The gamers behind a leak of state secrets
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
For the past week, the world has been transfixed by a massive leak of top-secret Pentagon documents. Today, we hear directly from one of the teenagers who was part of the Discord channel where it all started, and get inside the head of the alleged leaker.
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On Thursday, a young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI in the investigation into leaks of hundreds of pages of classified military documents to a Discord group of friends and acquaintances.
Today on “Post Reports,” we hear from one of the teenagers who was part of that online group and get insight into why someone with a security clearance and a position in the U.S. military might leak these documents.
As national security and intelligence reporter Shane Harris explained, usually when people leak information it’s because they want to expose wrongdoing by the government, or they think a crime is being committed. But his source said the alleged leaker is not a whistleblower.
“I've never encountered an instance when someone was releasing classified information because he wanted to impress a bunch of teenagers,” Harris said.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I mean, in my career, when people leak classified information, usually if they give it to a |
| 0:08.7 | reporter, it's because they want to expose what they think is wrong doing by the government, |
| 0:13.6 | or they have an axe to grind. |
| 0:15.5 | I've never encountered an instance when someone was releasing classified information because |
| 0:21.9 | he wanted to impress a bunch of teenagers. |
| 0:28.6 | This is my colleague, Shane Harris. |
| 0:30.7 | He covers national security and intelligence for the post. |
| 0:34.4 | Last week, it was revealed that a trove of classified US military documents had been |
| 0:39.5 | mysteriously posted online. |
| 0:42.6 | The Snowden leaks were one of the things that we're all familiar with from having seen |
| 0:45.5 | documents of this sensitivity out in the wild. |
| 0:48.5 | I think this leak is actually more significant in some respects. |
| 0:52.3 | What we're seeing here in these discord leaks, it's just like a tour of the world. |
| 0:59.4 | And it's real time. |
| 1:00.4 | I mean, some of these are referring to events that have just happened. |
| 1:03.8 | And with such specificity and such detail, it's one of the most extraordinary disclosures |
| 1:09.3 | of classified information I've ever seen. |
| 1:12.8 | On Thursday afternoon, we learned that authorities had arrested Jack Tashira, a 21-year-old member |
| 1:19.0 | of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. |
| 1:22.1 | Online, he goes by Jack The Dripper. |
| 1:25.1 | He's known among his group of friends as OG. |
| 1:28.3 | But all week, reporters like Shane have been trying to figure out why would someone do |
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