美国国家公共电台 NPR--The Washington Post reports it has learned details of the alleged leaker of documents

The Washington Post reports it has learned details of the alleged¹ leaker of documents

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with the Washington Post's Shane Harris about reporting on the identity of the alleged leaker of classified U.S. documents.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The person who initiated³ the leak of a huge cache of highly classified Pentagon secrets that's revealed the state of war in Ukraine and who the U.S. spies on is a person who loves guns, military gear and God, and he worked on a U.S. military base. That's according to a Washington Post report that found and interviewed, on camera, a friend of that leaker. They were in the same gamer group on the online platform Discord⁴, where the leaker went by the pseudonym⁵ OG. Shane Harris, The Washington Post intelligence and national security reporter, is one of the people who found and interviewed this friend, along with other companions in that invitation-only gamer group where this leaker allegedly first shared these documents.

Here's the friend, who agreed to be recorded by The Washington Post. The person is a minor⁶ and spoke⁷ on the condition of anonymity⁸ and with permission from his parents.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I want to keep OG's identity secret because I still care for him like he's a family member. He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative.

FADEL: Shane Harris joins us now to talk about this reporting. Hi, Shane.

SHANE HARRIS: Hi. Good morning.

FADEL: So the first thing I was thinking when I read your report was, why did this person talk to you who's expressing loyalty⁹ and care for the alleged leaker? Why would he talk to you, and how did you find him?

HARRIS: He said that he was interested in speaking because he felt that people misunderstood why these documents were important and also were essentially¹⁰ saying his friend must somehow be some kind of foreign operative if he were releasing it. And he said he wanted to set the record straight. We found him through some of the same channels that these documents have been appearing, primarily in social media, and were able to reach out to him and then eventually talk to him directly in real life. And he was able to provide us with a number of different pieces of supporting information that corroborated¹¹ his identity and demonstrated that he was, in fact, part of this group that was seeing these classified documents.

FADEL: So what did he tell you about the person who shared these documents?

HARRIS: This person, who he calls OG - and he said he and another person who we spoke to who was a member of the group do know the identity, the name and the location of the person, but they won't reveal it - described him as the kind of leader of this group that formed on this Discord server at the beginning of the pandemic. And they kind of all stuck together while they were in isolation¹². Said he's a younger person in his early 20s, that he works at a military base and that the nature of his job gave him access to these highly classified documents that they understood he was bringing home from work and then sharing with people in the Discord server.

They also indicated that he had worked some of the time in his job in a - as they kind of described it - a secure facility where this information could be accessed. We would know this as something called a SCIF. It would be something that you might see in a government installation that would kind of be like a secured room or area where someone could access classified information.

FADEL: Did he want this wider leak outside of this private group?

HARRIS: No, and he was actually quite distressed¹³ by that. When the information showed up on a different Discord server and then migrated onto Telegram and onto Twitter, where it's - where it got picked up by, you know, journalists and sort of the wider world, he and another member we spoke to said they felt essentially betrayed by another person who was in the group who shared that information and felt that it was never meant by OG to be shared beyond this group of a couple of dozens - a couple dozen people. So they essentially felt, you know, kind of ironically, that someone had leaked on them by sharing this classified information, which, of course, none of them were ever authorized¹⁴ to look at.

FADEL: Now, law enforcement is searching for who the leaker is. This has been embarrassing for the United States, in some cases, a lot of secrets shared. I'm sure they're interested in your anonymous¹⁵ sources at this point. Are they talking to the same people?

HARRIS: I can't say who law enforcement is talking to at this point. But we know from the sources we talked to, law enforcement, they say, has not contacted them yet.

FADEL: Shane Harris is The Washington Post intelligence and national security reporter. Thank you so much for your reporting and your time.

HARRIS: Thanks, Leila.

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

4 discord   

n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐

参考例句：

• These two answers are in discord.这两个答案不一样。
• The discord of his music was hard on the ear.他演奏的不和谐音很刺耳。

5 pseudonym   

n.假名，笔名

参考例句：

• Eric Blair wrote under the pseudonym of George Orwell.埃里克·布莱尔用乔治·奧威尔这个笔名写作。
• Both plays were published under the pseudonym of Philip Dayre.两个剧本都是以菲利普·戴尔的笔名出版的。

6 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

9 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

10 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

11 corroborated   

v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的过去式 )

参考例句：

• The evidence was corroborated by two independent witnesses. 此证据由两名独立证人提供。
• Experiments have corroborated her predictions. 实验证实了她的预言。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

13 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

14 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

15 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。