Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, was arrested Thursday in connection with leaking classified military documents.
Summary
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, was arrested Thursday in connection with leaking classified military documents.
- Teixeira made his first court appearance on Friday and has been charged with two separate counts: The unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.
- Airman Teixeira is accused of obtaining classified documents and sharing them in a Discord group made up of young men and teenage boys who were enthusiasts of war-themed video games. Teixeira’s goal, according to the group members, was “both to inform and impress.”
- Teixeira made his first court appearance on Friday and has been charged with two separate counts: The unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.
- According to court records, interviews with another Discord user and billing records from the social media site helped the FBI identify Teixeira as the chief suspect in the classified document leak. The judge ordered Teixeira into detention until a hearing next Wednesday.
- The affidavit also alleges the FBI detected Teixeira on April 6th – the day the New York Times first broke the news of the information breach – after he searched for the word “leak” in a classified database.
- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) announced the committee would investigate “why this happened, why it went unnoticed for weeks, and how to prevent future leaks.”
- The vast majority of the more than 60 documents made public by Teixeira appear to have originated at either the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon or the Central Intelligence Agency’s Operation Center.
- The documents included details of U.S. and allies’ military forces, internal deliberations, and strategic vulnerabilities. U.S intelligence on the internal workings of Ukraine, Russia, Israel, South Korea, and Egypt were all exposed in a damaging embarrassment for U.S. foreign policy. Despite the leak, allies still say they have little choice but to continue to share information with the U.S.
- CNN reported the 21-year-old guardsman joined the Air National Guard in 2019 and was under surveillance for several days before the FBI arrested him on Thursday.
- Russia’s special forces have been “gutted” by the war in Ukraine, according to a Washington Post exclusive report on “the Discord Leaks.” The “staggering” levels of casualties inflicted on the Spetsnaz Brigades could take as much as a decade for Moscow to reconstitute them to their pre-war levels.
- Few politicians have defended Teixeira’s actions, with one exception: firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. According to NBC News, Greene praised the leaker’s actions, said he was “white, male, christian, and antiwar” (there is no evidence yet that he holds antiwar views) which “makes him an enemy to the Biden regime… ask yourself who is the real enemy?” Evidently, Greene thinks the real enemy is the President?
- Fox News reported a “panicked” Teixeira seemed to know the gig was up in a call with members of his Thug Shaker Central group just before his arrest. “Guys, it’s been good – I love you all” he said according to one of the group members. “I never wanted it to get like this. I prayed to God that this would never happen. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. Only God can decide what happens from now on.”
- National Review noted the documents ranged from top-secret information about the ongoing War in Ukraine to intelligence on internal South Korean government debates over whether to supply Ukraine with ammunition and a previously-unreported incident where a Russian fighter jet targeted a British surveillance vehicle.
- The Wall Street Journal reported the Pentagon is investigating just how a low-level Air National Guard member was given access to the types of files that he leaked on Discord. “The suspected leaker could have been performing a function beyond his official title, a common situation in the U.S. military, defense officials said. And of course, he might not have been authorized to access the documents but could have found a way around the safeguards.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
