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Recently, the United States military has been dealing with a major information crisis, as top-secret documents related to the war in Ukraine were leaked on multiple Discord servers. These documents contain sensitive information about the war in Ukraine, American allies, and American penetration of Russian military plans. The documents were first leaked on a small Discord server with mostly American users, then made their way through various platforms, including 4chan, Twitter, and Russian social network Telegram, before being noticed by U.S. officials.
Investigations by news site Bellingcat suggest that the leak may have originated from a Discord server called WowMao, which is run by a YouTuber of the same name. It was found that a member of the server posted over 30 documents on March 1 and 2. However, Bellingcat also noted that the leak may have started earlier, in a now-deleted Discord server known as Thug Shaker Central, and it’s impossible to verify the authenticity of these claims.
The Minecraft server, Minecraft Earth Map, is where the leaked documents were first noticed by government officials. Two users were reportedly arguing about Minecraft maps and the war in Ukraine when one of them posted ten documents about Ukraine, writing, “here, have some leaked documents.” It is unclear how long the documents sat unnoticed on the server.
The leak has been deemed one of the most significant leaks of highly classified U.S. documents in recent history, and the U.S. is assessing the damage caused by the leak. Discord is cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the leak, and a 21-year-old air national guardsman named Jack Teixeira has been arrested as a prime suspect for the leaks. Teixeira was identified as a leading figure in the now-deleted Discord server Thug Shaker Central, where the leak may have originated.
Teixeria, who is a member of the United States Air National Guard and had access to sensitive information through work, posted paragraphs of text and photographs of documents on the Discord server. He remains in custody as the criminal process begins. The leak of these documents is a cause of great concern for the United States military, and it remains to be seen what the repercussions will be.
[Source: IGN | Kotaku | Wall Street Journal | Sky News | Bellingcat]
