The Washington Post article on the leaker may be the worst article I’ve read
You need to enter 14 paragraphs into the piece (it’s 14) before you get to this:
In a video seen by The Post, the man who the member says is OG stands in front of a shooting range, wearing goggles and earmuffs and holding a large gun. He shouts a series of racial and anti-Semitic slurs into the camera, then fires several bullets at a target.
Oh, he happens to be racist and anti-Semitic? How charis-f-king-matic! You can just feel this mutual love! You’ll have to guess what kind of offensive memes and jokes the online OG community was sharing. No seriously. You’ll have to guess, because the Post just glosses over while talking about how all those poor people felt like the pandemic was taking them away from “their real friends.”
Seriously, this sweet and sickening version of an online group that seems to have been centered around violence and racism and a guy who joins this group to share information with the intention of deliberately harming the United States and Ukraine is incomprehensible. The Proud Boys should honk their horns at the Washington Post – they need that kind of happy whitewash.
Oh yeah, the name of this friendly group of God-loving guys doesn’t appear until near the end of the article. They called themselves “Thug Shaker Central”. Jesus would surely approve. We are also reassured that OG “is not a Russian agent”. And, oh yes, the Discord channel on which OG posted classified documents about Ukrainian forces positions and inside information about Ukrainian assets was called “Bear vs Pig”.
If all that wasn’t enough, the article also adds the spice of daredevil contradiction:
The docs were another lesson for the younger members in how OG thought the world really worked. The member said that OG was not hostile to the US government and he insisted that he was not working on behalf of the interests of any country… But OG had a dark view of the government. The youngster said he speaks of the United States, and in particular the law enforcement and intelligence community, as a sinister force that seeks to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark. . He denounced “the overreach of the government”.
What you can learn from this article seems to be three things:
- The person who posted the classified news footage from February apparently worked on a military base, liked big guns, and liked to film himself shooting those guns while spraying racist and anti-Semitic slurs. He also viewed the US government as a “dark” and “sinister” force.
- He joined an online community filled with guys who also liked to talk about their love for God and guns while making racist and anti-Semitic statements. Who might otherwise be known as a collection of white Christofascists with violent fantasies.
- Even though he shared dozens of highly classified documents with this community for years and went to great lengths to prove that these documents were real, and some members of this community acknowledged that they were real, none of them didn’t bother to do a damn thing about it.
If I’ve ever read an article that worked so hard to be kind to the topics involved, I can’t remember it. And I spent seven years watching the media write about Donald Trump. This article… it’s something. Although I can’t really say what. Here’s a little middle section:
The member met OG about four years ago, on a different server for fans of Oxide, a popular YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armor, and military gear. He said a group of avid members found the server too crowded and wanted a quieter place to talk about video game tactics, so they split up into their own small group.
The post office does not seem to contest this idea, nor to follow up. Want to bet on why this group really decided they needed a space on their own? Could it have something to do with the “memes, offensive jokes and pointless chatter” they wanted to share?
Anyway…here it is. The Washington Post says that the backer was a fit, strong and charismatic young man who joined a God-loving community for companionship and tried to shield them from darkness and provide insight into sinister and excessive government by sharing a few dozen highly classified documents on how America was doing too much for the hopeless Ukrainian pigs.
Questions?
Another note on the leaker. CNN reports that President Joe Biden says the intelligence community is getting closer. “There is a thorough investigation going on, as you know,” Biden said. “The Intelligence Community and the Department of Justice. And they are getting closer.
If “OG” is the lessor, he apparently helped out by posting several videos from his own apartment. Many stories have been published this morning about how the intelligence community is once again tightening the screws and the military is further restricting access to information, moves that could make it more difficult to plan future action.
Meanwhile, Ukraine says it is not seriously harmed by any of the information released. Mainly because they didn’t trust American security.
Decapitation video attributed to the Wagner group
Russian state media commentators on Wednesday evening claimed that the grotesque video of a Ukrainian prisoner being beheaded with a knife showed members of the Wagner Group mercenaries rather than regular Russian servicemen. At first glance, this could be seen as the Russian military taking this opportunity to throw this disgusting crime over the wall at Wagner, especially since Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin is reportedly currently investigating the candidacy of a party that is not Vladimir Putin. favored “United Russia”.
However, CNN reports that there’s another video floating around on Telegram (which I luckily didn’t come across) that “appears to show the decapitated corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.
On the video, a Russian voice can be heard saying (translated): “They killed them. Someone approached them. They approached them and cut off their heads.
This video is said to have been shot near Bakhmut and is also attributed to members of the Wagner group. Nor is it different from the actions undertaken by the Wagner Group in Syria. All of this makes it sound like the Wagner Group may be behind what has to be one of the most graphic displays of barbarism many of those unlucky enough to watch the video have ever witnessed.
But it’s not as if their attitude towards Ukrainians is unique.
“They don’t understand New Testament ethics, they understand the Old Testament. A prophet personally slit the throats of 300 servants. These should be treated the same way. They must be liquidated without a second thought.
This, according to this priest, is “entirely Christian.” Because, just like those people in the Discord group, he really loves God.
Although it appeared in the comments yesterday, I’m adding it again here.
When do the tanks arrive?
As for the Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 tanks, the answer is: they are already here. The first batches of both tanks are already in Ukraine, as are the crews that trained in the UK and Poland.
But what about that…
The United States has recently taken steps to expedite the arrival of M1A2 Abrams tanks for Ukraine, and just yesterday the Ukrainian Defense Minister indicated that the United States intends to send more Abrams and Bradleys than currently announced. However, that said, it’s probably too early to get excited about footage of unmarked Abrams being moved to Germany.
According to the US Department of Defense, no Ukrainian troops have been trained to operate the Abrams. This statement does not specify, but it is also unlikely that Ukrainian mechanics were trained in the maintenance of the tank, and the drivers of all support vehicles were not trained, and the clerks were not guided through the logistics necessary to support the operation or maintenance of these tanks in the field.
The tanks moving to Germany might actually be the ones that need to go to Ukraine. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll be on the front lines next week, unless “OG” missed a big one while trucking out secret information.
If Ukraine is to launch a counter-offensive in the coming weeks, it will be without the M1A2.
Two videos of Bakhmut
The Russians move into the center of the city in force, with more armor supported by artillery across the river in the eastern part of the city. Russian sources again claim that “Bakhmut has fallen” and in fact things don’t look good. The remaining Ukrainian forces are concentrated in an area west of the city, but Russia still seems to be advancing.
However, the Ukrainian troops are in the city. Still hold positions. Are always on the move and act with a level of composure that seems almost superhuman. Bakhmut hasn’t left yet, and all we can hope for is that the Ukrainian military is right when they say their sacrifice in the city is worth it.
One thing you might notice: the ground these guys are walking on looks pretty dry. After some rain in the next 24 hours, it looks like Bakhmut will have dry weather for at least the next week. Considering that dirt roads play an important role in moving people into (or out of) the city, this could help give Ukrainian forces some much-needed short-term flexibility.
Heck, let’s make three videos. After the stories this morning, I need this.
The most important thing in Russian media today – both state media and social media – is neither the leaked documents nor the beheading. It’s Donald Trump. Trump’s Fox interview praising Putin, in which he appears to blame the US for the invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of Nordstream pipelines, airs on Russian state media with regularity by Taylor Swift on the average music streaming service.
Just like the beheading videos, I won’t show it here.
