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Who is wow_mao? Classified Pentagon documents on Ukraine's plans leaked on Discord meme group

The 20-year-old college student behind the wow_mao account then uploaded a YouTube video addressing the repercussions

WASHINGTON, DC: A major leak of classified Pentagon documents that shook Washington and put US intelligence in jeopardy, reportedly took place on an obscure online meme group. More than 30 documents, focusing on the Ukraine War and Israel's Mossad spy agency among others, were first shared on the encrypted messaging app Discord, operated by a self-professed "micro celebrity", wow_mao.

The 20-year-old college student behind the wow_mao account then uploaded a YouTube video addressing the repercussions and described it as "hilarious" to a journalist. He noted that a moderator on his Discord server shared "30 plus leaked documents concerning the Russia-Ukraine war" on March 1 and soon they were shared on various social media platforms. In an interview with the New York Times, wow_mao  said, "It was just spread onto the nicheiest [sic], nerdiest parts of the internet," adding, "That's the kind of people who would find these documents — losers. That's who the U.S. government really has to fear."

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Who is wow_mao?

wow_mao did not reveal his real name but claimed that he was British and Filipino and was living in the UK as a student. During the interview, he claimed that he spent "little time" on the Discord server and mostly focused on his YouTube channel where he has about 250,000 subscribers. His YouTube channel features a variety of videos, focusing on many controversial topics and countries. In the wake of the leaks, he shared a video on YouTube on Tuesday, April 11. He said in the video, "Hey guys Filipino YouTube celebrity here, guess who just got an article on Forbes. Me. But not for the best reasons. On the first of March a mod on my Discord server shared 30 plus leaked documents concerning the Russia-Ukraine war and one month later my name is showing up on news sites such as Forbes, the Telegraph, and the Washington Post."

However, wow_mao denied being the source of the leak and instead hypothesized that it most likely originated from another server. Additionally, he steadfastly declined to provide the identity of the group moderator, who initially distributed the leaked documents. "I won't name who this moderator is since they're probably getting a lot of s**t right now and you don't need me to tell you how bad it is to leak secret war documents. I completely denounce this," he said, adding, "Even if you think it's funny, from what I understand it nowhere near as bad to share already leaked private documents as it is to do the actual leaking and from what I know this moderator found the documents from another discord server."

Who originally leaked the documents?

Users, who investigated the breach on the server, discovered that moderator Lucca was behind the whole scandal. The documents' sources were previously disclosed by Bellingcat, which claimed that papers moved to other websites such as the imageboard 4Chan before emerging on Telegram, Twitter and then major media outlets throughout the world in recent days.

According to the New York Times, a Twitter account using the name MrLucca, who used the same profile photo as Lucca on Discord, claimed to have obtained classified documents from yet another Discord server. "Found some info from a now-banned server and passed it on," said the person behind MrLucca’s profile, according to screenshots of the conversation obtained by the outlet. However, Lucca’s Twitter and Discord accounts have since been deleted.

What classified information was mentioned in the leaked documents?

The top secret documents leaked online included sensitive data on Ukraine's counter-offensive strategies. They also shed light on the lack of weaponry in Kyiv's armed forces, the position of the country's air defenses and the extent to which the Biden administration spies on both allies and adversaries. As per the Daily Mail, the papers also touch on Israel's Mossad, China, the Middle East and Africa. Investigators will be looking at clues seen in the margins of the photos that could help unmask the person responsible.

Since the leak involves such a broad variety of subjects, analysts have speculated that an American could be the primary source. "The focus now is on this being a US leak, as many of the documents were only in US hands," Michael Mulroy, an ex-senior Pentagon official, told Reuters. 

Kyiv-based security analyst James Rushton claimed that "the Russians are clearly the main beneficiaries from the leak." "It's a major embarrassment to the US, and it comes at a critical time as Ukraine is preparing to launch their long-awaited Spring counteroffensive," he told Daily Mail.