with the individual to share this information apparently. as a way to gain status within the

group

, which is notable because previous

leak

s seemed to have been, you know, more ideological and motivated, this seems to have been much more of an interesting individual winning status.

I have to attribute it to the New York Times, by the way, who said they had seen about 300 of the documents that's where that number comes from? um so um in terms of the motivation um originally maybe from an idealistic point of view, but do we have a kind of young um young staff member here I mean, I don't want to assume anything other than maybe enjoying the power and the calling of be able to share these documents. Is there any darker motivation than the people being analyzed here? So, people I think Washington Post a conversation with those who were also on this forum.

They deny that they were involved in any kind of political group or that they were politically motivated saying there appears to be a right-wing or far-right flavor to some of the comments. He is said to have done racist or anti-Semitic things, which he said there seems to be a fair amount of posturing, so who is working at the Air National Guard intelligence wing? It's not a ground combat formation, but okay. To other members of this group, he presented himself as a Jason Bourne-type figure. He loved talking about the guns he had and portraying himself as Jason Bourne's Abbott or a James Bond-type figure, so this may be a bit of a result of

online

culture and the desire to always present yourself as something you're not, yeah, so we're starting to get an idea here.

There will be more arrests to come, do you think? There are more people you know operating within this amount of information. Does it all come down to this one person? There is a question to what degree people who then share that information because, of course, the classified information they were sharing. in small talk, it caught the attention of the global media because I shared it on other channels, so there may be some consideration for those people, in their briefing today, the Department of Defense was adamant about not stepping on the toes of the feet of the Department of Justice. in terms of what measures will be taken, but they said that they are restricting the types of classified information that are being disseminated and certainly this points to the possibility that a large number of people will have access to this information and can easily share it in Similarly, I imagine the Department of Defense is now reviewing as many social media platforms as possible to establish whether there have been other

leak

s of this nature.

Yes, there are so many ramifications of this information that a lot of information comes to light. On Times Radio today Alicia Cairns, Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said the leak could put British lives at risk. I don't think this will fundamentally change our position or effort or our commitment to Ukraine, but, of course, if they are proven to be a serious and genuine League, then this will be worrying because what it does is put the assets of Ukraine's allies at risk. US and UK around the world, particularly those working to save Ukrainian lives from their point of view, and we've really only had time for one more question, what is the most shocking revelation you've heard so far? now through these leaks?

I mean, the near-shootdown of the British surveillance plane in the Black Sea is pretty shocking, obviously, it's great that it wasn't shut down, but you have to wonder if that had happened unfortunately, what would have happened next in terms of actionable intelligence? that US or UK adversaries could use. It's obviously the deep American penetration into Russian intelligence networks, obviously the Russians will be working to close those leaks, and the less information the United States has to share with Ukraine about Russia's operational situation, the more battle plans will be put at risk. Ukrainians for the next counteroffensive. and you have had your own personal experience about it, haven't you spent six months in Ukraine?

Yes, so I was in multiple Ukrainian counteroffensives. I saw the bravery of the Ukrainians fighting and all the amount of work that goes into their operations and this is a civilian army largely made up of people who have recently taken up arms and therefore anything that damages Ukraine's position in The battlefield will have a great impact because we are the Ukrainian army. He learns a lot as he goes and needs all the help he can get from a foreigner.