LAST UPDATE | 13 Apr 2023

US AUTHORITIES HAVE arrested a suspect in the case of leaked classified documents, which has honed in on a young National Guard member as the possible source of the security breach.

The FBI made a “probable cause” arrest of a man identified by authorities as a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, ABC News has reported.

The person behind the leak of highly sensitive US government documents, relating to the Ukraine war and US allies, worked on a military base and shared the material in a private online group, The Washington Post newspaper reported yesterday.

US President Joe Biden said he was “concerned” over the leak during his trip to Dublin today. 

“I’m concerned that it happened,” he told reporters, adding ”there’s a full-blown investigation going on” and that it was “getting close” to reaching some conclusions.

US officials have not confirmed the authenticity of the documents, images of which have circulated on social media platforms for weeks and which have sparked an uproar amongst some US allies since receiving media attention in recent days.

Broadcaster CNN aired footage from North Dighton, Massachusetts showing the detainee in shorts with his hands behind his back and being placed by agents into an unmarked vehicle.  

Last week, the US Department of Justice said it had begun a criminal investigation into the leaked documents that have spread to the internet.

Two members of a group on the online social platform Discord told The Post that hundreds of documents had been sent to them by a man who said he worked on a US military base and had brought the documents home.

A Discord spokesperson, who spoke to AFP, said that user safety is a priority, and that content violating its policies can result in people being banned, servers being shut down, and police alerted.

“In regards to the apparent breach of classified material, we are cooperating with law enforcement,” a Discord spokesperson said.

“As this remains an active investigation, we cannot provide further comment at this time,” they added.

The documents are part of a trove of highly sensitive material that has been posted online. Ukraine is expected to launch an attack on invading Russian troops in the spring, its first major military push of the year.

But one top secret document said tough Russian defences and “enduring Ukrainian deficiencies in training and munitions supplies probably will strain progress and exacerbate casualties during the offensive,” the Washington Post reported.

A document reviewed by AFP – this one marked “secret” – details the dire state of Ukrainian air defences, which have been instrumental in protecting against Russian strikes and preventing Moscow’s forces from gaining control of the skies.

The man, who went by the screen-name ‘OG’, regularly posted documents to the group for months, the group members told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to The Post’s report, some information in the documents was so sensitive it was marked “NOFORN”, meaning it was not to be shared with foreign nationals.

The group of around 24, including people from Russia and Ukraine, bonded over their “mutual love of guns, military gear and God,” and formed an “invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord,” the newspaper reported.

‘Dark view of government’

OG told the group members that he spent “some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices,” the paper reported.

He also told them that he “toiled for hours writing up the classified documents to share with his companions in the Discord server”.

Later, OG began taking photos of the documents and shared those with the group.

“When rendering hundreds of classified files by hand proved too tiresome, he began posting hundreds of photos of documents themselves,” The Post reported.

OG had told the other members of the group not to share the documents and that he had not intended to be a whistleblower, The Post reported, citing one of the friends.

The Post said OG had “a dark view of the government”.

“[A group 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,” The Post reported.

He ranted about ‘government overreach’.

Dozens of photographs of documents have been found on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and various other social media websites in recent days. Some may have circulated online for weeks, if not months, before they began to receive media attention.

The US Pentagon, in Washington D.C., says the breach posed a “very serious risk to national security”.

The leaks have exposed US concerns over the viability of a coming Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces, and suggested it spied on allies Israel and South Korea.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that Washington was contacting allies and partners at “very high levels” in the wake of the release of the documents.

© AFP 2023