"In other words, maybe our intelligence community put together its own Operation Mincemeat, and the leaks flinging around 4Chan and Twitter are the fake plans on the corpse of an invented Captain William Martin, a.k.a. 'The Man Who Never Was.'"
This is my working theory, in the run-up to the Ukrainian spring offensive.
The current explanation of a racist, gun-obsessed yet cleared military individual posting these to a Discord group of teenagers for props and giggles seems incomprehensible to me. Anyone who fits that description would be removed from duty and held for investigation. Either the DIA/CID/AFOSI/NCIS/FBI acted incredibly incompetently, the command structure is broken, or this is a setup.
Looks like they may already have the leaker or are getting close:
"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."
It’s more that with the military doing a lot of soul searching and rooting out of these exact traits since 1/6/21, I am skeptical that they missed such an obvious target. If they did, shame on us.
"The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, according to a US official familiar with the matter."
"Teixeira, 21, is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. His arrest comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers."
"Teixeira was first identified by The New York Times Thursday ahead of his arrest as the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents was posted."[1]
It blows my mind that a young man in the national reserves just barely old enough to drink would have access to the leaked documents. I'm not one for conspiracies, but my eyebrow has shot up a bit.
Depends on clearance level of the materials I guess...but then again, the average age of a soldier in the US military is ~23 years old. Logically there's many that young that have some form of clearance.
I get that: there just seem to be a more likely explanation (we have a lot of low ranked, young military members with intel clearances that are dumb enough to do this) than a conspiracy/plant/etc.... It's plausible it is, but it's not as likely as the above.
I was 25 when I was assigned responsibility for Top Secret communications and crypto control. Of course, we did not have cell phones and internet. I can't imagine a patriot, even a 21-year-old, being dumb or careless enough to do this. There is no longer any sort of military or national loyalty tradition. To today's youth, the USA is just another nation - less tolerant and more oppressive than others.
Yeah. it was a generalization not applicable to all. I just sometimes get lazy about including modifiers, but I'm not convinced he's an aberration. Aberration is not what is expected. What do you mean by reforming classification systems? I really do not know.
I agree 100% in principle although it's not always clear what is really secret or should be.
When I got orders transferring me from Ft. Lawton, Washington to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, my replacement and I performed a joint inventory of all classified / crypto documents, materials and equipment.
When we had both signed off on the inventory, he marked my name off the posted access list and initialed the line-through. That was the last time I was allowed into the facility or the Air Defense Command Post in which it was located. My only need to know at that point was how to get to Ft. Bragg in seven days while relocating my wife and a six-week-old infant (they were not allowed to accompany me).
It doesn’t work that way. You don’t get “clearance” to look at whatever you want. You get “need to know” for TS/SCI (compartmental data). Working on cyber doesn’t give you rights to view everything. Unless someone seriously screwed up and broke every INFOSEC rule because they are stupid, lazy, or both. Or it’s a setup.
We here in this discussion don't have the knowledge of these network systems or the clearance level he was given to do so: only that he likely did have clearance, and that that clearance could be for all levels due to the systems being used by all levels. So, stupid/lazy/both is very much a valid and likely explanation.
I'm thankful that when I was in the "secrets" business, we had electronic, physical and procedural barriers to information I was responsible for controlling and protecting. Today, every soldier, sailor and airman can be provided with a communications device tailored to his mission and need to know. Very efficient information sharing except that a team of IT specialists is needed to allocate and control access to the information. Unless there is a requirement for multiple approvals, each of those specialists might have access to everything. I guess it's just a matter of how many passwords have to be compromised to allow leaks such as this. I suspect carelessness by higher ranking officials if documents can be copied by video devices.
"In other words, maybe our intelligence community put together its own Operation Mincemeat, and the leaks flinging around 4Chan and Twitter are the fake plans on the corpse of an invented Captain William Martin, a.k.a. 'The Man Who Never Was.'"
This is my working theory, in the run-up to the Ukrainian spring offensive.
The current explanation of a racist, gun-obsessed yet cleared military individual posting these to a Discord group of teenagers for props and giggles seems incomprehensible to me. Anyone who fits that description would be removed from duty and held for investigation. Either the DIA/CID/AFOSI/NCIS/FBI acted incredibly incompetently, the command structure is broken, or this is a setup.
I do like the idea of it being a plant, but I dunno...there are some pretty narcissistic idiots out there and a million+ with security clearances...
Looks like they may already have the leaker or are getting close:
"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."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/12/discord-leaked-documents/
Right. That’s the one that seems too perfect.
I should note, I'm pulling "narcissistic idiocy" from Tom Nichols.
It does seem like it's too perfect, but then again Hanlon's Razor exists for a reason.
It’s more that with the military doing a lot of soul searching and rooting out of these exact traits since 1/6/21, I am skeptical that they missed such an obvious target. If they did, shame on us.
"The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, according to a US official familiar with the matter."
"Teixeira, 21, is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. His arrest comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers."
"Teixeira was first identified by The New York Times Thursday ahead of his arrest as the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents was posted."[1]
It blows my mind that a young man in the national reserves just barely old enough to drink would have access to the leaked documents. I'm not one for conspiracies, but my eyebrow has shot up a bit.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/pentagon-documents-leak-04-13-23/index.html
Depends on clearance level of the materials I guess...but then again, the average age of a soldier in the US military is ~23 years old. Logically there's many that young that have some form of clearance.
It just seems really off.
I get that: there just seem to be a more likely explanation (we have a lot of low ranked, young military members with intel clearances that are dumb enough to do this) than a conspiracy/plant/etc.... It's plausible it is, but it's not as likely as the above.
Jeez...one of the lines in an article today says some of these reports are provided *via email*, and could be auto-forwarded to others.
WTAF.
I was 25 when I was assigned responsibility for Top Secret communications and crypto control. Of course, we did not have cell phones and internet. I can't imagine a patriot, even a 21-year-old, being dumb or careless enough to do this. There is no longer any sort of military or national loyalty tradition. To today's youth, the USA is just another nation - less tolerant and more oppressive than others.
I'd avoid the categorization: there are lots that obviously do not do as this young man allegedly did. For now, he's an aberration.
Sure makes me want some reform in the classification system though
Yeah. it was a generalization not applicable to all. I just sometimes get lazy about including modifiers, but I'm not convinced he's an aberration. Aberration is not what is expected. What do you mean by reforming classification systems? I really do not know.
Stop handing out classification access so readily. Apply better "need to know" access. Classify less information, especially
that which is not really that secret.
I agree 100% in principle although it's not always clear what is really secret or should be.
When I got orders transferring me from Ft. Lawton, Washington to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, my replacement and I performed a joint inventory of all classified / crypto documents, materials and equipment.
When we had both signed off on the inventory, he marked my name off the posted access list and initialed the line-through. That was the last time I was allowed into the facility or the Air Defense Command Post in which it was located. My only need to know at that point was how to get to Ft. Bragg in seven days while relocating my wife and a six-week-old infant (they were not allowed to accompany me).
Per Mark Hertling, he'd have had clearance as he worked on cyber systems. https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1646604278948155410?s=20
It doesn’t work that way. You don’t get “clearance” to look at whatever you want. You get “need to know” for TS/SCI (compartmental data). Working on cyber doesn’t give you rights to view everything. Unless someone seriously screwed up and broke every INFOSEC rule because they are stupid, lazy, or both. Or it’s a setup.
We here in this discussion don't have the knowledge of these network systems or the clearance level he was given to do so: only that he likely did have clearance, and that that clearance could be for all levels due to the systems being used by all levels. So, stupid/lazy/both is very much a valid and likely explanation.
I'm thankful that when I was in the "secrets" business, we had electronic, physical and procedural barriers to information I was responsible for controlling and protecting. Today, every soldier, sailor and airman can be provided with a communications device tailored to his mission and need to know. Very efficient information sharing except that a team of IT specialists is needed to allocate and control access to the information. Unless there is a requirement for multiple approvals, each of those specialists might have access to everything. I guess it's just a matter of how many passwords have to be compromised to allow leaks such as this. I suspect carelessness by higher ranking officials if documents can be copied by video devices.