Former Navy Chief Petty Officer Leads Pro-Russian Information Warfare Network
A weird twist to the online leak story.
WSJ (“Social-Media Account Overseen by Former Navy Noncommissioned Officer Helped Spread Secrets“):
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.
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.
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.
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.
[…]
Airman Teixeira’s posts had languished online for months, shared among a small circle of fellow war and computer-game enthusiasts who had joined his invitation-only server on the Discord platform. Even after another member reposted the files to a larger Discord server, they remained unnoticed by the broader public. It was only after the posting of some of the files on Donbass Devushka’s account that they turned into fodder for military enthusiasts and Russia supporters across the internet. Several dozen other classified files have been found in Discord since then, mostly dealing with the war in Ukraine but also containing a variety of secrets about other nations.
[…]
The Donbass Devushka Telegram account that Ms. Bils oversees describes itself as engaging in “Russian–style information warfare.”
Linked accounts using the same name on other platforms also promoted the Russian agenda after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Donbass Devushka network hawked merchandise featuring Wagner and the Russian military, promising to send proceeds for the “freedom of Donbass” and to help “our men on the front.”
Ms. Bils was promoted to the E-7 rank of chief aviation electronics technician in late 2020, a senior NCO position, according to promotion records posted on the Navy website and photographs of the ceremony on her former installation’s Facebook page. Ms. Bils left the military in November last year with an honorable discharge and with the lower rank of E-5, according to military records. The reason for that significant demotion couldn’t be immediately determined. Ms. Bils said she left the Navy for medical reasons, after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Some very interesting potential intel,” the Donbass Devushka Telegram account posted on April 5, attaching images of four files that Airman Teixeira allegedly stole from the U.S. military. “The authenticity cannot be confirmed but looks to be very damning nato information.” The post remained online for several days.
Ms. Bils said that another administrator had posted these images, and that she was the one who later deleted them. “I don’t even know the authenticity of the documents or what they say. I am not very well versed in reading documents like that,” she said.
In addition to the Telegram account, established a year ago, the Donbass Devushka persona operates popular accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Spotify and other platforms. The Twitter account has been in existence since 2012.
Some of the slides reposted on the Telegram account overseen by Ms. Bils had been altered from the otherwise identical photographs allegedly posted by Airman Teixeira on Discord—changed to inflate Ukrainian losses and play down Russian casualties. A subsequent post on the Donbass Devushka Telegram channel, on April 12, denied that the image had been doctored by the administrators.
“We would never edit content for our viewers,” the post said.
Ms. Bils has recorded podcasts with guests advocating for Russian President Vladimir Putin and opposing U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to a review of the podcast content. As a podcast host, Ms. Bils, originally from New Jersey, spoke with a slight Russian accent and claimed to have been born in Luhansk, in the Russian-controlled Donbas. In an interview, Ms. Bils said she had “some” Russian heritage, without providing details.
All of the stories I can find are just summaries of the WSJ piece, so information is scant.
Most obviously, why is a 37-year-old career Navy chief running a pro-Russia propaganda network? What’s her motivation?
I’m also not sure I’ve ever heard of someone being both honorably discharged and busted back two ranks. Indeed, I don’t know who would have the authority to do that. Unless something has changed—and I can find no evidence it has—even a field grade Article 15 has no authority to reduce the rank of servicemembers above pay grade E-6. Senior noncommissioned officers (pay grades E-7 through E-9) are selected by service-wide boards.
I’ve never been into gaming, and neither are any of my kids. So it’s possible I’m just not getting the mindset of gamers. But are they just caught up in the excitement of creating their own world so much that even the real world comes to seem like a boring game? If you have a choice – in your mind – between being an anonymous cog in the enormous wheel of the US military or being a mover-shaker in something exciting and undercover, which would you pick?
Coupled with an unhealthy double dose of “I’m smarter than anyone else” and “You’re not the boss of ME!”
I would feel better knowing that the military was upping its old-guy knowledge of what makes gamers tick before handing off important assignments to them. Or keeping a closer watch on what the hell’s actually going on.
Security clearances are for life. Even after you are read off you have to maintain the secrecy of any information you are exposed to. She violated that trust by participating in the publishing of classified information, rather than notifying authorities that it was compromised and working to contain the exposure until they could get involved.
If this turns out to be true, watch for her to be arrested, and later lauded by the Republican establishment as some sort of hero, followed by a gig on Fox News.
@Not the IT Dept.:
I increasingly feel a distinction needs to be drawn between people who play video games (which is almost everyone born since 1975) and the small subset that self-identify as “gamers”.
People who self identify as “gamers” are a huge red flag for me.
The GQP’s doublethink has progressed to the point where treason is patriotism.
There is a group of mostly young men – under age 26 – that forms around the social activity of playing video games, and also around ancillary activities. Teixiera was part of this group, Ms. Bils is definitely not.
I assert that they are, as a group, neither more nor less trustworthy than other young people of this age. I know others this age that are barhopping every night, or attending raves. Somehow gaming is worse than that?
Honestly, I despise how these groups wallow in the use of racial and other slurs. And I would expect that use of such slurs has very, very little value in predicting who might leak classified information, just as playing video games, and hanging out with others who do, does.
The whole thing about making E-7 but having an honorable discharge as an E-5 also strikes me as being fishy. I would want to see the honorable d/c papers. She would have an ethical obligation to report and try to stop the publication of intelligence but is there a legal obligation. I really dont remember that.
Steve
Distinction without a difference by someone who knows they did something legally actionable.
No, you just spread them knowing what they were, having a greater understanding of the meaning and import of that then your average idiot chair warrior. This is sort of like claiming you didn’t kill someone, you just shamelessly profited off the crime while getting your prints all over the evidence.
As former military, she knew she was supposed to report this violation. Hell, anyone who’s ever worked with any kind of confidential info is aware that when you notice a breach, you’re supposed to say something, not amplified and push it around to fit your personal agenda. If you find a cache of stolen SS numbers on a website and list them on your Twitter feed with a “hey guys, look what I found lol!!!”, it’s true you didn’t steal or leak them but you did still break the law by keeping them out there.
@Not the IT Dept.:
It strikes me that much of our politics, left too, but more right, has become performative nonsense. Why else would you take guns and Nazi regalia to a drag show? Or look at anything the Taylor Green person does.
Is the graphic supposed to be Donbas Girl? I like her cat.
“…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 (terrorist) paramilitary Wagner Group…” Outrageous, disgusting and till certain point, I think, criminal under National Security acts and laws….no one is gonna lock her out???
The E-5 thing is easy (and Navy has more authority than Army in Article 15 punishments going back to the days of sail, such as three days’ confinement on bread and water for E-1 to E-3). Most all Navy E-7 (CPO) selects are “frocked” at the same time in November, big ceremony where their new insignia is pinned on. But they are still E-6 (First Class Petty Officer) until their time for promotion rolls around (a segment each month, usually within a year).
So she got busted for something after the promotion ceremony and when she would have gotten paid for it, so was treated as an E-6 at Captain’s Mast (Article 15). It must have been something significant (but below Courts Martial) as the Goat Locker (the other CPOs) are like a Union, protective of their own once it is pinned on. She then voluntarily left the Navy when her enlistment was up (NOT retired) as her prospects as former Chief but now E-5 were about zero.
The E-5 thing is easy (and Navy has more authority than Army in Article 15 punishments going back to the days of sail, such as three days’ confinement on bread and water for E-1 to E-3). Most all Navy E-7 (CPO) selects are “frocked” at the same time in November, big ceremony where their new insignia is pinned on. But they are still E-6 (First Class Petty Officer) until their time for promotion rolls around (a segment each month, usually within a year).
So she got busted for something after the promotion ceremony and when she would have gotten paid for it, so was treated as an E-6 at Captain’s Mast (Article 15). It must have been something significant (but below Courts Martial) as the Goat Locker (the other CPOs) are like a Union, protective of their own once it is pinned on. She then voluntarily left the Navy when her enlistment was up (NOT retired) as her prospects as former Chief but now E-5 were about zero. Having only an Article 15, the characterization of her discharge was Honorable (there are ways to change that though an Administrative Board, but lots of work and most Art 15 offenses aren’t severe enough to change it), just let her slide out of the Navy with an Honorable. Then this, so some folks will be second guessing what her command did.
@Richard Gardner: That makes perfect sense. I don’t think the Army does frocking for senior NCOs—certainly not en masse.
@ James
Why does a prominent Republican Member of Congress like Marjory Taylor Green spout Russian propaganda? Why does Tucker Carlson, the biggest star in right wing media, do it? The world wonders…
@Richard Gardner: Correct. There’s an article about her being in a car accident in 2021, which most likely was a career killing DUI. A frocked CPO is an E6, and treated as such at Captain’s Mast (Aricle 15).
@Jay L Gischer:
I’m part of a Raver discord community. There’s lots of talk about drugs, dodgy science, lots and lots of exercise talk, and a minimal amount of dumb raver memes. A decently large group of us going together and went to a rave on Saturday, about half of us were women. I’m pretty sure none of us had met in person before. We all looked out for each other, we were were all great, polite and fun.
I can’t imagine doing that with a group of self-identified Gamers. I would avoid that group like the plague. That’s not to say that Ravers are some sort of perfect, the community has problems. But I can’t imagine something like this festering in a Raver group without someone pushing it elsewhere. Lol, we want to be able to talk about drugs and exercise without the government looking at us.
@Richard Gardner:
I haven’t had much time to comment on things, but Richard is probably right here. Frocking is a thing in the Navy, and during my 7 years of active duty, I saw a couple of cases where a frocked person did something dumb and went down “two stripes.”
If you screw up like that, the Navy can try admin separate you without an honorable discharge, but for anyone past their first enlistment, this can be difficult as there is a formal process that is difficult enough to do that most units don’t bother if the person’s enlistment is set to expire soon anyway.
Also, besides the character of discharge (honorable, general, etc.), there is also a reenlistment or RE code. You can get an honorable discharge, but also get an RE code that prevents reenlistment (without a waiver) due to a variety of factors, including misconduct. A list of RE codes is here.
@Beth: You mentioned belonging to a Discord group, so I will note in passing through that my last newsletter from KOTESOL (for EFL teachers) has set up a Discord site (?) for their international convention at the end of this month because this is the first year since Covid that they’ve had an in-person convention and many people who would otherwise be there are still not traveling.
ETA: Discord really gets around and is used for a lot of stuff.
AETA: Courtesy of Luddite this morning, a possible “Golden Years” event for your consideration: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/hard-mountain-dew-party-florida-retirement-village/?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew–
Hard Mountain Dew Throws a Rager at a Florida Retirement Village
Lots more information here, some questionable, like reporting all business with a NATO ally (very “sea lawyer” analysis – report your interaction with the foreigner at the taco truck you go to weekly), and confusing over rating (MOS) https://malcontentment.com/a-russian-disinformation-empire-in-oak-harbor-washington/ I know the area where she is living, remote and rural, 1.5 hours from Seattle.
@Beth: As a choice for you personally, I would completely agree. You would not fit with them, they would not protect you, they would not have your back. Because you are not part of their group, or their identity. It might work the other way around, too, though gamers can mask their identity fairly easily.
The disdain between these groups is mutual. As a person who goes to raves, they are going to think of you as the “cool kids”. The kids who are always putting them down, and mocking their choice of leisure activity.
This does not lessen any actual harm done by any of them, or anybody else. It does afford the possibility of understanding the motivations of somebody who isn’t like you. I personally find that a hugely valuable skill in life. Every day I do battle with oxytocin.
AND, I stand by my statement with regard to national secrets.
@Tony W: Don’t you mean leftist socialists like Democrat Bernie Sanders who actually honeymooned in the USSR, and is the darling of pro-Communist CNN and MSNBC?
@john430: We have discussed this.
Finish your PBJ and get back in your room.
One more outburst and we’re not going to Six Flags this summer.
@john430: ha funny. Especially since it has been Tucker and Margie lauding texeria. Other than that, your trumpie ass might have had a point.
@Thomm: “Especially since it has been Tucker and Margie lauding texeria.”
And also lauding Putin and Russia.
It’s pretty impressive that John430 can manage to hate Bernie for loving Russia while worshipping MTG for loving Russia. I suspect it’s because his brain is so empty the two thoughts never accidentally bump into each other.
@wr:
You win the internet today.
Discord is “for gamers” the same way Slack is “for work”. It’s just a chatroom with some nice integration features, and those features tend to be particularly useful to a gamer (or in the case of Slack, for work stuff), but that’s the extent of the connection. I’m in several Discord channels that are just extensions of community space for fellow fans of specific Youtube channels, or specific webnovels; nothing gamer-specific about it. In one case, the channel exists as a shared study group between people learning a programming language.
And as a self-identified gamer, I can assure you that we’re all terrible people who provide no value to society and have vile takes on everything, especially whatever political preferences you have. We definitely, absolutely, never raise millions of dollars for charity every year. That would be silly. And no gamer would ever be silly.
@wr:
It’s possible that he’s not doing both at the same time; that there’s only one thought in his brain at any moment.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It’s very simple, really. All things a D does is bad, all things an R does is good. Everything in between, their eyes go blank.
Presumably because she’s a right-wing extremist like many other American vets: Mike Flynn, Wendy Rogers, Allan West, Jim Banks, Ronny Jackson, Barry Loudermilk, Scott Perry, Don Balduc, not to mention all those charged with January 6 offences …
@Jax: Ayup! That works, too.
@Just nutha: Have you noticed a certain amount of anger amongst your students?
My kids are fucking PISSED. It started with Roe, then it went to the Tik Tok hearings, and all of a sudden the oldest is finding out where to register to vote and shit.
I hope they remain angry. They might save us all.
@Ken_L:
I’m offended by your anti-military bigotry. Take it elsewhere. You apparently are prejudiced against the military because you are so much better in your mind. You lump everything into convenient left-right compartments, and you fall for making Communists in Russia into Right wing in a USA-centric view (OK, they are indeed National Socialists – my view, they are neither, looking out for their own interests as the pendulum swings).
I actually think she is living is a fantasy world after her car accident – NFW she has PTSD from her job as an Avionics Technician.
[I have easy access to the local reporting and know folks in the area – but you are following the initial reports that are usually incomplete]
@john430:
1) The USSR is dead and gone; Putin’s kleptocrats are hardly leftists. Even if some idiot tankies still see Russia as the heir of the Soviets. And the “campist” left sees any country that’s antagonistic to the “West” as an ally.
2) Even when the Soviet Union was a thing, some of its most dedicated enemies were socialists. See e.g. the British Labour Party. If memory serves, about half the founding signatory governments of NATO were labour/social democrat/socialist.
@Richard Gardner: It’s a shame the truth offends you. Your description of Russian “communists/national socialists” is incoherent, nor does it have any connection with either my comment or my opinions.
@gVOR08:
The image is the avatar for the Donbas girl but it looks very similar to the picture of Bils floating around the internet.
https://news.usni.org/2023/04/17/feds-investigating-former-sailor-behind-pro-russian-donbass-devushka-accounts
It’s not the same person but very similar looking.
@Kazzy: Yeah, Could be the same person with a pretty professional-level makeup job. Maybe photoshopped.
@john430:
Do You think that someone who in 1903 admired tzarist Russia will pro-USSR in 1953?
@Miguel Madeira: Once an autocrat, always an autocrat. You don’t think Putin is an improvement over the USSR or the Tsars, do you?