Global Courant 2023-04-14 01:55:52
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made an arrest in connection with the leaking of United States military intelligence documents, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying that a 21-year-old member of the United States Air Force National Guard in custody has been taken “without incident”.
Jack Teixeira’s arrest on Thursday came “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transfer of classified national defense information,” Garland told reporters.
Pentagon officials said they were still assessing the size and scope of the leak, which appeared to contain classified information about the war in Ukraine and US allies.
However, officials have repeatedly warned that some documents have been tampered with and may be used in disinformation campaigns.
Although authorities have provided few details about Teixeira, information about his life appeared in the US media after his arrest.
Video showed heavily armed officers in Massachusetts accompanying a young man in a gray T-shirt and bright red shorts into a waiting car. His head was bowed and his hair was cropped short.
The New York Times reported that Teixeira was a member of the National Guard’s intelligence division. A post on the unit’s official Facebook page stated that he was among a group of members who were promoted to Airman First Class in July 2022.
The Air Force later said Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in September 2019. His official job title was “cyber transport systems journeyman”.
The role is tasked with maintaining the underlying infrastructure of the Air Force’s “vast, global communications network”.
“Whether repairing a network hub at a base in the United States or installing fiber optic cable at a remote installation abroad, these experts keep our communications systems up and running and play an integral role in our continued success,” a description of the role on the That reports the website of the Air Force.
Documents shared online
The Times and other US media have also identified Teixeira as the leader of a small gaming chat group on the Discord platform, where the leaked documents first emerged.
The Washington Post had previously reported that the online group was founded in 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The chat group, made up of about two dozen young men and boys, bonded over their love of guns, military equipment and religion. Membership was by invitation only, the paper said.
One member said, “We all grew up very close to each other, like a close-knit family… We depended on each other.”
At the center of that family was Teixeira, members known as OG. He was considered the leader of the group.
Teixeira was widely admired for his bravado, with members saying he would post videos of himself at a shooting range, including one of him uttering racist and anti-Semitic remarks before opening fire, the Post reported. Offensive jokes and memes were common on the site.
At some point last year, members told the newspaper, Teixeira began posting what appeared to be rewritten transcripts of classified information, which he touted as available through his work. The transcripts include military jargon definitions and other annotations.
He regularly lectured the group on the importance of staying up to date with current events and appeared to post the transcribed information to inform other members, Post said.
Teixeira later switched to posting photos of the documents, though a timeline of when that started wasn’t immediately clear.
Bellingcat, an open-source investigative news site, had previously reported that the documents first appeared on Discord no later than March, but they may have been posted as early as January.
The classified material gradually made its way to other sites, including the image board 4Chan, as well as more mainstream social media platforms. Discord has said it is cooperating with investigators.
Teixeira’s mother Dawn, who was reached Thursday at her Massachusetts home, told the New York Times that her son had been working the night shift at a base on Cape Cod.
She also explained that he had changed his phone number in recent days. Shortly before he was apprehended, he arrived at the house in a red pickup.
In Thursday’s statement, Attorney General Garland said Teixeira would have an initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, but did not give a date.
The US is rushing to contain the leak
US media began reporting widely on the leak last week, prompting President Joe Biden’s administration to scramble to contain the fallout from the documents, which revealed vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and exposed private assessments by allies on a range of intelligence issues .
The documents have also confused close US allies. Some seemed to show that Egypt was planning to sell arms to Russia, in a deal it wanted to keep secret from Washington.
Another document seemingly showed that Russian agents were developing a closer relationship with the United Arab Emirates, while a third document indicated that South Korean leaders were hesitant to ship artillery shells to Ukraine.
The governments involved in those claims have all denied the information contained in the documents.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden told reporters, “I’m not worried about the leak. I’m afraid it’s happened, but there’s nothing contemporary that I’m aware of of major importance.
On Thursday, Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder said his agency would not comment on the details of the leaked documents because they had not been officially released.
“I will emphasize that, as a matter of longstanding policy, just because classified information can be posted online or elsewhere does not mean it has been released by a classification body,” he said.
“We are simply not going to discuss or confirm classified information because of its potential impact on national security, as well as the safety and security of our personnel and that of our allies and our partners.”
