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Originally Posted By Hate_Work: ^^This^^ I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, but the US has so many "interests" that it can't please everyone. No wonder why most of our policies look "half-assed". Regarding Ukraine and the US policy, sure looks like a half-blind, non-binary squirrel is finding an acorn. I can only hope this aligning of the stars happens more often. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Hate_Work: Originally Posted By Saltwater-Hillbilly: Isolationism is something we have tried as a nation, and failed miserably at, throughout our history. "Isolationism" and "Not going off half-cocked everywhere as some kind of self-appointed World Police" are two different things. Ukraine, though our policy is far from perfect, is probably one of the best applications of American military/diplomatic/economic power in the last 20 years. ^^This^^ I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, but the US has so many "interests" that it can't please everyone. No wonder why most of our policies look "half-assed". Regarding Ukraine and the US policy, sure looks like a half-blind, non-binary squirrel is finding an acorn. I can only hope this aligning of the stars happens more often. Exactly my thought too. I do not trust Biden to NOT screw this up for Ukraine. He has animosity toward Ukraine. |
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Deplorable fan of liberty
“I don’t need a ride, I need more ammunition.” |
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„From a place you will not see, comes a sound you will not hear.“
Thanks for the membership @ toaster |
Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: From the I believe RUSI analysis of the initial invasion, Russian EW was almost too good: it was jamming the invasion forces comms as well. Here's an article on that: https://archive.ph/YzbWg In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian jamming disrupted Ukraine's air-defense radars and communications links. The problem for Russian forces is that their electronic warfare also jammed their own communications. This "electronic fratricide" became so acute that Russian troops had to stop disrupting Ukrainian communications, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Originally Posted By AROKIE: Originally Posted By Ryan_Ruck: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided “smart bombs” that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who’s not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. “I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones,” said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. I'm skeptical. There were reports that Russia was supplying Iraq with jammers during OIF and they did nothing but tell our folks where to bomb to kill the jammers. Lots of variables to take into account like are these even the same tech, was the tech updated, JDAM now vs whatever munition used then, etc. but, massive grain of salt here given how lacking Russian wunder-weapons have been to date. U.S. Bombs GPS-Jamming Sites In Iraq, Possibly Sold by Russia Russian GPS Jammers Pose Little Threat In Iraq Also, just a friendly reminder that data in the leaks are probably best regarded as misinformation given the fact st least some data has already been acknowledged as fraudulent, even if the source of the leaks is authentic. Russian EW warfare has made leaps and bounds since the Iraq war. That is one area they have spent a ton of money on. they are pretty good at EW From the I believe RUSI analysis of the initial invasion, Russian EW was almost too good: it was jamming the invasion forces comms as well. Here's an article on that: https://archive.ph/YzbWg In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian jamming disrupted Ukraine's air-defense radars and communications links. The problem for Russian forces is that their electronic warfare also jammed their own communications. This "electronic fratricide" became so acute that Russian troops had to stop disrupting Ukrainian communications, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. There have been poss in here from Russians complaining they don’t have comms because their EW is running. Or that their EW is not keeping the drones out because it has to be down for some comms coordinated movement. |
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Deplorable fan of liberty
“I don’t need a ride, I need more ammunition.” |
Originally Posted By RockNwood: There have been poss in here from Russians complaining they don’t have comms because their EW is running. Or that their EW is not keeping the drones out because it has to be down for some comms coordinated movement. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By RockNwood: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Originally Posted By AROKIE: Originally Posted By Ryan_Ruck: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided “smart bombs” that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who’s not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. “I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones,” said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. I'm skeptical. There were reports that Russia was supplying Iraq with jammers during OIF and they did nothing but tell our folks where to bomb to kill the jammers. Lots of variables to take into account like are these even the same tech, was the tech updated, JDAM now vs whatever munition used then, etc. but, massive grain of salt here given how lacking Russian wunder-weapons have been to date. U.S. Bombs GPS-Jamming Sites In Iraq, Possibly Sold by Russia Russian GPS Jammers Pose Little Threat In Iraq Also, just a friendly reminder that data in the leaks are probably best regarded as misinformation given the fact st least some data has already been acknowledged as fraudulent, even if the source of the leaks is authentic. Russian EW warfare has made leaps and bounds since the Iraq war. That is one area they have spent a ton of money on. they are pretty good at EW From the I believe RUSI analysis of the initial invasion, Russian EW was almost too good: it was jamming the invasion forces comms as well. Here's an article on that: https://archive.ph/YzbWg In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian jamming disrupted Ukraine's air-defense radars and communications links. The problem for Russian forces is that their electronic warfare also jammed their own communications. This "electronic fratricide" became so acute that Russian troops had to stop disrupting Ukrainian communications, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. There have been poss in here from Russians complaining they don’t have comms because their EW is running. Or that their EW is not keeping the drones out because it has to be down for some comms coordinated movement. Yea Ukraine is now having to use much more expensive military grade drones for reconnaissance. Which they have much fewer of. |
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Only God will judge me.
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„From a place you will not see, comes a sound you will not hear.“
Thanks for the membership @ toaster |
Originally Posted By Prime: Wow. Great read and very believable. At least he impressed some kids on the internet. View Quote True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. |
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Originally Posted By ILfreedom: The OG leaker says he works at a military base. Fort Meade, home of the NSA, is a military base. The guy seems to have some broad access since the leaks have reference to Five Eyes and DOD documents. Another Snowden type idealist maybe. It doesn't appear he was trying to make money on this but wanted to impress his fellow gamer geeks. Whoever he is, they need to nail his ass. View Quote |
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Originally Posted By fisherman: True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. View Quote But to offer a counterpoint, the bit on the Gov't allowing a mass shooting in exchange for funding is, well, so elitist government. See, that type of thought process is not just limited to politicians and high ranking military. |
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Originally Posted By theskuh: This is a welcome finding. Hopefully they can overcome the jamming to return to full functionality of the Jdams. This is a big tip of the cards by Russia. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By theskuh: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided "smart bombs" that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons' targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who's not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. "I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones," said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. This is a welcome finding. Hopefully they can overcome the jamming to return to full functionality of the Jdams. This is a big tip of the cards by Russia. I don't believe this report at all. There may have been duds and Ukraine had to adapt something to make sure they are armed. But all of our systems are specifically built for a GPS denied environment. The intertial guidance on those kits should still get the weapon literally inches from where the GPS would have if the weapon had access to a GPS signal. It is amusing to me that these leaked reports are all negatives about Ukraine and the U.S. and nothing actually exciting. My rant for today. |
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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Originally Posted By Zhukov: I always wondered about that; seems like that would be priority number 1 for any country we're at war with. It's hard to believe that our side hasn't thought of this and doesn't have a solution in place already - but I'm certainly no expert. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Zhukov: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided "smart bombs" that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons' targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who's not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. "I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones," said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. I always wondered about that; seems like that would be priority number 1 for any country we're at war with. It's hard to believe that our side hasn't thought of this and doesn't have a solution in place already - but I'm certainly no expert. Well your correct, it was the first priority when making the systems and we created a few neat ways to ensure the receiver can still get the GPS signal even in a heavy jamming environment. If it is jammed, it falls back to a pretty accurate inertial system. |
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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That would not have been good. Saved by poor maintaining or just... I cant...
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"the science" /duh si-ens/ noun: progressive postmodern religious dogma not based in tested hypothesis or facts used to advance an authoritative political ideology
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Originally Posted By 4xGM300m: More pictures: https://i.imgur.com/XZnKvzK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/frwzA62.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4pcdN9Z.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v8Dgwro.jpg T-90A at a truck stop in Louisiana. April 2023 View Quote Ukrainian Colonel captures and drives off with Russian T-90 tank |
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nothing of value here
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nothing of value here
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Originally Posted By 4xGM300m:
View Quote Looks like an Excalibur round hit to me, but the GPS if jammed still got it close enough. |
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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Originally Posted By fisherman: True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By fisherman: Originally Posted By Prime: Wow. Great read and very believable. At least he impressed some kids on the internet. True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. Nobody should be shocked on the description. People are influenced by peer groups and as more lives are lived online, that has been replaced by anonymous communities. Like peer groups, they form standards for acceptance and the members must show allegiance to those ideals. That is the whole point of virtue signaling. We see it everyday in GD. To learn that someone outwardly presented “all the checked boxes” is to be expected. |
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Don't you tell me about galaxies! I walk them in the timeline.
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Originally Posted By fisherman: True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By fisherman: Originally Posted By Prime: Wow. Great read and very believable. At least he impressed some kids on the internet. True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. Plus the idea that someone may have known what these guys were up to and had them all fed false information that they thought they were leaking as for real classified documents. Gamers online leave huge crumb trails to follow and lots of text, in game chatrooms, etc. to see where everything leads. |
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cq-a96-gOQp/
"Exactly one year ago, on April 13, 2022, the enemy cruiser “Moscow” was confidently in the territorial waters of Ukraine, near the Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. A missile strike from the Ukrainian complex “Neptune” helped the flagship of the russian Black Sea fleet find a only possible course for a “Russian warship” - to the bottom. According to the authors, the actual launch is on the video." |
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Originally Posted By klinc: I'll be sure to send the first one I come across to my Dad who sat at the gunners sight of an M1 in Germany in the 80s. View Quote Is there any word on if there will be Abrams in Ukraine by this summer? I have not seen anything recently regarding Abrams and am skeptical we will supply them this year. Hope I am wrong. |
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Originally Posted By Haub: That would not have been good. Saved by poor maintaining or just... I cant...
View Quote lol
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“If by chance you were to ask me which ornaments I would desire above all others in my house, I would reply, without much pause for reflection, arms and books.”
Baldassare Castiglione |
Originally Posted By AlmightyTallest: Well your correct, it was the first priority when making the systems and we created a few neat ways to ensure the receiver can still get the GPS signal even in a heavy jamming environment. If it is jammed, it falls back to a pretty accurate inertial system. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By AlmightyTallest: Originally Posted By Zhukov: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided "smart bombs" that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons' targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who's not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. "I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones," said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. I always wondered about that; seems like that would be priority number 1 for any country we're at war with. It's hard to believe that our side hasn't thought of this and doesn't have a solution in place already - but I'm certainly no expert. Well your correct, it was the first priority when making the systems and we created a few neat ways to ensure the receiver can still get the GPS signal even in a heavy jamming environment. If it is jammed, it falls back to a pretty accurate inertial system. |
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The government is just a corporation with a monopoly on violence.
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Originally Posted By HIPPO: https://wapo.st/3UvaNTQ Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says THE DISCORD LEAKS | The online group that received hundreds of pages of classified material included foreigners, members tell The Post April 12, 2023 at 9:36 p.m. EDT Click To View Spoiler (Illustration by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; iStock) The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic. United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little attention last year when the man some call “OG” posted a message laden with strange acronyms and jargon. The words were unfamiliar, and few people read the long note, one of the members explained. But he revered OG, the elder leader of their tiny tribe, who claimed to know secrets that the government withheld from ordinary people. The young member read OG’s message closely, and the hundreds more that he said followed on a regular basis for months. They were, he recalled, what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a “military base,” which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers. He annotated some of the hand-typed documents, the member said, translating arcane intel-speak for the uninitiated, such as explaining that “NOFORN” meant the information in the document was so sensitive it must not be shared with foreign nationals. Story continues below advertisement OG told the group he toiled for hours writing up the classified documents to share with his companions in the Discord server he controlled. The gathering spot had been a pandemic refuge, particularly for teen gamers locked in their houses and cut off from their real-world friends. The members swapped memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat. They watched movies together, joked around and prayed. But OG also lectured them about world affairs and secretive government operations. He wanted to “keep us in the loop,” the member said, and seemed to think that his insider knowledge would offer the others protection from the troubled world around them. “He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member said. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were posted shares information on the man behind the leak, who some call “OG.” (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The transcribed documents OG posted traversed a range of sensitive subjects that only people who had undergone months-long background checks would be authorized to see. There were top-secret reports about the whereabouts and movements of high-ranking political leaders and tactical updates on military forces, the member said. Geopolitical analysis. Insights into foreign governments’ efforts to interfere with elections. “If you could think it, it was in those documents.” In those initial posts, OG had given his fellow members a small sip of the torrent of secrets that was to come. When rendering hundreds of classified files by hand proved too tiresome, he began posting hundreds of photos of documents themselves, an astonishing cache of secrets that has been steadily spilling into public view over the past week, disrupting U.S. foreign policy and aggravating America’s allies. This account of how detailed intelligence documents intended for an exclusive circle of military leaders and government decision-makers found their way into and then out of OG’s closed community is based in part on several lengthy interviews with the Discord group member, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. He is under 18 and was a young teenager when he met OG. The Post obtained consent from the member’s mother to speak to him and to record his remarks on video. He asked that his voice not be obscured. What to know about the Discord leaks His account was corroborated by a second member who read many of the same classified documents shared by OG, and who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. Both members said they know OG’s real name as well as the state where he lives and works but declined to share that information while the FBI is hunting for the source of the leaks. The investigation is in its early stages, and the Pentagon has set up its own internal review led by a senior official. “An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our Allies and partners,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement. Discord said in a statement that it is cooperating with law enforcement and has declined to comment further. The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public; some of the text documents OG is said to have written out; an audio recording of a man the two group members identified as OG speaking to his companions; and chat records and photographs that show OG communicating with them on the Discord server. The young member was impressed by OG’s seemingly prophetic ability to forecast major events before they became headline news, things “only someone with this kind of high clearance” would know. He was by his own account enthralled with OG, who he said was in his early to mid-20s. “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 member said. Story continues below advertisement In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target. The member seemed drawn to OG’s bravado and his skill with weapons. He felt a certain kinship with a man he described as “like an uncle” and, on another occasion, as a father figure. “I was one of the very few people in the server that was able to understand that these [documents] were legitimate,” the member said, setting himself apart from the others who mostly ignored OG’s posts. “It felt like I was on top of Mount Everest,” he said. “I felt like I was above everyone else to some degree and that … I knew stuff that they didn’t.” A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the contents of the files. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The member met OG about four years ago, on a different server for fans of Oxide, a popular YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armor and military hardware. He said a group of avid members found the server too crowded and wanted a quieter place to talk about video game tactics, so they broke off into their own, small group. More like-minded Oxide fans joined the private Discord server, which came to be named “Thug Shaker Central,” and whose membership OG would effectively control as the administrator. “We all grew very close to each other, like a tightknit family,” the member said. “We depended on each other.” He said that other members, and OG especially, counseled him during bouts of depression and helped to steady him emotionally. “There was no lack of love for each other.” OG was the undisputed leader. The member described him as “strict.” He enforced a “pecking order” and expected the others to read closely the classified information he had shared. When their attention waned, he got angry. Late last year, a peeved OG fired off a message to all the members of the server. He had spent nearly an hour every day writing up “these long and drawn-out posts in which he’d often add annotations and explanations for stuff that we normal citizens would not understand,” the member said. His would-be pupils were more interested in YouTube videos about battle gear. “He got upset, and he said on multiple occasions, if you guys aren’t going to interact with them, I’m going to stop sending them.” That’s when OG changed tactics. Rather than spend his time copying documents by keyboard, he took photographs of the genuine articles and dropped them in the server. These were more vivid and arresting documents than the plain text renderings. Some featured detailed charts of battlefield conditions in Ukraine and highly classified satellite images of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian electrical facilities. Others sketched the potential trajectory of North Korean ballistic nuclear missiles that could reach the United States. Another featured photographs of the Chinese spy balloon that floated across the country in February, snapped from eye-level, probably by a U-2 spy plane, along with a diagram of the balloon and the surveillance technology attached to it. Story continues below advertisement OG shared several documents a week, beginning late last year. Posting pictures to the server took less time. But it also exposed OG to greater risk. In the background of some images, they could see items and furniture that they recognized from the room where OG spoke to them via video on the Discord channel — the kind of clues that could prove useful for federal investigators. The dramatic and yet nonchalant presentation also reminded the group that OG could lay his hands on some of the most closely guarded intelligence in the U.S. government. “If you had classified documents, you’d want to flex at least a little bit, like hey, I’m the big guy,” the member said. “There is a little bit of showing off to friends, but as well as wanting to keep us informed.” In a sense, OG had created a virtual mirror image of the secretive facility where he spent his working hours. Inside the Discord server, he was the ultimate arbiter of secrecy, and he allowed his companions to read truths that “normal citizens” could not. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the online community. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The photographs of printed secret documents now seen by millions may offer clues to the federal agents searching for OG. Reality Winner, who leaked secret National Security Agency documents to the news website the Intercept in 2017, was compromised by secret markings on printouts that helped narrow the search. OG’s documents look to have been printed on ordinary paper and were creased after having been folded in four. Sometimes, the photographs OG took of the documents appeared to have been taken over a bed. Items such as Gorilla Glue, a scope manual and nail clippers appeared in the margins. Other previously unreported images reviewed by The Post showed printed documents lying on top of a glowing red keyboard. The breadth of the military and intelligence reports was extensive. For months, OG regularly uploaded page after page of classified U.S. assessments, offering a window into how deeply American intelligence had penetrated the Russian military, showing that Egypt had planned to sell Russia tens of thousands of rockets and suggesting that Russian mercenaries had approached Turkey, a NATO ally, to buy weapons to fight against Ukraine. At least one of the documents appeared to have been printed from Intellipedia, a data-sharing system that intelligence agencies use to collaborate and post reports and articles. The documents were another lesson for younger members in how OG thought the world really worked. The member said OG wasn’t hostile to the U.S. government, and he insisted that he was not working on behalf of any country’s interests. “He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative,” the member said. The room on the server where he posted the documents was called “bear-vs-pig,” meant to be a snide jab at Russia and Ukraine, and an indication that OG took no sides in the conflict. But OG had a dark view of the government. The young member said he spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. He ranted about “government overreach.” OG told his online companions that the government hid horrible truths from the public. He claimed, according to the members, that the government knew in advance that a white supremacist intended to go on a shooting rampage at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022. The attack left 10 dead, all of them Black, and wounded three more. OG said federal law enforcement officials let the killings proceed so they could argue for increased funding, a baseless notion that the member said he believes and considers an example of OG’s penetrating insights about the depth of government corruption. OG’s group itself had a dark side. The Discord server’s eventual name, Thug Shaker Central, was a racist allusion, and signaled to members that they were free to hurl epithets and crude jokes. The young member expressed some regret for their behavior but seemed to shrug off the offensive remarks as a clumsy attempt at humor. It was not “a fascist recruiting server,” he told The Post. Story continues below advertisement One thing the members were not supposed to do was talk about the secrets OG had shared with them, including the classified documents. “Most people in the server were smart enough as to kind of realize that … they shouldn’t be posted anywhere else,” the member said. And yet, the group contained foreign citizens — including from Russia and Ukraine, the members said — a defiance of the NOFORN warning printed across the top of so many documents OG shared. The member estimated that the server hosted people from Europe, Asia and South America. “Just about every walk of life.” Of the roughly 25 active members who had access to the bear-vs-pig channel, about half were located overseas, the member said. The ones who seemed most interested in the classified material claimed to be from mostly “Eastern Bloc and those post-Soviet countries,” he said. “The Ukrainians had interest as well,” which the member chalked up to interest in the war ravaging their homeland. For years, U.S. counterintelligence officials have eyed gaming platforms as a magnet for spies. Russian intelligence operatives have been suspected of befriending gamers who they believe work for intelligence agencies and encouraging them to divulge classified information, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. It’s not clear whether any of those efforts have been successful. But if foreign operatives finagled an invitation to OG’s server, they would have been free to view the documents and make copies of them, as some members did. The server sprouts a leak All winter, OG uploaded documents to the server. No one talked about sharing them elsewhere. Then, unbeknown to the group, on Feb. 28, another teenage user from the Thug Shaker Central server began posting several dozen photographs showing classified documents on another Discord server affiliated with the YouTuber “wow_mao.” Some of the documents offered detailed assessments of Ukraine’s defense capabilities and showed how far U.S. intelligence could see into Russia’s military command. On March 4, 10 documents appeared on “Minecraft Earth Map,” a Discord server focused on the popular video game. A user operating the account that posted the smaller tranche of images told The Post they obtained them on wow_mao. Secret and top-secret documents were now available to thousands of Discord users, but the leak wouldn’t come to the attention of U.S. authorities for another month. Meanwhile, OG stopped sharing images in the middle of March. On April 5, classified documents assessing the war in Ukraine were posted on Russian Telegram channels and the message board platform 4chan, and began migrating to Twitter. One image, showing a March 1 Ukraine status update, had been crudely doctored to inflate the number of Ukrainian casualties and downplay those on the Russian side. The next day, shortly before the New York Times first reported on the leak, OG came into the server “frantic, which is unusual for him,” the member said. “He said something had happened, and he prayed to God that this event would not happen. … But now it’s in God’s hands.” Story continues below advertisement For all OG’s disdain for the federal government, the member said there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family, the member said. “I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said, resisting comparisons to Edward Snowden, who shared classified documents about government surveillance with journalists. Remarkably, the member said he has been in touch with OG in the past few days, even as an FBI manhunt is underway and the Pentagon launches its own inquiry into the leaks. After shuttering the Thug Shaker Central server, OG moved the community to another server to communicate with his online family. He “seemed very confused and lost as to what to do,” the member said. “He’s fully aware of what’s happening and what the consequences may be. He’s just not sure on how to go about solving this situation. … He seems pretty distraught about it.” In his final message to his companions, OG admonished them to “keep low and delete any information that could possibly relate to him,” the member said. That included any copies of the classified documents OG had shared. When it dawned on them that OG was in grave peril and intended to disappear, the members of Thug Shaker Central “full-on sobbed and cried,” the young member said. “It is like losing a family member.” In hours of interviews, he continued to express admiration and loyalty to a man who may have endangered his young followers by allowing them to see and possess classified information, exposing them to potential federal crimes. “I figured he would not be putting us in any sort of harm’s way,” the member said. The exposure of the documents has severed friendships and cut him off from the man who buoyed his confidence and made him feel safe. The member said that the stress of the loss, coupled with the enormity of the leaks, has left him worried and sleepless. Now he says he believes that the world should see the secrets OG passed along to a tiny group. He argued that the public deserves to know how intelligence agencies spend their tax dollars, and was particularly outraged that the documents show U.S. surveillance of foreign allies. But what the young man regarded as a revelation will come as no surprise to the countries whose officials the U.S. has been monitoring for decades. While rarely discussed, and embarrassing for Washington when exposed, it’s widely understood that the U.S. intelligence community monitors many friendly governments, just as foreign allies try to do the same. Story continues below advertisement Thousands of military personnel and government employees around OG’s age, working entry-to-low-level positions, could plausibly have access to classified documents like the ones he allegedly shared, according to U.S. officials and experts who have seen the documents reported in the media. Despite what his young followers thought, OG would have had no special knowledge compared with his peers. He possessed no special power to predict events. Rather, he appears to have persuaded some highly impressionable teenagers that he’s a modern-day gamer meets Jason Bourne. The member said he’s confident the authorities will find OG. But when they do, he won’t be charged. Instead, he believes, OG will be imprisoned without due process at Guantánamo Bay or disappeared to a “black site,” if he’s not “assassinated” for what he knows. The member, as well as the OG follower who corroborated his account, found no fault in their leader’s actions and instead said they blame the teen who posted the documents on the wow_mao server for wrecking their community. “Maybe we should have had better opsec,” the member said, harnessing the jargon of military and intelligence personnel for “operations security.” He insisted said he will not divulge OG’s identity or location to law enforcement until he is captured or can flee the United States. “I think I might be detained eventually. … I think there might be a short investigation on how I knew this guy and they’ll try to get something out of me. They might try to threaten me with prison time if I don’t reveal their identity.” To date, no federal law enforcement officials have contacted the young group member. Asked why he was prepared to help OG even at the risk of his own freedom, the young man replied without hesitation: “He was my best friend.” View Quote Well now, that's interesting. |
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When being irresponsible becomes painful again, we might be able to make some progress in this country.
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anyone else think its strange there is this 'we found the leaker' reporting -- ascribed to be a God-loving, gun-toting male -- but no arrest or 'official' announcement by a LE org (i would assume the FBI...) ???
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Originally Posted By MFP_4073: anyone else think its strange there is this 'we found the leaker' reporting -- ascribed to be a God-loving, gun-toting male -- but no arrest or 'official' announcement by a LE org (i would assume the FBI...) ??? ------------------------------------ View Quote Fully expected . . . . . CMOS |
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"If their "fair share" demands that I get nothing for my labors, that it requires me to be a victim, then "public good" be dammed."
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“If by chance you were to ask me which ornaments I would desire above all others in my house, I would reply, without much pause for reflection, arms and books.”
Baldassare Castiglione |
Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: From the I believe RUSI analysis of the initial invasion, Russian EW was almost too good: it was jamming the invasion forces comms as well. Here's an article on that: https://archive.ph/YzbWg In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian jamming disrupted Ukraine's air-defense radars and communications links. The problem for Russian forces is that their electronic warfare also jammed their own communications. This "electronic fratricide" became so acute that Russian troops had to stop disrupting Ukrainian communications, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Originally Posted By AROKIE: Originally Posted By Ryan_Ruck: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say A separate technical problem, since fixed, had been causing the munitions to fail. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/russia-jamming-u-s-smart-bombs-in-ukraine-leaked-docs-say-00091600 American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official. In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided “smart bombs” that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy. The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER. But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. In some cases, the bomb fuzes were not arming when they were released, causing the weapon to fail to detonate. The Ukrainian air force put in place a fix to ensure the bombs are arming correctly, according to the slide and the official. A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who’s not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. “I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones,” said Mick Mulroy a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. I'm skeptical. There were reports that Russia was supplying Iraq with jammers during OIF and they did nothing but tell our folks where to bomb to kill the jammers. Lots of variables to take into account like are these even the same tech, was the tech updated, JDAM now vs whatever munition used then, etc. but, massive grain of salt here given how lacking Russian wunder-weapons have been to date. U.S. Bombs GPS-Jamming Sites In Iraq, Possibly Sold by Russia Russian GPS Jammers Pose Little Threat In Iraq Also, just a friendly reminder that data in the leaks are probably best regarded as misinformation given the fact st least some data has already been acknowledged as fraudulent, even if the source of the leaks is authentic. Russian EW warfare has made leaps and bounds since the Iraq war. That is one area they have spent a ton of money on. they are pretty good at EW From the I believe RUSI analysis of the initial invasion, Russian EW was almost too good: it was jamming the invasion forces comms as well. Here's an article on that: https://archive.ph/YzbWg In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian jamming disrupted Ukraine's air-defense radars and communications links. The problem for Russian forces is that their electronic warfare also jammed their own communications. This "electronic fratricide" became so acute that Russian troops had to stop disrupting Ukrainian communications, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank. I recall this. I had this partially in mind when I made my post. I'm not necessarily saying they haven't made improvements, just that things like past and current information like this should be weighed when considering info, especially when that info is known to have come from a compromised source. Regardless, even if it is true, it seems that Ukraine has already negated it and I'm sure we have that same info now too. |
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DeSantis 2024
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Originally Posted By Haub: That would not have been good. Saved by poor maintaining or just... I cant...
View Quote The most Russian story of the day International incident caused by Russian incompetence avoided by Russian incompetence.. |
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Originally Posted By Gingerbreadman: I wonder how large of an area can be jammed. I'm not familiar with the inertial navigation systems of these weapons, but I am a little bit familiar with those on commercial airliners. It is my understanding that an inertial navigation system needs a good starting point in order to determine where it moved to, and if it is set using bad location data, it will never know where it really is. View Quote It knows where it is because it knows where it isn't. |
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Originally Posted By HIPPO: https://wapo.st/3UvaNTQ Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says THE DISCORD LEAKS | The online group that received hundreds of pages of classified material included foreigners, members tell The Post April 12, 2023 at 9:36 p.m. EDT Click To View Spoiler (Illustration by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; iStock) The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic. United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little attention last year when the man some call “OG” posted a message laden with strange acronyms and jargon. The words were unfamiliar, and few people read the long note, one of the members explained. But he revered OG, the elder leader of their tiny tribe, who claimed to know secrets that the government withheld from ordinary people. The young member read OG’s message closely, and the hundreds more that he said followed on a regular basis for months. They were, he recalled, what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a “military base,” which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers. He annotated some of the hand-typed documents, the member said, translating arcane intel-speak for the uninitiated, such as explaining that “NOFORN” meant the information in the document was so sensitive it must not be shared with foreign nationals. Story continues below advertisement OG told the group he toiled for hours writing up the classified documents to share with his companions in the Discord server he controlled. The gathering spot had been a pandemic refuge, particularly for teen gamers locked in their houses and cut off from their real-world friends. The members swapped memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat. They watched movies together, joked around and prayed. But OG also lectured them about world affairs and secretive government operations. He wanted to “keep us in the loop,” the member said, and seemed to think that his insider knowledge would offer the others protection from the troubled world around them. “He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member said. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were posted shares information on the man behind the leak, who some call “OG.” (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The transcribed documents OG posted traversed a range of sensitive subjects that only people who had undergone months-long background checks would be authorized to see. There were top-secret reports about the whereabouts and movements of high-ranking political leaders and tactical updates on military forces, the member said. Geopolitical analysis. Insights into foreign governments’ efforts to interfere with elections. “If you could think it, it was in those documents.” In those initial posts, OG had given his fellow members a small sip of the torrent of secrets that was to come. When rendering hundreds of classified files by hand proved too tiresome, he began posting hundreds of photos of documents themselves, an astonishing cache of secrets that has been steadily spilling into public view over the past week, disrupting U.S. foreign policy and aggravating America’s allies. This account of how detailed intelligence documents intended for an exclusive circle of military leaders and government decision-makers found their way into and then out of OG’s closed community is based in part on several lengthy interviews with the Discord group member, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. He is under 18 and was a young teenager when he met OG. The Post obtained consent from the member’s mother to speak to him and to record his remarks on video. He asked that his voice not be obscured. What to know about the Discord leaks His account was corroborated by a second member who read many of the same classified documents shared by OG, and who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. Both members said they know OG’s real name as well as the state where he lives and works but declined to share that information while the FBI is hunting for the source of the leaks. The investigation is in its early stages, and the Pentagon has set up its own internal review led by a senior official. “An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our Allies and partners,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement. Discord said in a statement that it is cooperating with law enforcement and has declined to comment further. The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public; some of the text documents OG is said to have written out; an audio recording of a man the two group members identified as OG speaking to his companions; and chat records and photographs that show OG communicating with them on the Discord server. The young member was impressed by OG’s seemingly prophetic ability to forecast major events before they became headline news, things “only someone with this kind of high clearance” would know. He was by his own account enthralled with OG, who he said was in his early to mid-20s. “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 member said. Story continues below advertisement In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target. The member seemed drawn to OG’s bravado and his skill with weapons. He felt a certain kinship with a man he described as “like an uncle” and, on another occasion, as a father figure. “I was one of the very few people in the server that was able to understand that these [documents] were legitimate,” the member said, setting himself apart from the others who mostly ignored OG’s posts. “It felt like I was on top of Mount Everest,” he said. “I felt like I was above everyone else to some degree and that … I knew stuff that they didn’t.” A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the contents of the files. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The member met OG about four years ago, on a different server for fans of Oxide, a popular YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armor and military hardware. He said a group of avid members found the server too crowded and wanted a quieter place to talk about video game tactics, so they broke off into their own, small group. More like-minded Oxide fans joined the private Discord server, which came to be named “Thug Shaker Central,” and whose membership OG would effectively control as the administrator. “We all grew very close to each other, like a tightknit family,” the member said. “We depended on each other.” He said that other members, and OG especially, counseled him during bouts of depression and helped to steady him emotionally. “There was no lack of love for each other.” OG was the undisputed leader. The member described him as “strict.” He enforced a “pecking order” and expected the others to read closely the classified information he had shared. When their attention waned, he got angry. Late last year, a peeved OG fired off a message to all the members of the server. He had spent nearly an hour every day writing up “these long and drawn-out posts in which he’d often add annotations and explanations for stuff that we normal citizens would not understand,” the member said. His would-be pupils were more interested in YouTube videos about battle gear. “He got upset, and he said on multiple occasions, if you guys aren’t going to interact with them, I’m going to stop sending them.” That’s when OG changed tactics. Rather than spend his time copying documents by keyboard, he took photographs of the genuine articles and dropped them in the server. These were more vivid and arresting documents than the plain text renderings. Some featured detailed charts of battlefield conditions in Ukraine and highly classified satellite images of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian electrical facilities. Others sketched the potential trajectory of North Korean ballistic nuclear missiles that could reach the United States. Another featured photographs of the Chinese spy balloon that floated across the country in February, snapped from eye-level, probably by a U-2 spy plane, along with a diagram of the balloon and the surveillance technology attached to it. Story continues below advertisement OG shared several documents a week, beginning late last year. Posting pictures to the server took less time. But it also exposed OG to greater risk. In the background of some images, they could see items and furniture that they recognized from the room where OG spoke to them via video on the Discord channel — the kind of clues that could prove useful for federal investigators. The dramatic and yet nonchalant presentation also reminded the group that OG could lay his hands on some of the most closely guarded intelligence in the U.S. government. “If you had classified documents, you’d want to flex at least a little bit, like hey, I’m the big guy,” the member said. “There is a little bit of showing off to friends, but as well as wanting to keep us informed.” In a sense, OG had created a virtual mirror image of the secretive facility where he spent his working hours. Inside the Discord server, he was the ultimate arbiter of secrecy, and he allowed his companions to read truths that “normal citizens” could not. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the online community. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The photographs of printed secret documents now seen by millions may offer clues to the federal agents searching for OG. Reality Winner, who leaked secret National Security Agency documents to the news website the Intercept in 2017, was compromised by secret markings on printouts that helped narrow the search. OG’s documents look to have been printed on ordinary paper and were creased after having been folded in four. Sometimes, the photographs OG took of the documents appeared to have been taken over a bed. Items such as Gorilla Glue, a scope manual and nail clippers appeared in the margins. Other previously unreported images reviewed by The Post showed printed documents lying on top of a glowing red keyboard. The breadth of the military and intelligence reports was extensive. For months, OG regularly uploaded page after page of classified U.S. assessments, offering a window into how deeply American intelligence had penetrated the Russian military, showing that Egypt had planned to sell Russia tens of thousands of rockets and suggesting that Russian mercenaries had approached Turkey, a NATO ally, to buy weapons to fight against Ukraine. At least one of the documents appeared to have been printed from Intellipedia, a data-sharing system that intelligence agencies use to collaborate and post reports and articles. The documents were another lesson for younger members in how OG thought the world really worked. The member said OG wasn’t hostile to the U.S. government, and he insisted that he was not working on behalf of any country’s interests. “He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative,” the member said. The room on the server where he posted the documents was called “bear-vs-pig,” meant to be a snide jab at Russia and Ukraine, and an indication that OG took no sides in the conflict. But OG had a dark view of the government. The young member said he spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. He ranted about “government overreach.” OG told his online companions that the government hid horrible truths from the public. He claimed, according to the members, that the government knew in advance that a white supremacist intended to go on a shooting rampage at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022. The attack left 10 dead, all of them Black, and wounded three more. OG said federal law enforcement officials let the killings proceed so they could argue for increased funding, a baseless notion that the member said he believes and considers an example of OG’s penetrating insights about the depth of government corruption. OG’s group itself had a dark side. The Discord server’s eventual name, Thug Shaker Central, was a racist allusion, and signaled to members that they were free to hurl epithets and crude jokes. The young member expressed some regret for their behavior but seemed to shrug off the offensive remarks as a clumsy attempt at humor. It was not “a fascist recruiting server,” he told The Post. Story continues below advertisement One thing the members were not supposed to do was talk about the secrets OG had shared with them, including the classified documents. “Most people in the server were smart enough as to kind of realize that … they shouldn’t be posted anywhere else,” the member said. And yet, the group contained foreign citizens — including from Russia and Ukraine, the members said — a defiance of the NOFORN warning printed across the top of so many documents OG shared. The member estimated that the server hosted people from Europe, Asia and South America. “Just about every walk of life.” Of the roughly 25 active members who had access to the bear-vs-pig channel, about half were located overseas, the member said. The ones who seemed most interested in the classified material claimed to be from mostly “Eastern Bloc and those post-Soviet countries,” he said. “The Ukrainians had interest as well,” which the member chalked up to interest in the war ravaging their homeland. For years, U.S. counterintelligence officials have eyed gaming platforms as a magnet for spies. Russian intelligence operatives have been suspected of befriending gamers who they believe work for intelligence agencies and encouraging them to divulge classified information, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. It’s not clear whether any of those efforts have been successful. But if foreign operatives finagled an invitation to OG’s server, they would have been free to view the documents and make copies of them, as some members did. The server sprouts a leak All winter, OG uploaded documents to the server. No one talked about sharing them elsewhere. Then, unbeknown to the group, on Feb. 28, another teenage user from the Thug Shaker Central server began posting several dozen photographs showing classified documents on another Discord server affiliated with the YouTuber “wow_mao.” Some of the documents offered detailed assessments of Ukraine’s defense capabilities and showed how far U.S. intelligence could see into Russia’s military command. On March 4, 10 documents appeared on “Minecraft Earth Map,” a Discord server focused on the popular video game. A user operating the account that posted the smaller tranche of images told The Post they obtained them on wow_mao. Secret and top-secret documents were now available to thousands of Discord users, but the leak wouldn’t come to the attention of U.S. authorities for another month. Meanwhile, OG stopped sharing images in the middle of March. On April 5, classified documents assessing the war in Ukraine were posted on Russian Telegram channels and the message board platform 4chan, and began migrating to Twitter. One image, showing a March 1 Ukraine status update, had been crudely doctored to inflate the number of Ukrainian casualties and downplay those on the Russian side. The next day, shortly before the New York Times first reported on the leak, OG came into the server “frantic, which is unusual for him,” the member said. “He said something had happened, and he prayed to God that this event would not happen. … But now it’s in God’s hands.” Story continues below advertisement For all OG’s disdain for the federal government, the member said there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family, the member said. “I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said, resisting comparisons to Edward Snowden, who shared classified documents about government surveillance with journalists. Remarkably, the member said he has been in touch with OG in the past few days, even as an FBI manhunt is underway and the Pentagon launches its own inquiry into the leaks. After shuttering the Thug Shaker Central server, OG moved the community to another server to communicate with his online family. He “seemed very confused and lost as to what to do,” the member said. “He’s fully aware of what’s happening and what the consequences may be. He’s just not sure on how to go about solving this situation. … He seems pretty distraught about it.” In his final message to his companions, OG admonished them to “keep low and delete any information that could possibly relate to him,” the member said. That included any copies of the classified documents OG had shared. When it dawned on them that OG was in grave peril and intended to disappear, the members of Thug Shaker Central “full-on sobbed and cried,” the young member said. “It is like losing a family member.” In hours of interviews, he continued to express admiration and loyalty to a man who may have endangered his young followers by allowing them to see and possess classified information, exposing them to potential federal crimes. “I figured he would not be putting us in any sort of harm’s way,” the member said. The exposure of the documents has severed friendships and cut him off from the man who buoyed his confidence and made him feel safe. The member said that the stress of the loss, coupled with the enormity of the leaks, has left him worried and sleepless. Now he says he believes that the world should see the secrets OG passed along to a tiny group. He argued that the public deserves to know how intelligence agencies spend their tax dollars, and was particularly outraged that the documents show U.S. surveillance of foreign allies. But what the young man regarded as a revelation will come as no surprise to the countries whose officials the U.S. has been monitoring for decades. While rarely discussed, and embarrassing for Washington when exposed, it’s widely understood that the U.S. intelligence community monitors many friendly governments, just as foreign allies try to do the same. Story continues below advertisement Thousands of military personnel and government employees around OG’s age, working entry-to-low-level positions, could plausibly have access to classified documents like the ones he allegedly shared, according to U.S. officials and experts who have seen the documents reported in the media. Despite what his young followers thought, OG would have had no special knowledge compared with his peers. He possessed no special power to predict events. Rather, he appears to have persuaded some highly impressionable teenagers that he’s a modern-day gamer meets Jason Bourne. The member said he’s confident the authorities will find OG. But when they do, he won’t be charged. Instead, he believes, OG will be imprisoned without due process at Guantánamo Bay or disappeared to a “black site,” if he’s not “assassinated” for what he knows. The member, as well as the OG follower who corroborated his account, found no fault in their leader’s actions and instead said they blame the teen who posted the documents on the wow_mao server for wrecking their community. “Maybe we should have had better opsec,” the member said, harnessing the jargon of military and intelligence personnel for “operations security.” He insisted said he will not divulge OG’s identity or location to law enforcement until he is captured or can flee the United States. “I think I might be detained eventually. … I think there might be a short investigation on how I knew this guy and they’ll try to get something out of me. They might try to threaten me with prison time if I don’t reveal their identity.” To date, no federal law enforcement officials have contacted the young group member. Asked why he was prepared to help OG even at the risk of his own freedom, the young man replied without hesitation: “He was my best friend.” View Quote Should have been released on April 1st. This is obviously nothing more that bullshit. |
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Originally Posted By 4xGM300m: More pictures: https://i.imgur.com/XZnKvzK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/frwzA62.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4pcdN9Z.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v8Dgwro.jpg T-90A at a truck stop in Louisiana. April 2023 View Quote We've gotten alot more than just functional T-90's out of this. The foreign material exploitation value on things like SHORAD/SAM/Radar systems alone has been worth what we've paid so far. |
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Originally Posted By Tiberius: You underestimate the complexity of those old steam power plants. Even for the boilers, there is a whole host of systems that together makes it all work. The manuals have the basics, but there is a lot of institutional knowledge that doesn’t get in them. Some of the ratings that handled aspects of the plant were discontinued decades ago. They can pull MMs and EMs from boats, but IIRC the last conventional steam plant was on the Kitty Hawk, decommissioned in 2009. I’m sure they would be able to find some retired BTs who would leap at the chance to come back and light off boilers one more time, they will need them to train a crew to run them right. Great Lakes once had such a plant built on shore to train MMs and BTs, I doubt it’s still there now. View Quote Several steam powered liberty ships still exist, and still make at least yearly voyages. I think the knowledge exists if it was really needed. However, even more than that, we have tugs so even if the ships couldn't motivate themselves, they could still be moved and mess stuff up. However this is all academic because its not going to happen. |
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I always wondered about that; seems like that would be priority number 1 for any country we're at war with. It's hard to believe that our side hasn't thought of this and doesn't have a solution in place already - but I'm certainly no expert. View Quote It depends on the jamming system, but even if it's say 100km jamming bubble from the target, the idea is that a high quality inertial system will still be able to use the last good GPS data signal before the jamming to still reliably hit that target. Even though the weapon shown here is 3.5 million dollars, the idea of it having to work in a large GPS denied environment is a big selling point. At 2:27 in the video, the system encounters both a communications and gps jamming environment. Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) |
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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Originally Posted By RockNwood: I don’t think any of that is new. France has forever skirted sanctions, tried to control EU, and do business with every pariah nation. Those are all words to try to distract from his shameful groveling on knees to China and being humiliated by Xi. France has agreed to become an economic vassal and had to pay homage to its new master. Honestly I could give a rip if France or most of Western Europe was invaded. They have been weak ass allies and always bitching and moaning. Ukraine and Poland should just tell Russia, Listen bub, you are not welcome here, but if you want to grab some Rhineland castles and vineyards and some sweet Riviera beaches then you are welcome to scoot through here most ricky tick. Don’t stop until you see wind turbines! I’m glad UK bailed on the EU and hope it brings them much prosperity and insulation from the EU stupids. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By RockNwood: Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: Charles Michel: Europe warming up to Macron’s ‘strategic autonomy’ push away from US European Council president says EU cannot ‘blindly, systematically follow’ Washington. https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-warming-up-to-macrons-strategic-autonomy-push-says-charles-michel/ BRUSSELS — European leaders are becoming increasingly favorable toward French President Emmanuel Macron's push for "strategic autonomy" away from the United States, European Council boss Charles Michel said Tuesday. As controversy swells around Macron's comments that Europe should resist pressure to become "America’s followers," Michel suggested that the French politician’s position was not isolated among EU leaders. While Macron spoke as the French president, his views reflect a growing shift among EU leaders, Michel said. "There has been a leap forward on strategic autonomy compared to several years ago," Michel told French television show La Faute à l'Europe (which has a partnership with POLITICO) in an interview set to air on Wednesday. "On the issue of the relationship with the United States, it's clear that there can be nuances and sensitivities around the table of the European Council. Some European leaders wouldn't say things the same way that Emmanuel Macron did ... I think quite a few really think like Emmanuel Macron." Following a trip last week to China with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Macron told POLITICO and French newspaper Les Echos that Europe had to limit its dependency on the United States and avoid getting pulled into "crises that are not ours." "There is indeed a great attachment that remains present — and Emmanuel Macron has said nothing else — for this alliance with the United States. But if this alliance with the United States would suppose that we blindly, systematically follow the position of the United States on all issues, no," Michel said. -->US helping Europe with Ukraine is not likely to be reciprocated by the EU helping the US with Taiwan I'm still 100% on the Fuck Russia, ATACMS for Ukraine lifestyle. But it's important to realize EU fondness of the US due to our support for Ukraine is already waning. Outside of Britain, we really don't have any allies we can count on in Europe. We should be doing more to strengthen the British economically (such as granting them a NAFTA level access to the US market) and Militarily (say getting them discounted munitions and tech.) I don’t think any of that is new. France has forever skirted sanctions, tried to control EU, and do business with every pariah nation. Those are all words to try to distract from his shameful groveling on knees to China and being humiliated by Xi. France has agreed to become an economic vassal and had to pay homage to its new master. Honestly I could give a rip if France or most of Western Europe was invaded. They have been weak ass allies and always bitching and moaning. Ukraine and Poland should just tell Russia, Listen bub, you are not welcome here, but if you want to grab some Rhineland castles and vineyards and some sweet Riviera beaches then you are welcome to scoot through here most ricky tick. Don’t stop until you see wind turbines! I’m glad UK bailed on the EU and hope it brings them much prosperity and insulation from the EU stupids. At this point, we should quietly encourage the frontline countries (the Baltics, former Warsaw Pact countries, Finland, and Ukraine….perhaps Sweden) to band together. Poland has been making moves along that line already. We can work with them when needed and cut out the fair weather allies like France and Germany. |
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Originally Posted By MFP_4073: anyone else think its strange there is this 'we found the leaker' reporting -- ascribed to be a God-loving, gun-toting male -- but no arrest or 'official' announcement by a LE org (i would assume the FBI...) ??? ------------------------------------ View Quote Not really. I would fully expect several of arfs "conservative, god-loving gun owners" do exactly that to hurt FJB and Ukraine. |
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"Anytime a liberal mentions fairness, you can be assured they want something that belongs to someone else." Calgood
Proud member of the anti russian coalition |
It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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It's not stupid, it's advanced!!
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Originally Posted By 4xGM300m: More pictures: https://i.imgur.com/XZnKvzK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/frwzA62.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4pcdN9Z.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v8Dgwro.jpg T-90A at a truck stop in Louisiana. April 2023 View Quote Any idea what the plans for it is? |
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"We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared so we may always be free." Ronald Reagan 1984
"Mitch the democrat bitch" "democrat voter fraud works and it makes Republicans look stupid" |
Originally Posted By RockNwood: Exactly my thought too. I do not trust Biden to NOT screw this up for Ukraine. He has animosity toward Ukraine. View Quote Maybe animosity. Certainly some nervousness. Just before Xiden got elected, Ukraine named him as an official suspect in one of their corruption probes, I think involving Burisma, Hunter, etc. That all disappeared but if everything every got out, it would be hard to get re-elected in 24. |
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Originally Posted By Saltwater-Hillbilly: Hence Bush II and Trump wanting to make deals with Eastern Europe ("New Europe" in Rumsfeld's words") outside of NATO. France was the first NATO country to establish diplomatic relations with Red China (1964), and the Germans have not been our friends since Helmut Kohl left office not long after the Berlin Wall came down. The entire purpose of expanding the European Community to the European Union in 1994 was to challenge US dominance in the Post-Cold War era. Just as Hungary is looking out for #1, so is Western Europe. France and Germany are looking our for a Europe after Russia has been crippled militarily and economically and is no longer an overwhelming threat to France and Germany. If you don't think the Europeans will undermine US interests for their own benefit, you have not been paying attention to US/European economic and diplomatic history since roughly 1968. View Quote Good post. We were suckers, and defended europe while they implemented their socialist policies, and actively worked against us. After russia is dealt with, they will sucker the eastern nations into being the muscle while they bleed them dry. I hope they wake up and form their own alliance. |
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World ain't what it seems, is it Gunny?
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Originally Posted By fisherman: True but the article seems to describe as useful fools, if not down right villians, this small group as exemplifying everything libs hate. They actually got every last bit of it in there. Gun-loving, Christian, anti-.gov, etc., etc. the list goes on. Could some .gov agency be running the long con here? Never let a disaster go to waste? Getting to the point where I don't believe anything...which may be a secondary objective. View Quote I get your point of view, but using those specific inlets is exactly the same bullshit the Russians used to target conservatives, more than likely on this very forum. OG could easily be a Russian, recruiting Americans. I’m sure the computer experts have hints already as to the legitimacy of this “leak” based on IP and ISP information. |
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Originally Posted By blueballs: The most Russian story of the day International incident caused by Russian incompetence avoided by Russian incompetence.. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By blueballs: Originally Posted By Haub: That would not have been good. Saved by poor maintaining or just... I cant...
The most Russian story of the day International incident caused by Russian incompetence avoided by Russian incompetence.. It's funny 'cause it's true. |
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DeSantis 2024
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Originally Posted By DASJUDEN: We've gotten alot more than just functional T-90's out of this. The foreign material exploitation value on things like SHORAD/SAM/Radar systems alone has been worth what we've paid so far. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By DASJUDEN: Originally Posted By 4xGM300m: More pictures: https://i.imgur.com/XZnKvzK.jpg https://i.imgur.com/frwzA62.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4pcdN9Z.jpg https://i.imgur.com/v8Dgwro.jpg T-90A at a truck stop in Louisiana. April 2023 We've gotten alot more than just functional T-90's out of this. The foreign material exploitation value on things like SHORAD/SAM/Radar systems alone has been worth what we've paid so far. Try explaining that to the rest of the smoothbrains in GD though. |
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DeSantis 2024
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Originally Posted By MFP_4073: anyone else think its strange there is this 'we found the leaker' reporting -- ascribed to be a God-loving, gun-toting male -- but no arrest or 'official' announcement by a LE org (i would assume the FBI...) ??? ------------------------------------ View Quote Meh, I'll withhold judgement until we find out more about this bozo. Just look around GD and you can see there are plenty of mouth breathing asshats out there. |
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When being irresponsible becomes painful again, we might be able to make some progress in this country.
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Originally Posted By Haub: That would not have been good. Saved by poor maintaining or just... I cant...
View Quote Could also just be another cheap effort at brinksmanship ex post facto. |
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Originally Posted By CharlieR: To be fair, no, they would not. You don't defoliate the trees in front of your position to clear sectors of fire. You clear the underbrush, and maybe a few trees, for camouflage from the air, unless you have total air superiority and don't give a shit, which these Rus don't. So you defoliate the trees around you and now the recon guys will go over the area with a fine tooth comb to find you. Not well thought out. If disciplined soldiers cut down tees they use it to fortify their positions, not build bonfires. One leaves you cold and alive, the other temporarily warm and dead. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By CharlieR: Originally Posted By borderpatrol: To be fair, any soldier would cut down trees to keep warm in the winter. But Russia still assoe. To be fair, no, they would not. You don't defoliate the trees in front of your position to clear sectors of fire. You clear the underbrush, and maybe a few trees, for camouflage from the air, unless you have total air superiority and don't give a shit, which these Rus don't. So you defoliate the trees around you and now the recon guys will go over the area with a fine tooth comb to find you. Not well thought out. If disciplined soldiers cut down tees they use it to fortify their positions, not build bonfires. One leaves you cold and alive, the other temporarily warm and dead. plus, fresh cut trees don't burn worth a damn and put off more smoke. |
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Originally Posted By HIPPO: https://wapo.st/3UvaNTQ Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says THE DISCORD LEAKS | The online group that received hundreds of pages of classified material included foreigners, members tell The Post April 12, 2023 at 9:36 p.m. EDT Click To View Spoiler (Illustration by Lucy Naland/The Washington Post; iStock) The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic. United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little attention last year when the man some call “OG” posted a message laden with strange acronyms and jargon. The words were unfamiliar, and few people read the long note, one of the members explained. But he revered OG, the elder leader of their tiny tribe, who claimed to know secrets that the government withheld from ordinary people. The young member read OG’s message closely, and the hundreds more that he said followed on a regular basis for months. They were, he recalled, what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a “military base,” which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers. He annotated some of the hand-typed documents, the member said, translating arcane intel-speak for the uninitiated, such as explaining that “NOFORN” meant the information in the document was so sensitive it must not be shared with foreign nationals. Story continues below advertisement OG told the group he toiled for hours writing up the classified documents to share with his companions in the Discord server he controlled. The gathering spot had been a pandemic refuge, particularly for teen gamers locked in their houses and cut off from their real-world friends. The members swapped memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat. They watched movies together, joked around and prayed. But OG also lectured them about world affairs and secretive government operations. He wanted to “keep us in the loop,” the member said, and seemed to think that his insider knowledge would offer the others protection from the troubled world around them. “He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member said. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were posted shares information on the man behind the leak, who some call “OG.” (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The transcribed documents OG posted traversed a range of sensitive subjects that only people who had undergone months-long background checks would be authorized to see. There were top-secret reports about the whereabouts and movements of high-ranking political leaders and tactical updates on military forces, the member said. Geopolitical analysis. Insights into foreign governments’ efforts to interfere with elections. “If you could think it, it was in those documents.” In those initial posts, OG had given his fellow members a small sip of the torrent of secrets that was to come. When rendering hundreds of classified files by hand proved too tiresome, he began posting hundreds of photos of documents themselves, an astonishing cache of secrets that has been steadily spilling into public view over the past week, disrupting U.S. foreign policy and aggravating America’s allies. This account of how detailed intelligence documents intended for an exclusive circle of military leaders and government decision-makers found their way into and then out of OG’s closed community is based in part on several lengthy interviews with the Discord group member, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. He is under 18 and was a young teenager when he met OG. The Post obtained consent from the member’s mother to speak to him and to record his remarks on video. He asked that his voice not be obscured. What to know about the Discord leaks His account was corroborated by a second member who read many of the same classified documents shared by OG, and who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. Both members said they know OG’s real name as well as the state where he lives and works but declined to share that information while the FBI is hunting for the source of the leaks. The investigation is in its early stages, and the Pentagon has set up its own internal review led by a senior official. “An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our Allies and partners,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement. Discord said in a statement that it is cooperating with law enforcement and has declined to comment further. The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public; some of the text documents OG is said to have written out; an audio recording of a man the two group members identified as OG speaking to his companions; and chat records and photographs that show OG communicating with them on the Discord server. The young member was impressed by OG’s seemingly prophetic ability to forecast major events before they became headline news, things “only someone with this kind of high clearance” would know. He was by his own account enthralled with OG, who he said was in his early to mid-20s. “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 member said. Story continues below advertisement In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member said is OG stands at a shooting range, wearing safety glasses and ear coverings and holding a large rifle. He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target. The member seemed drawn to OG’s bravado and his skill with weapons. He felt a certain kinship with a man he described as “like an uncle” and, on another occasion, as a father figure. “I was one of the very few people in the server that was able to understand that these [documents] were legitimate,” the member said, setting himself apart from the others who mostly ignored OG’s posts. “It felt like I was on top of Mount Everest,” he said. “I felt like I was above everyone else to some degree and that … I knew stuff that they didn’t.” A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the contents of the files. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The member met OG about four years ago, on a different server for fans of Oxide, a popular YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armor and military hardware. He said a group of avid members found the server too crowded and wanted a quieter place to talk about video game tactics, so they broke off into their own, small group. More like-minded Oxide fans joined the private Discord server, which came to be named “Thug Shaker Central,” and whose membership OG would effectively control as the administrator. “We all grew very close to each other, like a tightknit family,” the member said. “We depended on each other.” He said that other members, and OG especially, counseled him during bouts of depression and helped to steady him emotionally. “There was no lack of love for each other.” OG was the undisputed leader. The member described him as “strict.” He enforced a “pecking order” and expected the others to read closely the classified information he had shared. When their attention waned, he got angry. Late last year, a peeved OG fired off a message to all the members of the server. He had spent nearly an hour every day writing up “these long and drawn-out posts in which he’d often add annotations and explanations for stuff that we normal citizens would not understand,” the member said. His would-be pupils were more interested in YouTube videos about battle gear. “He got upset, and he said on multiple occasions, if you guys aren’t going to interact with them, I’m going to stop sending them.” That’s when OG changed tactics. Rather than spend his time copying documents by keyboard, he took photographs of the genuine articles and dropped them in the server. These were more vivid and arresting documents than the plain text renderings. Some featured detailed charts of battlefield conditions in Ukraine and highly classified satellite images of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian electrical facilities. Others sketched the potential trajectory of North Korean ballistic nuclear missiles that could reach the United States. Another featured photographs of the Chinese spy balloon that floated across the country in February, snapped from eye-level, probably by a U-2 spy plane, along with a diagram of the balloon and the surveillance technology attached to it. Story continues below advertisement OG shared several documents a week, beginning late last year. Posting pictures to the server took less time. But it also exposed OG to greater risk. In the background of some images, they could see items and furniture that they recognized from the room where OG spoke to them via video on the Discord channel — the kind of clues that could prove useful for federal investigators. The dramatic and yet nonchalant presentation also reminded the group that OG could lay his hands on some of the most closely guarded intelligence in the U.S. government. “If you had classified documents, you’d want to flex at least a little bit, like hey, I’m the big guy,” the member said. “There is a little bit of showing off to friends, but as well as wanting to keep us informed.” In a sense, OG had created a virtual mirror image of the secretive facility where he spent his working hours. Inside the Discord server, he was the ultimate arbiter of secrecy, and he allowed his companions to read truths that “normal citizens” could not. A member of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were leaked describes the online community. (Video: Whitney Shefte, Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post) The photographs of printed secret documents now seen by millions may offer clues to the federal agents searching for OG. Reality Winner, who leaked secret National Security Agency documents to the news website the Intercept in 2017, was compromised by secret markings on printouts that helped narrow the search. OG’s documents look to have been printed on ordinary paper and were creased after having been folded in four. Sometimes, the photographs OG took of the documents appeared to have been taken over a bed. Items such as Gorilla Glue, a scope manual and nail clippers appeared in the margins. Other previously unreported images reviewed by The Post showed printed documents lying on top of a glowing red keyboard. The breadth of the military and intelligence reports was extensive. For months, OG regularly uploaded page after page of classified U.S. assessments, offering a window into how deeply American intelligence had penetrated the Russian military, showing that Egypt had planned to sell Russia tens of thousands of rockets and suggesting that Russian mercenaries had approached Turkey, a NATO ally, to buy weapons to fight against Ukraine. At least one of the documents appeared to have been printed from Intellipedia, a data-sharing system that intelligence agencies use to collaborate and post reports and articles. The documents were another lesson for younger members in how OG thought the world really worked. The member said OG wasn’t hostile to the U.S. government, and he insisted that he was not working on behalf of any country’s interests. “He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative,” the member said. The room on the server where he posted the documents was called “bear-vs-pig,” meant to be a snide jab at Russia and Ukraine, and an indication that OG took no sides in the conflict. But OG had a dark view of the government. The young member said he spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. He ranted about “government overreach.” OG told his online companions that the government hid horrible truths from the public. He claimed, according to the members, that the government knew in advance that a white supremacist intended to go on a shooting rampage at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022. The attack left 10 dead, all of them Black, and wounded three more. OG said federal law enforcement officials let the killings proceed so they could argue for increased funding, a baseless notion that the member said he believes and considers an example of OG’s penetrating insights about the depth of government corruption. OG’s group itself had a dark side. The Discord server’s eventual name, Thug Shaker Central, was a racist allusion, and signaled to members that they were free to hurl epithets and crude jokes. The young member expressed some regret for their behavior but seemed to shrug off the offensive remarks as a clumsy attempt at humor. It was not “a fascist recruiting server,” he told The Post. Story continues below advertisement One thing the members were not supposed to do was talk about the secrets OG had shared with them, including the classified documents. “Most people in the server were smart enough as to kind of realize that … they shouldn’t be posted anywhere else,” the member said. And yet, the group contained foreign citizens — including from Russia and Ukraine, the members said — a defiance of the NOFORN warning printed across the top of so many documents OG shared. The member estimated that the server hosted people from Europe, Asia and South America. “Just about every walk of life.” Of the roughly 25 active members who had access to the bear-vs-pig channel, about half were located overseas, the member said. The ones who seemed most interested in the classified material claimed to be from mostly “Eastern Bloc and those post-Soviet countries,” he said. “The Ukrainians had interest as well,” which the member chalked up to interest in the war ravaging their homeland. For years, U.S. counterintelligence officials have eyed gaming platforms as a magnet for spies. Russian intelligence operatives have been suspected of befriending gamers who they believe work for intelligence agencies and encouraging them to divulge classified information, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. It’s not clear whether any of those efforts have been successful. But if foreign operatives finagled an invitation to OG’s server, they would have been free to view the documents and make copies of them, as some members did. The server sprouts a leak All winter, OG uploaded documents to the server. No one talked about sharing them elsewhere. Then, unbeknown to the group, on Feb. 28, another teenage user from the Thug Shaker Central server began posting several dozen photographs showing classified documents on another Discord server affiliated with the YouTuber “wow_mao.” Some of the documents offered detailed assessments of Ukraine’s defense capabilities and showed how far U.S. intelligence could see into Russia’s military command. On March 4, 10 documents appeared on “Minecraft Earth Map,” a Discord server focused on the popular video game. A user operating the account that posted the smaller tranche of images told The Post they obtained them on wow_mao. Secret and top-secret documents were now available to thousands of Discord users, but the leak wouldn’t come to the attention of U.S. authorities for another month. Meanwhile, OG stopped sharing images in the middle of March. On April 5, classified documents assessing the war in Ukraine were posted on Russian Telegram channels and the message board platform 4chan, and began migrating to Twitter. One image, showing a March 1 Ukraine status update, had been crudely doctored to inflate the number of Ukrainian casualties and downplay those on the Russian side. The next day, shortly before the New York Times first reported on the leak, OG came into the server “frantic, which is unusual for him,” the member said. “He said something had happened, and he prayed to God that this event would not happen. … But now it’s in God’s hands.” Story continues below advertisement For all OG’s disdain for the federal government, the member said there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family, the member said. “I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said, resisting comparisons to Edward Snowden, who shared classified documents about government surveillance with journalists. Remarkably, the member said he has been in touch with OG in the past few days, even as an FBI manhunt is underway and the Pentagon launches its own inquiry into the leaks. After shuttering the Thug Shaker Central server, OG moved the community to another server to communicate with his online family. He “seemed very confused and lost as to what to do,” the member said. “He’s fully aware of what’s happening and what the consequences may be. He’s just not sure on how to go about solving this situation. … He seems pretty distraught about it.” In his final message to his companions, OG admonished them to “keep low and delete any information that could possibly relate to him,” the member said. That included any copies of the classified documents OG had shared. When it dawned on them that OG was in grave peril and intended to disappear, the members of Thug Shaker Central “full-on sobbed and cried,” the young member said. “It is like losing a family member.” In hours of interviews, he continued to express admiration and loyalty to a man who may have endangered his young followers by allowing them to see and possess classified information, exposing them to potential federal crimes. “I figured he would not be putting us in any sort of harm’s way,” the member said. The exposure of the documents has severed friendships and cut him off from the man who buoyed his confidence and made him feel safe. The member said that the stress of the loss, coupled with the enormity of the leaks, has left him worried and sleepless. Now he says he believes that the world should see the secrets OG passed along to a tiny group. He argued that the public deserves to know how intelligence agencies spend their tax dollars, and was particularly outraged that the documents show U.S. surveillance of foreign allies. But what the young man regarded as a revelation will come as no surprise to the countries whose officials the U.S. has been monitoring for decades. While rarely discussed, and embarrassing for Washington when exposed, it’s widely understood that the U.S. intelligence community monitors many friendly governments, just as foreign allies try to do the same. Story continues below advertisement Thousands of military personnel and government employees around OG’s age, working entry-to-low-level positions, could plausibly have access to classified documents like the ones he allegedly shared, according to U.S. officials and experts who have seen the documents reported in the media. Despite what his young followers thought, OG would have had no special knowledge compared with his peers. He possessed no special power to predict events. Rather, he appears to have persuaded some highly impressionable teenagers that he’s a modern-day gamer meets Jason Bourne. The member said he’s confident the authorities will find OG. But when they do, he won’t be charged. Instead, he believes, OG will be imprisoned without due process at Guantánamo Bay or disappeared to a “black site,” if he’s not “assassinated” for what he knows. The member, as well as the OG follower who corroborated his account, found no fault in their leader’s actions and instead said they blame the teen who posted the documents on the wow_mao server for wrecking their community. “Maybe we should have had better opsec,” the member said, harnessing the jargon of military and intelligence personnel for “operations security.” He insisted said he will not divulge OG’s identity or location to law enforcement until he is captured or can flee the United States. “I think I might be detained eventually. … I think there might be a short investigation on how I knew this guy and they’ll try to get something out of me. They might try to threaten me with prison time if I don’t reveal their identity.” To date, no federal law enforcement officials have contacted the young group member. Asked why he was prepared to help OG even at the risk of his own freedom, the young man replied without hesitation: “He was my best friend.” View Quote The leaks were to score internet points to his discord group? Really? Put that asshole in Leavenworth. |
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“America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.” -Hunter S. Thompson
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Originally Posted By MFP_4073: anyone else think its strange there is this 'we found the leaker' reporting -- ascribed to be a God-loving, gun-toting male -- but no arrest or 'official' announcement by a LE org (i would assume the FBI...) ??? ------------------------------------ View Quote They left off, "white", "Ultra-MAGA" and right wing nazi. |
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Originally Posted By m35ben: Painted in green like armor should be. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By m35ben: Originally Posted By Ryan_Ruck: Abrams, Brads, M113s, and HMMWVs storming across the plains of Europe to smite Russians, just as God intended! Am I the only one on here that is worried that there will be no Abrams in Ukraine this year???? The last info I saw was that the DOD hasn't even decided what stock's the Abrams will come from. We saw pics of Ukrainian's training on Himars but zero pics of UKE's training on Abrams. There has been no indication that we are in fact training them. I'm super worried there will be zero Abrams participating in the upcoming offensive!! |
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