Ukraine

[hepcat]

The opposite, I’m pretty sure.

[Unagi]

The opposite, I’m pretty sure.

Yeah, you got it. I'm not sure how Blackhawk read it.



edit: because it's a new page:

Russian technicians appear to have sabotaged MiG-29 fighter jets headed for Ukraine, Slovakia says

That would be such a nice thing to belive I simply can't take it in.

Was that sarcasm?

I'm thinking Blackhawk just didn't see my point or uses 'sarcasm' in a different way.

And just to be clear... I would LOVE the idea that Russian technicians are on "our side" so so much, that I'm compelled to worry that it's not true. That's all. It's not sarcasm.

That would be such a nice thing to belive I simply can't take it in.

[Isgrimnur]

"headed to" = "delivered to"

The technicians, who were working on a Slovak air base until late 2022, had access to the jets and appear to have damaged some parts ahead of their delivery to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.
...
Weeks ago, Slovakia and Poland pledged to send Ukraine fleets of MiG-29 fighter jets. The two NATO members said the additional airpower would help Kyiv in the war Russia started over a year.

[Unagi]

"headed to" = "delivered to"

The technicians, who were working on a Slovak air base until late 2022, had access to the jets and appear to have damaged some parts ahead of their delivery to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.
...
Weeks ago, Slovakia and Poland pledged to send Ukraine fleets of MiG-29 fighter jets. The two NATO members said the additional airpower would help Kyiv in the war Russia started over a year.

Oh now see, that's a totally different picture from what I was replying to. This was sabotage against Ukrainian MiG-29s. In which case now, I don't know how to reply to Blackhawk (but I totally now see his questioning)... but I think we can all assume we all are on the same side and want the same thing here.

[Unagi]

"headed to" = "delivered to"

and then the whole "headed to" == "delivered to"

Such a seriously huge problem in this world of war profiteering.

[Blackhawk]

The opposite, I’m pretty sure.

Yeah, you got it. I'm not sure how Blackhawk read it.

Exactly. Blackhawk read it.

All good. Same side, etc.

[LawBeefaroni]

Will we ever find the source of these leaks? .

Yes, if we want to. It looks like they were originally posted by a non-anonymous user on Discord.

[Daehawk]

Fun drinking game with this...take a shot each time the reader bot says Belarus. You'll hit the floor by the 2 minute mark.

[hepcat]

Will we ever find the source of these leaks? .

Yes, if we want to. It looks like they were originally posted by a non-anonymous user on Discord.

…screen name Nitup.

[Daehawk]

[Max Peck]

Will we ever find the source of these leaks? .

Yes, if we want to. It looks like they were originally posted by a non-anonymous user on Discord.

Well, the Washington Post has already talked to people who know who the leaker is, so I'd imagine the FBI/DOJ aren't far behind.

Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says

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.

United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little attention last year when the man some call “OG” posted a message laden with strange acronyms and jargon. The words were unfamiliar, and few people read the long note, one of the members explained. But he revered OG, the elder leader of their tiny tribe, who claimed to know secrets that the government withheld from ordinary people.

The young member read OG’s message closely, and the hundreds more that he said followed on a regular basis for months. They were, he recalled, what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a “military base,” which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers. He annotated some of the hand-typed documents, the member said, translating arcane intel-speak for the uninitiated, such as explaining that “NOFORN” meant the information in the document was so sensitive it must not be shared with foreign nationals.

OG told the group he toiled for hours writing up the classified documents to share with his companions in the Discord server he controlled. The gathering spot had been a pandemic refuge, particularly for teen gamers locked in their houses and cut off from their real-world friends. The members swapped memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat. They watched movies together, joked around and prayed. But OG also lectured them about world affairs and secretive government operations. He wanted to “keep us in the loop,” the member said, and seemed to think that his insider knowledge would offer the others protection from the troubled world around them.

“He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member said.

[Kraken]

"Guns, military gear, and God" -- which of these is not like the other ones?

[Max Peck]

Apparently the same guy also talked to a Bellingcat researcher.

I interviewed the same guy this weekend, basically everything in the Post article corroborates my investigation here (a single citation or hyperlink would have been nice, but oh well)

If you go back through his Twitter postings, he's been reporting on this for a few days now.

[malchior]

This looks like it is one the toughest types of leak to stop, an individual just doing it for lolz and pulling impressionable kids into a little cult of personality.

[malchior]

In other news, Macron is managing to be creating even more problem. He is allegedly trying to slow down arms shipments to Ukraine. Why? Currently the EU cannot physically produce the volume of shells to support Ukraine so they are buying them from non-EU countries. He wants to slow it down to the rate that the EU can produce so every dollar builds up EU weapons capacity. It's all in line with his grand vision of EU autonomy. Too bad for Ukraine as they are fighting a war *right now*.

[Unagi]

This looks like it is one the toughest types of leak to stop, an individual just doing it for lolz

Hang em.

[Daehawk]

Couple looks at how Ukraine sees America. This is part of what its all about.

Biden's visit


America in general

[Blackhawk]

"Guns, military gear, and God" -- which of these is not like the other ones?

From a spiritual perspective, or a historical?

[Max Peck]

It really depends on which version of which god you're talking about. In MAGAland (for one example), guns, gear and god go together like peas and carrots.

[Blackhawk]

Well, the Washington Post has already talked to people who know who the leaker is, so I'd imagine the FBI/DOJ aren't far behind.

Leaker of U.S. secret documents worked on military base, friend says

Narrowed down to an Air National Guardsman

The leader of a small online gaming chat group where a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked over the last few months is a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The national guardsman, whose name is Jack Teixeira, oversaw a private online group named Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games.

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

[malchior]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

[Unagi]

the death penalty for espionage "in time of war"

certainly applicable in this context, I would say.

[malchior]

We haven't declared a war. He definitely deserves to have the book thrown at him but perhaps not that bad.

[dbt1949]

Probably just ban his internet connection for life would do it.

[Unagi]

We haven't declared a war. He definitely deserves to have the book thrown at him but perhaps not that bad.

Well, yeah, but the spirit of that sentiment (while you are certainly right that it only applies to our own wars) is, I believe because lives are most certainly lost when this shit happens around 'war secrets' - and that's certainly something that could easily be applied to the results of his actions in this case as well. So, yeah - it won't be applied here. You are most certainly going to be right about that, I just feel this is right in line with that same transgression.
I probably don't really mean it myself... I'm just not feeling very forgiving and generous toward this behavior in our current world.

[malchior]

They got him. Of course, purported right-wingers or Russian/Chinese disinfo officers are out there already talking about how Biden is silencing another whistleblower or are assassinating his character. This is pretty clear cut. Multiple non-governmental persons have tracked down the story and it's not whistleblowing.

[Blackhawk]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

If he'd had any sense, he'd have made a beeline for the best attorney he could find and made arrangements to turn himself in before they IDed him.

[El Guapo]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

If he'd had any sense, he'd have made a beeline for the best attorney he could find and made arrangements to turn himself in before they IDed him.

Would doing that help him in any meaningful way? He'll need to get a lawyer regardless of course, but I kind of think that fleeing to Russia and claiming asylum there might've been the better way to go.

[coopasonic]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

If he'd had any sense, he'd have made a beeline for the best attorney he could find and made arrangements to turn himself in before they IDed him.

Would doing that help him in any meaningful way? He'll need to get a lawyer regardless of course, but I kind of think that fleeing to Russia and claiming asylum there might've been the better way to go.

Does that constitute legal advice?

[Max Peck]

If he'd had any sense, he wouldn't have done any of it in the first place. It's not treason since the USA is not at war, but he still needs to be made an example of so that the next idiot that contemplates violating national security in order to impress his teenage gaming buddies thinks twice before doing it.

[El Guapo]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

If he'd had any sense, he'd have made a beeline for the best attorney he could find and made arrangements to turn himself in before they IDed him.

Would doing that help him in any meaningful way? He'll need to get a lawyer regardless of course, but I kind of think that fleeing to Russia and claiming asylum there might've been the better way to go.

Does that constitute legal advice?

Very much not so.

[Blackhawk]

Hope he's wearing the brown pants today.

Apparently he has been freaking out since the leaks stories started breaking because he has to know he is facing serious super max time.

If he'd had any sense, he'd have made a beeline for the best attorney he could find and made arrangements to turn himself in before they IDed him.

Would doing that help him in any meaningful way?

I don't know that anything would have helped him, but admitting fault before he was caught and showing contrition may have been his best shot.

[Brian]

[malchior]

I'm trying to figure out how Biden is out there saying these leaks aren't of 'great consequence'. Who is he fooling? Our allies see us as untrustworthy and then he confirms it by lying to the public in an absolutely condescending way. The guy acts like a President who rocks ~32% approval rating. He justifies every doubt about his candor.

[Grifman]

Marge the Dunce opines forth:

[Smoove_B]

She's on the Homeland Security Committee and she's apparently ok with people leaking classified documents. Totally makes sense.

[El Guapo]

So the lie that's being inserted into MAGA derp-world, I take it, is that the documents involved plans to put U.S. troops into Ukraine?

[Isgrimnur]

EuroNews

Special forces from the West are on the ground in Ukraine, according to classified documents leaked online.

The largest contingent is from Britain (50), followed by NATO members Latvia (17), France (15) and the US (14).

It is unclear what the special forces are exactly doing, where they are or whether their numbers have consistently been at this level.

[YellowKing]

I'm trying to figure out how Biden is out there saying these leaks aren't of 'great consequence'. Who is he fooling? Our allies see us as untrustworthy and then he confirms it by lying to the public in an absolutely condescending way.

My guess is he's downplaying it for our enemies, not our allies or the US public. And I'm guessing there are plenty of back channels going on to assure our allies that we're not privy to.

[Blackhawk]

Marge the Dunce opines forth:

How does publicly endorsing leaking classified intelligence not result in immediate loss of her security clearance?

EuroNews

Special forces from the West are on the ground in Ukraine, according to classified documents leaked online.

The largest contingent is from Britain (50), followed by NATO members Latvia (17), France (15) and the US (14).

It is unclear what the special forces are exactly doing, where they are or whether their numbers have consistently been at this level.

It's most likely in a training role, probably training a select group of Ukrainians who are, in turn, responsible for training the other Ukranians, plus training their military specialists in the use of the gear we've given them.

It's actually one of the most common roles of special operations soldiers.