Discord Leaks Reveal Chinese Spy Balloons Are Named For Mob Bosses

Whitey Bulger, Donald Killeen and Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo were all big names in organized crime during the 20th century. But they’re also the names given to Chinese spy balloons by U.S. intelligence, according to documents leaked on Discord over the past few months.

The Washington Post has a fascinating new report about various Chinese spy balloons that U.S. authorities were tracking before the balloon that captured national attention back in February. The revelations are part of the documents allegedly leaked by a 21-year-old IT worker with the U.S. military on the messaging platform Discord.

And while the presence of previously undisclosed spy balloons is certainly interesting in and of itself, the unique nature of the Discord leaks means we’re getting a peek behind the secretive curtain at U.S. intelligence agencies which includes details that would normally only be revealed decades later, if they were revealed at all.

One Chinese spy balloon, dubbed the Bulger-21, was named for Whitey Bulger, the organized crime boss who evaded authorities for decades before being caught in 2011. Bulger died in prison in 2018. The Bulger-21 circled the globe from December 2021 until May 2022 and carried “sophisticated surveillance equipment,” according to the Washington Post.

A leaked document about Bulger-21 includes a photograph taken by the spy balloon, though it’s not clear how U.S. intelligence obtained the image. The documents all originated with intelligence agencies that don’t get much attention in the press but are considered vital to U.S. military interests, like the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Another Chinese balloon, called the Killeen-23 by U.S. intelligence agencies, was named for Donald Killeen, a South Boston crime boss who was murdered in 1972. Killeen-23 contained a “parabolic dish measuring 1.2 meters in diameter,” but its image collection capabilities were apparently still a mystery.

Another spy balloon, Accardo-21, was named after Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo, a Chicago crime boss who died of old age in the early 1990s. The Accardo-21 reportedly carried a “foil-lined gimbaled” sensor, though the Post story doesn’t include enough contextual information to explain what that would be used for.

Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who held a Top Secret clearance, allegedly leaked these documents, among plenty of others, to a private server on Discord called Thug Shaker Central, starting late last year. Teixeira was arrested on Thursday and he’s been charged with improper handling and distribution of classified documents.

While outlets like Bellingcat, the New York Times and the Washington Post broke the story of Teixeira’s Discord activity, he was reportedly tracked down by the FBI through billing information he gave to Discord. Maybe U.S. intelligence agencies will some day name a spy balloon for Teixeira. But for now, he’s going to be sitting in jail probably wishing things had turned out differently.