A piece of the puzzle to the case of Massachusetts Air National Guardsman and intelligence leaker Jack Teixeira is a former naval officer with a top-tier security clearance named Sarah Bils. Bils is one of the administrators for several social media accounts that fly under the moniker “Donbass Devushka” (which translates to “Donbas Girl”). Donbas is a region in Ukraine where most of the recent fighting has been focused.
The description on the Donbass Devushka Telegram account reads,
“Russian-style information warfare.”
All efforts to consolidate all your geopolitical news into one channel. Bringing the multipolar world together.”
How did our United States counterintelligence and military miss this? Too focused on climate change and pronouns is my guess.
🚨BREAKING – INVESTIGATION: Classified docs leaked by Jack Teixeira gained attention after being shared by pro-Russian "Donbass Devushka" account, allegedly run by former US Navy officer Sarah Bils who is now under investigation. The documents went viral, prompting Pentagon… pic.twitter.com/2R55EiS947
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 17, 2023
From The Wall Street Journal:
A social-media account overseen by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer—a prominent online voice supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine—played a key role in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira.
A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, reposted the files from obscure online chat rooms. The blog is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah Bils.
Russia first intervened in the Donbas part of eastern Ukraine in 2014, and most of the recent fighting has focused on that area.
Ms. Bils, 37 years old, served at the U.S. naval air station on Whidbey Island until late last year, even as the accounts she had established and supervised glorified the Russian military and the paramilitary Wagner Group. They are among the most widely followed English-language social-media outlets promoting Russia’s views.
Apparently, Bils and her cohorts run a podcast (linked below) and several social media sites on YouTube, Rumble, Locals, Spotify, Twitter, and Telegram. It appears that Bils and Co. have been incredibly prolific and one would think the FBI would have had them on their radar some time ago.
Those pro-lifers and parents at school board meetings, though.
This is serious. While the legacy media and lawmakers like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) are still chasing down Trump and Russia collusion while pouring money into Ukraine to defeat Russia, a Russian apologist was embedded in our U.S. military openly spreading propaganda. According to USNI News, a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute, Bils enlisted in the Navy in 2009, completed “A” school at the Naval Aviation Technical Training Center in Pensacola Florida, and attended the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit in Lemoore, California before reporting to the Fleet Readiness Center Northwest on Whidbey Island, Washington in 2011. Bils performed different roles at the air station until her discharge on November 27, 2022, just a bit over nine months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Curiouser and curiouser.
The Donbass Devushka Twitter account has over 68,000 followers, and the Telegram account has over 72,000 subscribers. Not sure if this has been a recent development, but the tweets on the Twitter account are now protected. One would think that this would have given someone at the FBI pause before the site shared the documents leaked by Teixeira.
One would think…
In an interview Saturday at her home in Oak Harbor, Wash., Ms. Bils said she is an administrator of the Donbass Devushka persona, and acknowledged raising funds and hosting podcasts under that name. She added, however, that she is one of 15 people “all over the world” involved in running the Donbass Devushka network. Ms. Bils declined to identify these people.
Bils runs a tighter ship than Generals Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin. They should bring her back on board as a consultant.
On April 5, the Donbass Devushka Telegram account posted four of the allegedly leaked classified documents to its 65,000 followers, according to a screenshot seen by The Wall Street Journal. That led several large Russian social-media accounts to pick up on the documents, after which the Pentagon launched an investigation. Ms. Bils says another administrator posted the four files.
USNI News reported that The Department of Justice “declined to comment.” The Wall Street Journal also reports that the Navy also will not comment.
There is no evidence that Ms. Bils, who had a security clearance during her Navy service, has used that access to steal any classified information herself. “I obviously know the gravity of top-secret classified materials. We didn’t leak them,” she said.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for the Pentagon, referred requests for comment on Ms. Bils and her role in reposting classified information to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.
In a statement in response to questions, Gen. Ryder said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a review of intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Pentagon to help prevent future leaks.
So, it seems a circular firing squad could be developing.
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