He was an intelligence officer and I think ever since 9/11 the USA has really changed what it means to be a national guard reservist from the “weekend warrior” thing to much closer to just really being active duty military - at least in many cases.
“In many cases” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I have chatted with a reservist, and his description is opportunities to volunteer in a task come up all the time. Like election workers are sometimes staffed by national guardsmen. Or fill in as medical support during an army exercise. Or even stand with shields for crowd control if there was a riot. What percentage of reservists do at least one of those during a year? probably high, like 80+%. what percentage of reservists have other jobs and are definitely not active duty? probably over 90%.
You’re probably too young to remember before 9/11, but it used to be like reservist meant nothing more than “weekend warrior”. You probably don’t get that. More than 300000 reservists were deployed from the National Guard to Iraq. That’s not the kind of thing people would have imagined when their idea of the National Guard was what you saw in First Blood in 1982. Also “doing a lot of heavy lifting” is a really stupid expression and everyone who says it, or tons of similar excuses for coming up with something to say on your own, sounds dumb.
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The National Guard even advertised it like that throughout the 90s (and maybe the early 2000s).
“One weekend a month, two weeks a year”
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Oh yeah, I remember that. Very different perception now after they demonstrated that you can actually be called up for more than cleaning up after a flood in the midwest.
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“In many cases” is doing an appropriate amount of lifting because as far as I can tell this guy was full time at his unit. National guard and reserves are different. National guard just implies that the units are normally under state control (can be activated under federal command for a limited duration). They often employ part timers but even then it’s more work than the reserves. Their mission is full time though and every unit will have full time staff.
This guy has access to intel because he worked at an intel unit. Why a state needs a unit that gathers and produces international intelligence, I don’t know. Most likely it’s not that the state that needs the products, but they’re in a unique position to hire talent that wouldn’t be interested in joining federal service. Because again, there are a lot of part time positions available and even if you’re full time you have the benefit of knowing you’ll always be based out of your home state. This guy was a low level IT worker, not directly involved in intel, but you need your IT support to have access to at least the rooms where the intel analysts work and logins to the classified networks. You’re always going to need someone in IT with that access because there’s a lot of IT stuff involved. Usually the thorough background checks and threat of life in prison is enough to deter even the low level workers from leaking stuff.
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It could have been nothing more than the fact that recruitment in every branch but the USAF is way way down and they are struggling to keep up, so some of the mission may be getting farmed out to reserve and guard units. But I’d love to understand what the ‘need to know’ was in this guy’s case.
Right on cue, if it’s a MAGAT he can literally commit murder and this idiot will support him without question.
i am old enough to remember rotc dropouts and reservists being deployed to Iraq. i do know from multiple people that weekend a month in 80s and 90s was a pretty sweet deal, that is no longer so hot. but point is that for a vast majority, being in reserve right now is not at all like being active duty. when you say many, do you mean like 5%? or hundreds who are essentially working for the guard full-time?
US Army claims it started with the Gulf War and the process was more gradual. And the “weekend warrior” stuff does predate the Gulf War, but still 9/11 was the start of fully realized perpetual war.
exactly my point. my friend was active duty, then part-time while in school, then reserve, very much a typical service experience. i’m just relaying his experience he explained to me. being a reservist, which is what mb contended, is not anywhere close to active duty, even post 9/11 buildup. “many cases” in my estimation is only a fraction of all cases.
She left out he’s a racist. Idk if that’s an oversight or a hint of reservation.
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Yes, reserves are almost entirely the 1 weekend/month + 2 weeks/year type. Just enough permanent staff to keep the unit running. The intent is to do the bare minimum to keep everyone deployable. Deployments even over the past 20 years have been rare and even potentially avoidable if you’re motivated enough.
Guard units have more full time positions, actually accomplish day to day work, and even the part timers are encouraged to come in as often as necessary to stay proficient at their jobs. Deployments are much more common, practically at a regular component schedule.
This leak story should really be in its own thread imo
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Whether or not reservists are more active duty military or weekend warriors, why in the world should this dude holed up in Massachusetts have access to documents relating to the US surveilling the UN chief?
Because most security is fucking terrible and full of holes. It relies on people not trying to steal or the distance/incompetence/otherness of the opponent.
If people had been able to post shit on the internet in the 50s and 60s instead of making secret contact with the KGB there would have been a lot of stuff shared.
https://twitter.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1646940899035717639?t=3vU0Js_h9uNpAFw-el4-8A&s=19
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1646907873476198401?t=RIlg_qy1PV0ypbmRo72htg&s=19
I feel bad for the kid. His new friends suck. When they make the movie of his life it will be one of those farcical spy comedies.
he’s pretty lucky he got caught while looking so stupid. if he had fled and had to do a snowden, that would have severely limited his future prospects
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Snowden is living it up I’m told
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