The leak of highly classified Pentagon documents through the online chat platform Discord has triggered a flurry of mainstream media coverage, caused angst among American allies and adversaries, and left many waiting to see how much more is going to surface. Much of the initial media attention involved the race to identify the source of the leaks. According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, one arrest has been made in the case–a member of a Massachusetts Air National Guard intelligence unit, who apparently ran the Discord chat room and shared the classified material with 20-30 fellow bloggers, mostly teenagers.
For me, the leaks triggered recollections of many conversations over the years with the late Col. Pat Lang, in which he schooled me on the challenges and intricacies of conducting damage assessments following disclosures of classified intelligence or the uncovering of spies in our services.
Pat was on the damage assessment team assigned to determine the damage to U.S. national security by the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. For Pat, as he described the work, it was a tedious process of reviewing all the material confirmed to have been passed through Pollard to an Israeli scientific espionage unit, LEKEM, run by a former top Mossad officer Rafi Eytan. After determining the scope of the stolen material, it all had to be analysed for content, including who might be the ultimate beneficiaries. Some of the material that Pollard stole was apparently traded to the Soviet Union. This included material that was no particular value to Israel’s national security, but was of great interest to Moscow. Clearly the Israelis got something in return. And that opened another can of worms for the damage assessment team.
I imagine the Pollard case was not the only time Pat took part in these kinds of damage assessments. No doubt that as the FBI investigates the leaker(s) and associates to determine how and why this current material was released to the public (albeit through an obscure chat room), the Pentagon is already conducting their damage assessment. One obvious issue that will come out of the assessment is the distribution of classified material, including to allied services. Where did the leak originate? What are the implications for dissemination of classified material? There is, Pat lectured me, a balancing act between overbroad circulation and the extreme stovepiping that may lead to serious gaps. One of the most notorious recent cases of failure to share critical intelligence was the squabble between the CIA and the FBI over the first of the 9/11 hijackers to reach the United States. The CIA, which traced the two terrorists from Malaysia to Los Angeles, apparently collaborated with Saudi intelligence in an effort to recruit the two. At that point, the USIC had no penetration of Al Qaeda. So the CIA refused to inform the FBI about the presence of al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi on the west coast. The rest, as they say, is history.
The current damage assessment process will remain largely classified, and will likely take months before a full picture is developed. The fact that a significant portion of the leaked intelligence dealt with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, including frank assessments of the state of combat and prospects for a Ukraine victory, is already having an impact on the much-anticipated Ukraine counteroffensive. The Russian military and Kremlin have been clearly penetrated by U.S. intelligence, whether by double-agents, dissidents of the war, or through sophisticated electronic warfare means. No doubt the Russians are also conducting their own damage assessment, to determine how the Pentagon and other U.S. intelligence agencies obtained the detailed and apparently accurate profile.
As you all know, Pat wrote about these issues on the blog for years, and devoted significant attention to them in all three of his final books: his memoir Tattoo, his reworked extended essay The Human Factor: The Phenomenon of Espionage about human intelligence tradecraft, and his collected works, The Portable Pat Lang. All three are full of invaluable insights. I can think of no greater tribute to Pat than for all of the readers of this blog (really, members of this Committee of Correspondence) to obtain and read these books. They are extraordinary works, and we can all cherish them. Pat saw those volumes as a critical part of his legacy and his lifetime contribution to a better future.
That’s him? An odd style of eye glasses for 2023 or even recently.
Whitewall,
No. That’s Pollard. The dumb ass current under arrest for the “Discord Leak” is a 21 year old Air National guardsman, Jack Teixeira.
TTG,
If you don’t object, I’ll paste below a machine translation of a telegram post today by a Russian who is very critical of their present government. He captured my own thoughts rather exactly, particularly that the Jack Teixeira character is almost perfectly the boogieman type being pursued by the current Dems: ” the Democrats (and the NYT expresses the views of this particular political force) urgently needed militarized racist traitors to the Motherland. And then just a leak, and next to it – the right contingent.”
————————
A certain Jack Teixeira, suspected of leaking Pentagon data, which has been discussed at the global level for more than a week, has been arrested in the States.
True, Teixeira is only 21 years old, what relation he had to secret and especially secret materials is not said. He had no position close to such secrets. The only thing he was known in extremely narrow circles was that he was the leader of the Thug Shaker Central chat, where up to 30 young people and teenagers united over a common love of guns, racist memes and video games, according to the New York Times.
This story, in terms of the degree of absurdity, is somewhere close to the FBK involved in the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. Although the answer may lie in purely internal American contradictions – the Democrats (and the NYT expresses the views of this particular political force) urgently needed militarized racist traitors to the Motherland. And then just a leak, and next to it – the right contingent.
In general, some kind of strange story. She was weird from the beginning, and now she’s also ridiculous. To believe that a 21-year-old Chatlanian from a narrow self-contained group had access to information of a global level, moreover, relevant and “from the very depths” – only the American analogues of Solovyov’s audience can believe in this – they can feed everything in general.
Even if a “leak” was organized through it (which, by the way, is possible), then the question arises about the reliability of the information leaked in this way and the purposes of such a “leak”
PS. Teixeira was a National Guard pilot but released the Pentagon Papers. It’s as if the National Guard with the rank of senior officer of the internal service had in his hands documents classified as “special importance” with the signatures of Shoigu and Gerasimov. Americans themselves are not funny?
F&L,
That Russian may be very critical of his present government, but he doesn’t know his ass from his elbow about our intel system. This Teixeira clown is certainly no James Bond. He’s a wannabe trying to impress a bunch of snot-nosed kids. Pretty sad really.
TTG,
Thanks. I hope you won’t take it personally if I wonder outloud if someone used the airman as a scapegoat in order to disseminate disinformation because 1- if what you say is true, it sounds easy to do especially if they are observing (and intervening with suggestions) his gamer chat group & 2- if you know the state of things as described above, certainly others do. All that aside – it sounds like a clown show. If those nitwits were running a hospital, patients would be given tomato juice for transfusions on a semi regular basis.
TTG; IMHO this will happen again, and again. In years past millions of classified docs. were handled w/o these blatant leaks. Why? B/c there were consequences. I knew a mistake could result in a lifetime in the stockade or death. I believed that. Aww, he’s just a 21 year old kid. Aww, he’s just an impressionable boy. I mean what I say. Life in prison w/o parole and these incidents will stop. From Hillary to Bill’s secty advisor w/docs in his socks, if we don’t punish why should any one be scared. I share your anger, but we don’t have the will to punish.
I find it simply incredible that Teixeira is the source for this material.
But if he is the actual source, and these documents are accurate, and if they expose lies that have been told by the Borg to the nation with regard to casaulty ratios, then I say give the kid the Nobel Peace Prize.
He captured my own thoughts rather exactly, particularly that the Jack Teixeira character is almost perfectly the boogieman type being pursued by the current Dems
F&L, he may in fact have read the argument somewhere on the American web. That’s why he seems to be mirroring your “thoughts rather exactly”. I haven’t read a lot about this, but I stumbled across exactly that argument, too. I would assume there are a multitude of other instances. In the US and Russia and elsewhere. Besides, Russia seemed quite fond of the real elected versus the illegal present president more generally. And concerning Ukraine it may (???) have made a difference (?).
e.g. via MOA’s short citation or summery of the brainstorming of Naked Capitalism’s Lambert Strether and Yves Smith:
Meanwhile, “OG” [ Jack Teixeira] seems almost perfectly calculated to fit neatly into the “fascist traitor” hole in liberal heads. I wonder if we’ll ever find him? One can see “The Hunt for OG” storyline persisting for many weeks, good job.
I think it would be worth a refresher for the not-in-the-know crowd; How does an E-3 at the Massachusetts Air Guard get ahold of this materiel? How did that person have a need to know? Are we still operating under the same rules that allowed Manning and Winner to access information, and if so why?
Mike C,
This young dumb ass sat in a G2/J2 office somewhere at Bragg. At his desk he had unfettered access to JWICS and Intelink. Yes, this is the result of the “share all intel” attitude that developed after the intel failure of 9/11. This is especially infuriating to me since some of those photographed documents had the ORCON caveat. That means originator controlled. ORCON material is sent to specific addressees only, not to anybody with sufficient clearance. If an analyst wants to use ORCON material in a finished product, he contacts the originator for release and, in every case where I was involved, the analyst ran the exact wording by me before using the intel. At that point, the ORCON caveat is not needed. IMO, an ORCON document should never be on JWICS for any dumb ass to search for and view. There are also way too many printers in DoD and DIA spaces. That wasn’t the case in the CIA, at least on the operational side. Maybe that will change now.
Much appreciated TTG.
This kind of access after Bradley Manning?
It is only coincidental that chat rooms for passing intel and other unwanted communications are reminiscent of the whole Gamergate brewha from a few years back and the administrations suppression of social media in general. (Directed or not by the oval office.) I would ask how it took this long to track this one down, but the latest out of D.C. that the FBI had 50+, and maybe as many as 100+, inside the J6 crowd and the “Proud Boys”, not to mention the latest on infiltrating Catholic churches, shows where our FBI leadership has been directing manpower lately.
Fred,
I’m considering writing a book in which all of JFK’S girlfriends are really undercover FBI agents. Maybe all the first ladies too. The brilliant idea came to me when I looked into the famous case of Judith Exner, reputedly girlfriend of the president and mobster Sam Giancanna simultaneously. “Exner?” I said. “Ex N.E.R.maybe,” said a little voice. “Hmm NER – could that be Naval Ensign Reserve, by any chance?” Was JFK an ex or former Ensign of the Navy Reserve? Answer: Yes.
Tucker has maybe his best episode ever up on YT this evening:
Tucker Carlson: This Will Make You Sick To Your Stomach
https://youtu.be/jzpCKjl8OxQ
Wherein he reveals that it’s the childlike Airman who deserves a medal, not prison, and our press and leaders who belong in jail. Jack Teixeiras is today’s Daniel Elsberg, full stop. The racist meme stuff & gun enthusiast stuff is just part of the frame by the liberals at doj and the NYT & WAPO.
F&L,
Have fun with your fiction. The ‘childlike’ airman is the source of – wait for it – information that debunks the ISW output for the past twelve months. Rather convenient to change the narrative, or distract attention, because yet another – let me check – non LGBTQ+ – non BLACK (variously capitalized) non – Tranz etc. ad nauseum, is the source of the leak.
Conveniently driving the news off coverage of:
– the Biden Papers in his garage, in his ‘policy center’ at UPenn, and just who/whom had access and paid how much for same for years
– his son’s various dealings with “not an enemy” China;
– the Nashville Tranz terrorist attacking Christian schools;
– FBI infiltrating Catholic Churches;
– FBI ‘confidential human sources’ involved in spying on defense counsel in the “Proud Boys” trial stopped once that became known;
– FBI ‘confidential human sources’ and others involved in actual provocations in the J6 “insurrection”
– Tennessee legislature brought to a halt due to ‘protests’ – i.e. an “insurrection”
– “Hamilton 68” and US Government involvement in Twitter censorship of one US political party’s supporters and not the other?
But of course LOOKIE HERE TUCKER SAYZ
You distracted from the actions of the US government and its operatives like our NPCs yet?
Fred,
Believe it or not you and I agree on almost everything. That said – a former elementary school teacher and “anti-rat activist” is now director of “rodent mitigation” in the big apple. Interesting. Will the pro-rat activists have a say? Let’s try to imagine a person with a record of having eliminated tens of millions of rats in several major cities … Versus …. An anti-rat activist elementary school teacher. Your pick?
President Lincoln?
Yes, ..
McClellan is not working out too well in, er, Pennsylvania, Sir, and a lot of guys are dead and wounded again and ah, maybe you’d like to uh..
Look over your list of replacements for him?
You read my mind, Sir.
Let’s see .. Gen Ulysses S Grant and .. an elementary school teacher who is a woman and is an anti-rebel activist in her spare time .. and a General William Tecumseh Sherman ..
Yes Sir, so should I notify General Grant or General Sherman?
Well, I’m not certain she’s the most qual..
That’s correct in our opinion too, Mr President.
That was March 9, 1864 or thereabouts. 187 years later ..
My question is: Why is this covered in the Guardian? Oh. British citizens visit NY City. No. That’s not why.
The answer is: Former Mayor of an Indiana town and now US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was not available to comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/12/kathleen-corradi-new-york-city-director-of-rodent-mitigation
Mayor Eric Adams introduced a former elementary school teacher and anti-rat activist as his new “rat tsar” on Wednesday. Officially, Kathleen Corradi, the mayor’s new hire, will be known as the director of rodent mitigation.
Off topic. A curiosity:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/russian-t-90-tank-from-ukraine-mysteriously-appears-at-u-s-truck-stop
Keith Harbaugh,
I’m sure we got a sample of damn near everything Russia has by now.
The Ukrainians have captured at least 10 T90s, with videos to prove it. Some of them (2 or 3?) fully undamaged. They had been abandoned by the crews. The others were de-tracked.
The Red Army newspaper published a lamenting article: cowardly crews and no self-destruction planned for the internal equipment.
Here is an update (Friday, 04-14) on what that T-90 was doing in the U.S.:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/destination-of-russian-t-90-tank-left-at-truck-stop-comes-into-focus
The leak didn’t reveal much of anything. Former quasi allies are switching sides. Ukraine is losing ground and a lot more bodies. A major counter offensive was aimed exactly at the point Nuland and others said was the main objective. These developments were already out there but not many want to read what both sides are saying. You have to listen to both sides. I watch our propaganda and their propaganda without extreme prejudice. The leak didn’t reveal anything I didn’t know.
Exactly. Hopefully this is Pentagon Papers version 6.0 and “Teixeiras” is actually “Elsberg” if you have the proper decoder screen. A public fed lies about a war going badly. “JACK” – his first name. That’s a Jack, Ace and King right there, I still haven’t figured out what the C stands for, maybe Cween, I don’t know. His last name starts with TE suggesting Ten, as does the strange letter X following Tei. That would be J A Q K 10, a very good hand. It’s at least a “straight” in poker terminology. Written in black text it’s either clubs and spades or one or the other, meaning possibly the best possible poker hand, a Royal Flush. The only thing that beats that is … . My suggestion? Get this kid a good lawyer. I’d love to represent him but I’m not a lawyer.
Harper,
Thanks for the insights and the reminders of the great library of information available to all for allowing some self-education.
News Reports Now Say That Airman 1st Class;;;E-3) Jack Tiexieira Was Activated from the
Air Force Reserved Last Fall…He Enlisted on Sept..2019..He Earned No Citations…
He Was NOT At Fort BRAGG….He Was Assigned OTIS AIR National Guard Base,
Cape COD..serving as an CYBER Transport Systems Journeyman…to the 102nd Intelligence Wing..He Ha Access to the Bases JWICS….
.He had told His Gamer
Group He ” Worked at Cape Cod”..and Had access to Intelligence Information”..He Was a “Libertarian” they said..He Loved Guns..was Consider “Racist” and AntiSemetic..”
There Are around twenty Members of his Group Men And Boys..like minded..
believed they were Patriots..
Q. How Many other sites was all of The Material that Teixtiera Obtained at
work…Also All Sent to other Intel Sites At The Same Time in the Same Amount..
Its Reported The News Paper breaking this story…has also been show all 300
Photographs From these Leaks Also…
OT…I Read That in Reality…Russias Air Force Has 12 Times The Air Craft Ukraine Has…In fact ..Some Famous Ukraine Pilots have Recents Been shot Down..Including
A Beloved Opera Conductor..
OLC..With The Leaked Data of Putins COUP..Pending…What does He Resort
to Now..and HOW..When it Comes Down…It Will Be Hard..and Dirty…IMO
JT
james ticehurst,
True about no service at Bragg. The base searched records and found he never served at Bragg at any time in any capacity. The WaPo screwed the pooch on that one. As a cyber transport systems journeyman, he was a network technician and probably had more access to JWICS than the intel analysts.
My guess is that as soon as he heard about the release of his stolen documents outside of his Discord server, he knew he was screwed and set about destroying anything he had left in his possession along with deleting his Discord server/channel. Whatever his teenage compatriots disseminated to other networks was probably the limit of the dissemination.
A real question is how many others are out there with access to this intel and a strong desire to steal it either to stick it to the man or just to hoard secrets. How many more NSA oddballs are out there with houses filled with terabytes of digital and paper secrets squirred away like piles of old newspapers, magazines and junk mail?
TTG,
How many perfectly harmless and innocent young Pizza delivery boys are wasting away in Count Dracula’s high Alpine remote Carpathian Castle’s dungeons? Just because tomato sauce is red and the ignoramus lackey vampire interns who waylay them thought the evil Count would enjoy a tasty snack? I don’t know how many, but we can start by doing an analysis of the NSA records of phone call complaints on undelivered pizzas in sector X-delta-J7-Bingo. I’ve tried to draw attention to this problem repeatedly for many years, but the news services are not interested.
A real question is how many others are out there with access to this intel and a strong desire to steal it either to stick it to the man or just to hoard secrets.
Would you care to explain? Stick it to whom? Biden? Hoard secrets? What for. May even be hard to sell them. But then??
How many more NSA oddballs are out there with houses filled with terabytes of digital and paper secrets squirred away like piles of old newspapers, magazines and junk mail?
How would you define an oddball and/or the differences between oddballs in e.g. the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Asia, South America, Europe old new and upcoming EU, Russia and China???
LeaNder,
Who the man is, as in “stick it to the man,” depends on who you think is controlling things and keeping you down. To many it’s the US government, the borg, the FBI, the white power structure, the local police and, yes, even Biden. It can also mean right wing mega donors and left wing mega donors. People who steal secrets for this reason give them to the media (big media or social media) or to an enemy. In our case that’s China or Russia. This is different from those selling secrets for pure greed.
Those who hoard secret documents are just that. They hoard secrets, or anything else, either to satisfy some psychological need or to impress somebody. They don’t do it to stick it to the man, help the enemy, satisfy greed or educate the public. These oddballs are all over the world just as those desiring to stick it to the man are all over the world.
LN; if the state has entrusted its secrets to you and you have agreed to keep them secret, that’s a deal. Don’t like it? Get out. If an individual decides to renege on his/her promise they know the repercussions. They have been explained to them again and again. This applies to those oriented to the left or right and should apply to big and little shots. I repeat, if one likes neither the smell nor heat of the kitchen they can leave. If one d/n believe there will be repercussions they will reveal state secrets and get someone else killed. I anxiously await what the military will do to this poor misguided “kid”.
Billy,
What’s the name of that Supreme Court leaker? It’s like a total suspect pool of 50 people. Amazing it will ‘never’ be solved. What’s the name of that leaker, aka “whistleblower”, that resulted in Trump NOT being removed from office? Do you think those people “if one likes neither the smell nor heat of the kitchen” are going to leave?.
Can’t make head nor tail of these leaks and don’t intend to try. Some say they’re a mish-mash of open source material dressed up to look real. Larry Johnson reckons they look real but have far too high a security rating to come from where they’re supposed to come from. Others reckon it’s disinformation mixed with true material put out to confuse.
Others, that some elements in US security are alarmed at what the faction in power at the White House are doing and are putting out this material by circuitous routes to put a brake on them. Yet others that it’s an elaborate hoax put out to prepare the American electorate for forthcoming defeat.
Whatever the truth they’re grabbing attention. Not mine, as said. For me, when there are so many possibilities none are worth pursuing. And if there’s an element of psyops in there I’ve had enough of that already. This allegation caught my attention though. The use of Chinese drones on the front line. Clever machines, by the looks of them, able to swarm in places where you’d think you’d be safe from them.
https://youtu.be/L0fJ0EHHfOA?t=24
An Australian claims similar machines are already in use on the front line. (@ 10 mins)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/GSwLw44W10nk/
Both videos grabbed from a link on MOA.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-changing-face-of-war-future-of
The site contains a compendium of such devices, including fully automated fighting vehicles. Soon, I suppose, AI will replace soldiers entirely and war will be a battle of algorithms. And the local council will put up drones to check I’m doing environmentally correct things on my land. And maybe automated enforcement officers to come along if I’m not.
When these things are destroyed so, presumably, are the batteries they use if they’re battery powered. Lithium dust in quantity is not good news.
https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00333-6
“Therefore, it is essential to detect lithium pollution in the environment (such as soil and water sources) and effectively recycle lithium batteries in the future.”
Such considerations will not worry soldiers fighting for their lives on the front line. It will, though, bother those who subsequently have to live and farm on the battleground. What with those considerations, easy drone surveillance of civilians as well as soldiers, and psyops now so complex that you can’t tell truth from disinformation, doesn’t look as if the 21st century’s going to be a whole lot of fun.
https://twitter.com/alderlaneeggs/status/1646710192615354368?s=21
Juxtaposed with this …
There’s this aspect to current sentiment. I too would like a better understanding of the content of the documents.
Link to press briefing;
https://twitter.com/systemupdate_/status/1646680924883496961?s=21
BSers Tucker Carlson and Rep Greene making this leaker out to be some kind of hero!
I see that information about my upcoming novel about undercover female FBI seductresses of US presidents has not been kept secret. So it goes.
—————1——
Stormy Daniels Ordered to Pay Trump $120,000:
https://youtu.be/PPRctLPF97g
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels has lost her latest appeal in the civil case brought against her by Donald Trump. A judge has ruled that Daniels must pay Trump an additional $120,000, bringing the total she owes him to $600,000, after she failed to substantiate the claims in her defamation of character lawsuit against the former President.
Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the legal woes facing both Daniels and Trump and whether “Stormy” Daniels is her actual given name.
I think he is being set up to be the fall guy in this whole mess. In fact, he’s the perfect fall guy. I can’t prove it and we will never, ever, know for sure.
NYT Confirms TTG’s explanation – tens of thousands have access. It’s hilarious listening to the know it alls who pontificate that the leak had to “come from above.” I won’t name names but ..
Pasted below link for those who don’t subscribe.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/14/us/leaked-documents-jack-teixeira/why-would-a-young-national-guardsman-be-able-to-access-top-secret-documents-to-begin-with?smid=url-share
The dramatic arrest on Thursday of Jack Teixeira, an airman in an intelligence unit in the Massachusetts Air National Guard who federal authorities believe is linked to a leak of reams of classified documents, lays bare the sheer volume of people who have clearance to view a swath of national security documents that the government categorizes as top secret.
From National Guard members on bases in Massachusetts to generals at NATO headquarters in Brussels to American bureaucrats all over the world, the “top secret” level of clearance gives bearers an extraordinary level of access. With it, they can see secure Pentagon and other intelligence sites, daily intelligence briefings, situation maps and detailed analyses of the state of the world as seen through the eyes of the American intelligence community.
American service members with top-secret clearance include nearly all of the more than 600 or so generals in the various services. But that level of clearance also extends to some of their military aides, many colonels who work in the Pentagon, captains of Navy ships, a wide array of junior officers, and even, in the apparent case of Airman Teixeira, enlisted service members working in intelligence units.
Pentagon officials say the number of people with such access is in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. And just below them, those with “secret” clearance include nearly everyone else who works for the Pentagon or other national security agencies. There are military contractors and even analysts at think tanks who have some level of security clearance.
The Pentagon will likely be dealing with the fallout from the leaking of scores of pages of sensitive material for months as, in the immediate term, Russian military planners pore over the leaked files for clues to their own compromised agencies. But the case raises broader questions about whether the term “top secret” is actually even secret, and whether national security agencies have allowed their sensitive material to drift too far afield.
“Clearly, too many people have access to too much top secret information” that they have no need to know, said Evelyn Farkas, the top Defense Department official for Russia and Ukraine during the Obama administration.
This “leak” doesn’t have the feel of other leaks that provided information that the USG would not want known, such as routine spying on its own citizenry. It feels much more likely to be an operational leak using a patsy fall guy. An Oswald like character whose life is ruined over what amounts to a complete nothingburger.
I don’t care about the why and how because it doesn’t really matter. Whoever planned it gets to provide more info about the moronic war and the democrats get to talk about angry white men clinging to guns, religion, and video games.
William,
How is this leak supposed to feel? Sure, it’s not some jaw dropping scandalous revelation threatening to bring down the Biden administration. It offers some embarrassing information that will keep the State Department busy. Most of the leaked documents merely corroborate what many observers already surmised. The Ukrainian forces have taken some serious damage and the Russians have taken even more damage. The coming counteroffensive won’t end the war. Well that’s a no brainer. The disappointment many seem to feel is that the Pentagon and the Biden administration are saying publicly what they truly believe. The leak doesn’t offer much to those who see Putin and Russia as the “great white hope” in the great war against the woke.
How is this leaker some patsy fall guy? He’s far more pitiful than sinister. The documents leaked don’t move the needle one way or the other. They serve no purpose other than to impress this poor bastard’s teen admirers. Who would engineer such a dud? What would be the purpose of such an elaborate conspiracy? The whole affair is certainly an embarrassment to the DOD/IC and their ability to guard secrets. Beyond that, nothing changes.
TTG,
The poor dumb bastard is going to Leavenworth for a long time. The leak itself, it’s going to serve as an excuse for the Senate and House to regulate the internet even more than they do now. Something that wouldn’t happen a week ago. Just in time to help Joe get re-elected in a another landslide of ballots. It’s also very remenicient of the Whitmer ‘kidnapping’ where some useful idiots, well 2 of 4, were egged on by a bunch of people paid by the FBI to do just that. It sure won’t change what happens on the Ukrainian battlefields.
—The leak itself, it’s going to serve as an excuse for the Senate and House to regulate the internet even more than they do now./—-
Precisely my initial reaction to the entire Teixeiras affair. Crackdowns. See the egregiously unconstitutional “Restrict” bill on offer re TikTok hysteria by Sen M Warner — almost but not quite simultaneously with the Teixeiras releases. But the precise timing is interesting – the Restrict bill was plodding along, almost making it to the finish line with support from some of our finest grandstanding hypocrites in Congress when it came under scrutiny in the press and other media which made its passage look very unlikely (thank goodness). Then and only then, after a few days of wheel-spinning, these “bombshells” hit the headlines, airwaves, blogs and Youtube feeds. Sure looks like grist for the millers who want to “restrict” free thought and free speech even further. You nailed it.
1. The leaked documents changes the official narrative that the stupid war is going smoothly, but without anyone coming out and officially saying it.
2. The documents do no real damage to Nat Sec, just the pretend damage of telling some part of the truth about the latest pointless neocon war.
3. We now get to talk about this schmuck and how he had access, nature of damage etc.
4. It plays into the Dems narrative that white males are lonely basement dwellers dangerously addicted to guns and Minecraft.
5. It is not in any way a real embarrassment to the DOD/IC. In what way – that they leak happened (no one really cares) or that great shock we are actually directly involved in Ukraine. We all already knew this to be likely true. No one outside of DC gives a damn.
6. Now the fact that the USG blew up Nordstream – there is a real embarrassment… oh but we can’t talk about that one can we.
So all in all my analysis (apparently I am not allowed to use the word feels) is that it is wrong… I don’t need you to agree.
William,
The official narrative was first that the Ukrainians will not be able to last long against the mighty Russian Army. Then it was that they were managing to hold on against tremendous odds. Now it’s that Ukraine managed to beat the Russians in counterattacks and should be able to do it again. None of that speaks of the war going smoothly. The struggle for ammunition and equipment has been the story from day one. Remember “I don’t need a ride. I need ammunition.” The one narrative that was destroyed by, first the war itself and now confirmation in these leaked documents is the narrative of Russian military invincibility.
The notion that “white males are lonely basement dwellers dangerously addicted to guns and Minecraft” wouldn’t be so apt if so many white boys weren’t shooting up schools, synagogues, churches and grocery stores. They certainly don’t own the rights to all such shootings, but the preponderance doesn’t help their image.
The leak is an embarrassment to the DOD/IC because it once again shows they cannot adequately protect their secrets, even from a 21 year old sad sack who only wanted to impress his teenage friends. If this spurs real reform in the DOD/IC and the rest of the government, it would be a good outcome.
I’m still not sure why you think this leak doesn’t feel like other leaks other than that it’s not even close to being as damaging to the USG as a lot of other leaks have been.
I agree with you about the very early narrative, but then it became the glorious Ukrainian freedom fighters can win against the awful Russian infidel, or some such nonsense. This was always ridiculous – one only has to look at the losses Russia was willing to absorb during WWII to know what the end result was destined to be.
But at some point the propaganda narrative in the US had to catch up to reality on the ground. Is it better to have a sap “leak” the true story while being able to claim loudly Oh what damage has been done, Oh woe is me. What nonsense. Better to come clean before the war is lost, right – which is more embarrassing?
The IC/MIC plants stories in the MSM all the time. Let’s examine Nordstream II. Sy Hersch actually does some reporting and spills the beans on what had become a pretty open secret and what does the IC/MIC immediately do – plant a story that it was some group of disaffected Ukraine folks. Do they take people for complete fools. So where did the National Guardsman get the documents – you really buy that stuff about he could look at whatever he wanted.
This leak was planted to get ahead of on the ground facts that were going to come out anyway. But more than that it was used to present a narrative about the “leaker” and how there needs to be a crackdown (as if we need more crackdowns) just in time for Senator Warner to sell us his disgusting RESPECT Act, just as 9/11 ushered in the disgusting PATRIOT Act.
William,
Russia definitely absorbed horrendous losses in WWII and managed to keep going. But don’t forget Ukraine absorbed even greater losses in that war and they also kept going. Judging from that, both nations can be expected to keep fighting well into next year and beyond if necessary.
You really think this leak was engineered as an elaborate deception operation involving the JCS, multiple countries and multiple story lines? I’ve worked in strategic deception. That’s not the way it works. You don’t believe an A1C IT specialist would have access to JWICS? I’ve spent many years in SCIFs and around JWICS. I’ve seen E-3s in NSA with full JWICS access along with access to systems that I never had. I’ve seen GS-5 and contractor equivalents with full TS/SCI clearances and full access to JWICS. The type of intel product that’s been released so far from this leak is readily accessible on JWICS.
You must be talking about some other RESPECT Act. The one passed and signed this January was about ending discrimination against Native Americans like stripping Native American children from their families and sending them to Indian Reform Schools. Laws supporting that were still on the books before this act was passed and signed.
You must be talking about some other RESPECT Act.
No, he is talking about the Restrict Act.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/broad-vague-restrict-act-dangerous-substitute-comprehensive-data-privacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RESTRICT_Act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686/text
LeaNder,
That makes much more sense. When I first heard of this, I didn’t like it for the same censorship reasons often cited. I was fully on board with prohibiting this foreign software on government and government contractors systems. This is just a natural and prudent extension of prohibiting personal cellphones and computers from SCIFs. However, as I read this legislation, it doesn’t prohibit citizens from using this software privately. It prohibits foreign countries from operating/selling/distributing their software in the US. It’s an America First piece of legislation.
William – thanks for the comments- they are food for thought (for sure).
I am wanting to clarify one item (your 4th point), however, the Discord Chat group was for the online PvP (Player versus Player) game called War Thunder. War Thunder has had leaks of classified/or restricted info before and have a reputation for it. The gamers play various military vehicles against one another so the ‘interest” in “true-to-reality” vehicle specs would be a motivator for the gamers.
Several articles seem to agree that the manual for the LeClere 2 tank and the British Challenger 2 tank were uploaded and the articles question whether classified info about Chine’s DC-10-125 tank were also shared.
here is one article – there are several on the almighty internet, however.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/05/tank-plan-leaks-war-thunder/
kj
Correction: that should read ‘China’s DC10-125 and it was the Anti Tank Ammo Specs that were ‘allegedly’ leaked.
We have to wait for a Pentagon ‘damage assessment’?
For Pollard, I could see how that would be difficult because his espionage was never made public but since this is a public leak, I would hope that any number of people could figure it out except for our hopeless MSM.
The damage is that it happened at all, it affirms that the Pentagon believes what they told us, ‘Russia is being destroyed and is in disarray’.
Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and now Jack Teixeira. All amateurs but their huge releases of classified data make Kim Philby’s and the Cambridge Five’s spying careers look like pitifully small potatoes in comparison.
Something is rotten in the US Intelligence Networks. Why is distribution so unrestricted that any computer consultant, analyst, linguist or cyber transport systems journeyman given access to such huge agglomerations of intelligence data? Neither SIPRNet, JWICS, DCGS nor any other US intel networking infrastructure is safe from these human parasites.
Whatever happened to ‘Need to Know’? It’s time to put a stop to unlimited entitlement on these networks.
Leith,
“Something is rotten in the US Intelligence Networks. Why is distribution so unrestricted that any computer consultant, analyst, linguist or cyber transport systems journeyman given access to such huge agglomerations of intelligence data?”
Someone said upthread that “Pentagon officials say the number of people with such access is in the thousands, if not tens of thousands”.
I’ve been working in the Defense industry for many decades, and I’ll say that “ten of thousands” is a more accurate number. Whether the “need to know” justifies that TS level of access or not, it is in the economic interest of the companies to have many employees with TS clearance, i.e. to win contracts. That’s the simplest explanation on the civilian side, in my opinion.
TonyL – I’m sure you are correct about the number of clearances.
But what I was taught and had drummed into my head was that TS ‘clearance’ does not automatically give anyone ‘access’ to any TS information – especially not access to the firehose of that data available on JWICS. The distribution of the hundreds of thousands of items in that firehose and the other classified networks needs to be tightened up somehow. No single individual needs to have unrestricted access to those data streams and databases.
Leith,
“The distribution of the hundreds of thousands of items in that firehose and the other classified networks needs to be tightened up somehow. No single individual needs to have unrestricted access to those data streams and databases”
I could not agree more. The IT networks and servers (i.e. infrastructure) are hard to be compartementlized, but at least we must try to implement that. I’m sure there are solutions to achieve such systems.
I Believe it was reported that 1 million Volks have Access to that level of Data..
It Was Reported The Airman has been stealing and publishing Data in His
Gamer Room since Last December…Right after he Got Assigned to Cape Cod..
”
Based on what the reports say about His Gamer Culture.”.Gun Lover..Racist ”
Etc..I Suspect This Groups Conversations have long Been Monitored..And
They were ALL Known to the Bureau….All Those Chat rooms/Gamers are monitored
its Long Been known to Counter Intel They Meet there…Have Head Phones..Can Chat
Intern..ationally. The Truth…?? Trust Your Instincts.. Worm Farms…Ah
I Sure Would Love Colonel Langs Thoughts on this Situation..
TTG..I Remember What You Said a few weeks ago…about Dung Beetles,,
I Saw a Cap Advertised The Other Day…Immediately Thought of You..
The Front above The Bill.. “Thats What I Do”
I FIX STUFF
“and I Know Things” (strange Things)You Said.
JT
james ticehurst,
I doubt the FBI was monitoring this Discord server. It would have had to be the focus of a crime for any monitoring to start. There are just too damned many such chatrooms to monitor. Being mostly US persons, it would also need a FISA warrant or something like that. Once they zeroed in on a leak, all bets were off. The boneheaded airman’s friends and their computers probably gave the FBI lots of data. Discord also gave them all they had. That’s their policy.
The FBI can go pretty deep in their online monitoring. An FBI friend of mine ran a criminal server for years in an undercover operation. My DIA collection team did the same thing with foreign hackers and nation-state IO practitioners.
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/q-a-fbi-agent-looks-back-on-time-posing-as-a-cybercriminal/
something else that might be unrelated to the Teixiera ‘leak’ story –
This tweet is about a Russian Propagandist
“The Russian propagandist “Donbass Devushka” here on Twitter turned out not to be Russian at all
37-year-old Sarah Bils served at the U.S. naval air station on Whidbey Island until late last year, while glorifying the Russian military and cooperating with the Wagner Group”
Busted
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1647743130349780993
more to think about, for sure.
kj