MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2023) A man who presumably has been involved in the leaks of US classified materials from the Pentagon said he obtained the documents at a military base where he allegedly worked, The Washington Post newspaper reported on Thursday, citing members of the chatroom where the materials first occurred.
The leaked materials, the veracity of which has not been confirmed by the US government, first appeared in a chat on the Discord social platform.
The group consisted of about 20 people, mostly men and boys, who did not pay much attention last year when a user who went by the nickname "OG" posted messages containing "strange" acronyms and jargon, the newspaper reported.
The report said that the messages appeared to be "near-verbatim transcripts" of classified intelligence documents that OG had "brought home" from his job at an unnamed military base, adding that the leaks were not "accidental."
"He's (the leaker) a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren't accidental leaks of any kind," a member of the chatroom was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Last week, media reported that a new trove of classified documents leaked online revealed that the US was conducting espionage not only on its opponents but also allies, which sparked deep concern among US officials, who think that the situation might endanger the US's sources and undermine important international ties. All of the leaked documents reportedly were color printouts with text, graphics or maps, accessible to about 1,000 people prior to the incident.
This past Friday, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation started its own inquiry into the source of the leaks, while one senior US official told The New York Times that the leak was a "massive intelligence breach."
