According to the New York Times, the alleged leaker of the US documents regarding the Ukraine war was caught through his profile on Steam. The documents have stirred up quite a bit of dust in recent days.
A leak of US documents about the Ukraine war has caused a lot of commotion in recent days. The documents are said to contain confidential information about the plans of the US and NATO. You can find more about it here: via tageschau.de.
Now, according to reports, a 21-year-old employee of the US National Guard has been arrested.
The young man is said to have shared the documents with friends in a Discord group for months. At some point, the documents found their way into public forums.
The US newspaper New York Times states: The Steam profile of the 21-year-old played an important role in the investigation.
– Ukraine live blog (via Zeit)
– War in Ukraine (via nzz)
– Solidarity with Ukraine (via auswärtiges-amt)
Important note: If you are struggling with dark thoughts due to the current situation: You are not alone. Please seek help. For example, at the telephone counseling service at 0800/111 0 111 or the online counseling, where you can also use a chat. It’s free and applies nationwide.
21-Year-Old Wanted to Keep His Friends Updated on “What’s Going On”
According to reports, the documents had been accessible in a private Discord group for months. The New York Times conducted an interview with a 17-year-old member of this group, who said that the suspect did not want to be a whistleblower or leaker.
The guy was a Christian, against war, he just wanted to keep his friends updated on what’s going on. […] We have some people in the group who are in Ukraine. We like combat games, we like war games.
via nytimes.com
The New York Times also reports that it facilitated a breakthrough in the investigation.
During the investigation, attention was drawn to the Steam profile of the suspect. From there, a link was found to the Instagram profile of the alleged leaker.
On the profile, there were images showing exactly the background that was also visible in the leaked documents. This allowed the alleged perpetrator to be identified:
A breakthrough in our investigation came when the team identified a Steam profile in Airman Teixeira’s name that led to an Instagram profile with photos of the exact location where leaked docs were photographed — a kitchen countertop in his childhood home. https://t.co/XQAZf2kNV7 pic.twitter.com/DWlkN8xmqK
— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) April 13, 2023
The investigation is still in full swing. Authorities are examining how the suspect was able to gain access to the documents and how such leaks can be prevented in the future.
According to reports, the suspect initially even copied the documents by hand and only later switched to photos, which may now have incriminated him.
