sonar21 | Until I saw the document labeled, CIA Operations Center Intelligence Update, I was inclined to believe that the leaked documents were the work of a frustrated whistleblower. But I have changed my mind. This looks like a controlled, directed leak by individuals who manipulated the 21 year old National Guard troop into taking certain documents and posting them on a public server.
The CIA Operations Center Intelligence Update is a document produced by analysts in the Operations Center to be delivered to the regular CIA analysts. When I worked in the Ops Center I was responsible for monitoring traffic from Latin American posts and flagging items that the analysts in the Latin American Division need to know. I would write up summary paragraphs just like the ones in the documents leaked on line. This was an internal CIA document. It was not broadcast to the other intelligence agencies. In my 23 years working with U.S. military commands around the world, I never saw a copy of this type of report circulating among those with the highest clearances. Never. How did a 21 year old kid get his hands on at least two of these?
The classified documents now in the public domain are focused primarily on Russia and Ukraine. The CIA Ops Center docs now floating around the internet are only partial copies. For example, there are three pages, all classified Top Secret, from an eight page document. If you’re a goofy 21 year old gamer simply intent on impressing your young proteges, why not take all eight pages. My guess is that the other five pages contained no intelligence information on Ukraine or Russia.
The kid reportedly was a cyber analyst assigned to the 102 Intelligence Wing, which reports to the U.S. 16 Air Force:
The 102nd ISS provides intelligence systems maintenance, integration, and operations for the AN/GSQ-272 SENTINEL weapon system, as part of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (AF-DCGS) Enterprise, enabling near real-time Collection, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (CPED) of
The Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, focuses on information warfare in the modern age. Information Warfare requires integrating: Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance; Cyber Warfare; Electromagnetic Warfare; Weather; Public Affairs; and Information Operations capabilities. 16th Air Force ensures that our Air Force and Nation are fast, resilient, and fully integrated in competition, crisis, and conflict by incorporating Information Warfare at operational and tactical levels, capitalizing on the value of information by leading the charge for uniquely-21st century challenges in the highly dynamic, seamless, and global information domain..
I do not believe it is a coincidence that he served in an information warfare unit. Remember, he was a low ranked enlisted guy. He had a chain of command. He did not show up to work and decide what duties he had to perform while on the job. He reported to and worked at the direction of Non-Commissioned Officers and Commissioned Officers. He did not just waltz into a SCIF and print documents at his leisure. A guy at his level would attract attention if he was printing off a document like the CIA Ops Center report.
I believe that the alleged leaker did have access to Top Secret intelligence by virtue of his job. I don’t know if there was a polygraph requirement for him and his cohorts. Regardless, all of the intelligence that has been leaked was on a Top Secret computer net and could only be accessed inside a SCIF.
Let me explain why I think the story currently being sold to the public about this young man is too good to be true and, in my view, is a smoke screen.
The first problem is BELLINGCAT. Bellingcat is an Open Source Intelligence outfit that has been funded by U.S. and British intelligence. BELLINGCAT is “credited” with sleuthing out the identity of the site where the classified documents were posted and the name of the leaker.
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