MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. US law enforcement agents in Massachusetts have arrested a suspect in connection with the leak of classified Pentagon documents. He was identified as US national Jack Douglas Teixeira, a member of the United States Air Force National Guard. A local court is expected to rule on Friday to transfer his case to Washington.
Teixeira published secret documents on the online platform Discord, from where they leaked to the Internet, the New York Times reported. The suspect is facing a jail term of tens of years. News media still continue to release new data from the classified documents that were allegedly leaked. The Pentagon is unaware how much more data could be made public.
TASS has put together the latest updates on the Pentagon data leaks.
Arrest of the suspect
The US Justice Department on April 13 arrested US national Jack Douglas Teixeira on suspicion of leaking secret Pentagon documents. He is set to appear in a Boston court on Friday, CNN reported. Law enforcement activity has been conducted at the suspect’s home.
The airman had been under FBI surveillance for at least two days before the arrest, CNN reported. The arrest was rushed when reporters for The New York Times attempted to speak with the man, after identifying him by photos on social media.
Teixeira will probably be charged under the legislation known as the Espionage Act, the New York Times reported. Section 793 of US Code Title 18 (Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information) stipulates up to 10 years in prison as punishment for the offense. However, Teixeira could be charged separately for each of the documents that ended up on the Internet. In that case, the jail term could extend to tens of years, the newspaper said.
Air Force service
Teixeira is a member of the United States Air Force National Guard in the State of Massachusetts, serving in the department of Cyber Transport Systems. He holds the rank of Airman 1st Class and has earned an Air Force Achievement Medal.
According to the New York Times, the 21-year-old serviceman was the leader of an online gaming chat group, called Thug Shaker Central, which included from 20 to 30 users of Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. The secret documents were probably uploaded to the Internet from this platform. The suspect allegedly posted the documents using the OG nickname, the Washington Post reported.
Teixeira’s unit, among other things, makes sure that the Air Force’s vast global telecommunications network keeps running well.
One of the suspect’s friends told the Washington Post that Teixeira started to upload the secret files last year. Teixeira said the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine were depressing and the two countries "should have more in common than keeping them apart." The suspect "took no sides in the conflict" and allegedly believed that he was educating his friends by sharing the classified documents.
Content of the leaked documents
There were two leaks of the classified documents that occurred at the start of April. The documents concerned the US Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office and were posted on Twitter and Telegram. They have been examined by US news media. The first leak contained information on military operations in Ukraine. The documents provided the assessment of the situation as of March 1 and described the Ukraine military as being exhausted, one year after the start of the special military operation. Also, the documents contained schedules of, and data about weapons supplies, maps showing the positions and number of troops, information about the movements of troops of Ukraine, the US and its allies and analytical data.
For example, according to the latest leaks, Ukraine received 31% of the pledged 200 tanks of various types, while another 120 tanks were headed to Ukraine as of the time the documents were current, the European edition of Politico reported.
The second leak contained data on Ukraine, the military posture of Western countries and their relations with the Middle East and the Far East. According to news reports, the documents revealed that the US eavesdrops on meetings held by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and South Korean officials. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is kept under intense surveillance.
Investigation of the leak
The Pentagon and the US Justice Ministry are conducting an investigation into the incident. The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is set to hold a series of meetings to examine how Teixeira gained access to the highly sensitive data.
The Pentagon is pledging to do all it takes to protect data and is already limiting the number of staff with access to secret materials. The agency is unaware how much more data could be made public, according to the Times.
The US also doesn’t rule out that the incident could be a result of a foreign intelligence operation, which was purported to look like a leak, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Worldwide response
The Ukrainian government initially said the leaks were not real. According to CNN, Kiev had to alter its military plans following the leaks. However, Ukraine said the leaks wouldn’t affect the plans and the documents had no operational significance. Kiev has been indignant about the pessimism that was expressed in the materials about how much success Ukrainian forces could achieve, Politico reported, citing a Ukrainian commander.
The leaks could be deliberate and seek to spread false information to confuse Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
US allies have used diplomatic channels to convey their discontent about the incident, Bloomberg reported. The UK Defense Ministry said the documents contained inaccuracies.