US National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to leaking top-secret Pentagon documents

Before his arrest, Teixeira had been an airman 1st class at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where he worked as a cyber defence operations journeyman, or information technology support specialist.

Despite being a low-level airman, Teixeira held a top-secret security clearance, and starting in January 2022 began accessing hundreds of classified documents related to topics including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to prosecutors.

He did so even though his superiors admonished him twice in September and October 2022 about his handling of classified information, according to internal Air National Guard records filed in court.

Teixeira at the time led a private server – a kind of chat room – on Discord called “Thug Shaker Central,” and prosecutors said he began sharing classified information on three servers while bragging he had access to “stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China.”

US grand jury indicts Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira

The leaked documents held highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defences to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

In December, the US Air Force announced it had moved to discipline 15 staff over the leak and relieved Colonel Sean Riley of the command of the unit to which Teixeira belonged.

It did so after an Air Force inspector general report on the incident found that some members of Teixeira’s unit and leadership “had information about as many as four separate instances of his questionable activity”.

A smaller number of people had a more complete picture of his intelligence-seeking behaviour and “intentionally failed to report the full details of these security concerns/incidents”, the report said.

The Air Force following the leaks said it implemented several reforms to improve procedures related to access to classified information.

Темы и теги

США Политика

Джек Тейсеира Пентагон Национальная гвардия раскрытие секретный документ Тейсеира признаться виновный