Last week, the FBI arrested the suspected leaker of highly classified US intelligence reports to social media. Join us as we explore the high-level breach of The Pentagon.
The suspected leaker who sent tremors across the world was arrested last week. The FBI hunted and captured Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s Intelligence Wing, at his mom’s home in North Dighton, MA.
The leak represented a stunning breach of security for the Pentagon. These documents contained a detailed analysis of Ukraine’s war, including that Ukrainian air fortifications could soon be emptied. It also exposed how the US spies on its so-called “allies”.
What started a dramatic international incident began in a small group chat called “Thug Shaker Central” on Discord, a free communications app that lets you share voice, video, and text chat with anyone. The group contained 20 to 30 users (mainly men and boys across the world) who formed this group during Covid. It was a group “Mainly focused on guns and libertarian politics and bonded over their shared interest in Glock handguns and Catholicism.” according to a young member of the group who spoke with the Washington Post.
The group’s ringleader was a user they called “OG” (a term for Original Gangster, commonly used if you started playing a game soon after its release). They uploaded sensitive US government documents to keep his friends “in the loop” about world events, the member told the Washington Post, “The docs were never intended for widespread reading”, but late in February, a teenage member of the group posted some of those docs to another Discord server affiliated with a famous Filipino YouTuber, and the secret documents eventually made their way to bigger platforms such as 4chan and Twitter for all to see.
While members of Thug Shaker Central who spoke with the New York Times declined to identify “OG”, the FBI connected the dots that it was Teixeira.
In the affidavit, it states in paragraph 24 that he “Holds a Top Secret security clearance, which was granted in 2021 … to acquire his security clearance TEIXEIRA would have signed a lifetime binding non-disclosure agreement which he would have had to acknowledge that the unauthorized disclosure of protected information could result in criminal charges.” Therefore, he knew what he was doing was illegal.
As well, in paragraph 25 it says, “In addition to TEIXEIRA’s Top Secret clearance, he maintained Sensitive Comparted Access (SCI) to other highly classified programs.” With SCI Teixeira had access to other even more highly-classified info and projects.
The fact that a Junior Air National Guard member who is barely old enough to drink in America had access to closely guarded information will cause the Pentagon to review its processes around classified material. Almost 3 million people had access to classified documents as of 2019, according to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
By Ieuan, Yr8
Carre’s Grammar School, Sleaford
Very good shocking how someone who can barley drink over there have access to such highly classified intel