The Washington Post appears to have tracked down the man becoming known as the “Discord leaker,” whose intel among other things revealed worrisome facts about the true state of the war Ukraine has been forced into against a genocidal Russia. There’s much more in there, but that’s a big part of it. In related news, the Postreported this afternoon that the Pentagon has also identified the leaker, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, and the article named him.
The other day David Ignatius wrote in the Post about the struggle in trying to suss out the leaker’s motives and identity. The Russians trying to hurt Ukraine? Ukraine as some sort of psy-op? “[A] disgruntled American with a hidden motive?” That last one seems to be the closest to the truth.
Regardless, the leaks told us a hell of a lot about what America and the rest of the West must do to help Ukraine turn the tide. But it also would seem, in a fluid situation like this one during an ongoing war, the question of who leaked this American intelligence would be an interesting one.
WaPo talked extensively to a teenager who was in the same Discord group with the alleged leaker. (Discord is an online platform used often by gamers. For example, this writer occasionally uses a Discord group for Pokémon Go. WHAT A NERD WE ARE.) The dudes in the group came together during the pandemic and were “[u]nited by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God.” The teen showed WaPo a video of the guy shooting guns while yelling racial and antisemitic slurs.
According to the teen’s account, the dude didn’t really take a side on Russia vs. Ukraine, but did hate the American government an awful lot:
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 onlinecompanions 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.
All the same, according to the teen, the dude wasn’t leaking out of spite, but rather just sharing exclusive very important intel with his special god-fearing gun gamer friends, and things went cattywampus when another teen started sharing dude’s intel in another online space.
And that brings us to Glenn Greenwald, who is MAD ABOUT THIS. Not about the leaker, or about the precarious place Ukraine is apparently in. (Obviously he is not mad about that. Obviously.) Glenn is mad at the Washington Post, for doing the Deep State’s work for them.
And oh, the bellyaching thread that commences.
He whines that WaPo and the New York Times used some of his Russian stooge buddy Edward Snowden’s leaked material, but did not defend him to the death.
He sneers at NBC News reporter Ryan Reilly, who used to be at HuffPost, saying that guy has “devoted his life to doing the FBI’s work.” Why? Because Reilly was glad when Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a shout-out to #SeditionHunters who have helped the government track down the domestic terrorists who attacked America on January 6.
He lies and says that “The uproar over NPR and BBC getting a ‘state-funded’ Twitter label is because all these media outlets function as state media for these agencies.” (That is not why the uproar.)
Glenn is so reflexively anti-American and anti-“the establishment” that he appears to assume all leaks against the American government must be good leaks, regardless of motive. The truth is more nuanced.
There are leaks that are just straight-up important, like the Pentagon Papers. The story of the leaker there was interesting, but very secondary to the real story about America’s involvement in goosing and escalating the Vietnam War. Also refresh yourself on Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who leaked info on Russia’s nefarious deeds to The Intercept, at which point Glenn Greenwald, who still worked there, immediately began to shit all over their own exclusive story.
There are leaks that contain some important information, but also are full of just gratuitous information that the government can easily argue was not meant for public consumption and/or why the leaks harmed national security or international relations. In those cases, the identity and motive of the leaker becomes more important. We think Glenn’s buddy Edward Snowden falls into that category, and think maybe this Discord leak probably does too.
On the far other end of the spectrum was Russia hacking and stealing emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign, which it then laundered through WikiLeaks. There was zero of news value in those emails aside from John Podesta’s bitchin’ risotta recipe, and the media fucked up royally by focusing on the contents. They should have been focusing on the only newsworthy story, which was that Russia stole and leaked those emails to hurt Hillary Clinton and to help Donald Trump steal the 2016 election.
Not all leaks are created equal.
We’d say it’s a pity Greenwald can’t see that, but at the end of his extended whine, he does appear to get mad about certain kinds of leaks, and notably, the lack of certain leaks:
Who’s mad about the Dobbs leak? White Christian supremacist fascists. (And Glenn, we guess.) (Also, Politico is not a “liberal” outlet. Go ask Democratic insiders in Washington how often Democrats leak to Politico.)
Who’s mad the “manifesto” from the Nashville shooter hasn’t come out? White Christian supremacist fascists who want to use it to smear all transgender people as terrorists out to kill Christians. (And Glenn, we guess.) (Also, it seems like calling the shooter’s random scribblings a “manifesto” was highly overstating what they have.)
Glenn finished by explaining what is REALLY going on here (not going on here):
“Many corporate media employees most hate those who do what they pretend to do: expose the secret crimes and lies of the US Security State. Those agencies are their allies and masters. That’s why they’re hunting to find the leaker instead.”
LMAO, eat shit.
The end.
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