The Jack Teixeira Case: State of the War Between Russia and Ukraine, and a Security Review of the NBC News Leaked Documents
NBC News reported earlier that law enforcement officials had linked leaked government documents to a 21-year-old Air Force National Guard member. The person, Jack Teixeira, was arrested at his home on Thursday.
The leaked documents posted to social media, some of which have been obtained by CNN, included detailed intelligence assessments of allies and adversaries alike, including on the state of the war in Ukraine and the challenges Kyiv and Moscow face as the war appears stuck in a stalemate.
But beginning in January, the online user began posting photographs of what appeared to be official U.S. government documents with classification markings. The document photographed was the status of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The leaker told another online user that he was going to get into trouble for making the transcriptions of text in the workplace, so he began taking the documents to his residence and photographing them.
During a press conference on Thursday, Department of Defense press secretary Patrick Ryder declined to comment on how many documents were leaked, while stating that law enforcement is still investigating. On Wednesday the company publicly announced that it was cooperating with a Department of Justice investigation. Discord didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
“We have safeguards in place, we have processes, we have procedures, and will continue to do due diligence as part of this review to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to prevent potential unauthorized disclosures in the future, recognizing that again, this was a criminal, deliberate act,” Ryder said.
An Air National Guard Sergeant is Arrested in Massachusetts after Leaking a Classified Document Leaked by a National Guard Activist
Attorney General Garland said on Thursday that a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in connection with leaking classified documents that have been posted online.
Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts without incident, Garland said, and will be arraigned in federal court there. “This investigation is ongoing. The attorney general declined to answer any questions and said they would share more information later.
The agency said the FBI is continuing to do authorized work at the residence. “Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”
While there’s a large number of people who had access to the documents, investigators were able to home in on a small number for closer scrutiny thanks to the forensic trail left by the person who posted the documents.
One of the officials said Biden has been briefed on the investigation and his top officials have been trying to reach out to allies who were identified in the leaked information. Behind the scenes, it has been a reality that has loomed over a deeply personal and important foreign trip for Biden, one official acknowledged.
Airman Teixeira: A Journeyman with an Air Force Journeyman: Peculiar Behavior in a Civil War and a Facing Phrase about the Military
The Air Force released details on the service record of Teixeira, who is an enlisted airman at the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He joined the service in September 2019 and his official job is Cyber Transport Systems journeyman. The Air Force says the Cyber Transport Systems specialists are tasked with making sure the service’s “vast, global communications network” is operating properly.
Several former high school classmates of Teixeira’s told CNN Thursday that he had a fascination with the military, guns and war. He behaved in a way that made others feel uneasy, and sometimes wore camouflage to school, while carrying adictionary-sized book on guns.
John Powell, who also attended middle school and high school with Teixeira, said he recalled him as a pleasant and quiet kid who was sometimes picked on. “He didn’t have many friends,” he said.
Teixeira grew up in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, according to public records. He attended Dighton-Rehoboth High School where he graduated in 2020, according to the superintendent of the regional school district.
Other students, who asked not to be identified, said they detected a more menacing vibe from Teixeira, who some recalled making comments they perceived as racist or mumbling derogatory things about people under his breath.
The student said she was shocked by the charges against him because he had a fascination with the military as a form of American nationalism. She said she didn’t believe he would be able to do something like this.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/13/politics/us-government-intel-leak
Department of Defense Intelligence and Security: How Do I Get My Information? A Response to a CNN Report on the Pentagon Communications Director Tim Ryder
CNN was told that some US officials who used to receive the materials daily have stopped receiving them recently.
The Joint Staff, which comprises the Defense Department’s most senior uniformed leadership that advises the president, began examining its distribution lists immediately after learning of the trove of leaked classified documents – many of which had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as the J2.
Defense Secretary Austin said he would not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard the nation’s secrets. “Accordingly, I am directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”
Ryder said the Pentagon continues “to review a variety of factors as it relates to safeguarding classified materials. This includes examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared, and a variety of other steps.”
The FBI has a team of counterintelligence investigators who hunt leaks who are in the lead of the criminal investigation.
Those investigators are also working with Pentagon officials on the damage assessment, which would become part of the evidence to be used in any potential prosecution that results.
Having top secret clearance in that job is perfunctory, even though that may sound like an exceptional degree for a junior-ranking service member.
According to the affidavit, he was given access to a type of sensitive compartmented information, or SCI, which typically tells a user how intelligence was derived. Military and civilian users of SCI must sign nondisclosure agreements at the beginning and end-points of their service that involves access to such information.
Most of the time classification markings on top secret documents are standard practice.
Jack Teixeira, a former Air National Guard Member, is charged with two felony counts of unauthorized retention and removal of classified information
All cyber transport system airmen must get a high level background investigation in order to get a high level clearance which allows them to use computer networks with top secret data.
The C.I.A. and Defense Intelligence Agency’s own secret-level and top-secret-level portals typically contain short vignettes on world events on their homepages, divvied up by geographic region and topic area — which can be see in some of the files that Teixeira is accused of taking.
The unit provides intelligence for combat support and homeland security. Teixeira was granted a “top secret security clearance” in 2021, meaning he would have signed a “lifetime binding non-disclosure agreement” acknowledging that leaking protected information could result in criminal charges, according to the federal complaint.
Such missions produce large streams of classified data, and airmen like Mr. Teixeira would likely be needed to maintain the networks that allow video and text information to flow from the drones to other users.
“Clearly, too many people have access to too much top secret information” that they have no need to know, said Evelyn Farkas, the top Defense Department official for Russia and Ukraine during the Obama administration.
Jack Teixeira was in court for the District of Massachusetts where he made his initial court appearance.
The Air National Guard member in Massachusetts faces two felony charges, one for unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and one for unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.
It’s not the first time a person with an IT background has been suspected of leaking classified information. Edward Snowden, who released a trove of documents from the National Security Agency in 2013, was a federal contractor and systems administrator in Hawaii at the time. IT professionals can access an array of records and server in order to fix technical problems.
The federal complaint said that the purpose of divulging secret information was to discuss geopolitical affairs and current wars.
There was a lot of interest in Orthodox Catholicism, guns, and racist meme among the users of the channel where the information was leaked.
Meanwhile, the founder of the channel used a profile picture of Terry Davis, a computer programmer who suffered from schizophrenia and spoke about hearing the voice of God.
On the spreading of documents on social media: a Discord user’s experience with boost channels and emojis
His friends said that Teixeira did not intend for the documents to spread beyond their chat, but at least one of those friends posted them on other Discord servers.
The charging documents state that the documents were posted on a social media account that he had signed up for, using his real name and credit card information.
On Discord, users can “boost” channels they manage by making monthly payments, allowing them to get better streaming quality and other perks like access to additional emojis.