Suspect behind leak of classified Pentagon documents arrested

The suspect is Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard Intelligence Wing.

Vista aérea del Pentágono. — (Wikimedia Commons / David B. Gleason)

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13 de abril, 2023

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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the arrest of Jack Teixeira as the person responsible for the leaks of confidential Pentagon documents. The 21-year-old is a member of the Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

The young man is charged with "the alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information," according to Garland.

New York Times' revelations

The New York Times revealed and shared images of Teixeira, claiming that he was guilty of leaking classified Pentagon documents on the internet in recent months.

The Times ' revelations coincide in part with what The Washington Post had published earlier.

The first disclosures released by 'The Washington Post'

The Washington Post predicted that the man behind the leaks is the head of a Discord chat group called "Thug Shaker Central" made up of about 25 "tight-knit" members, mostly men and boys. Among them are Russian and Ukrainian citizens who share interests in weapons, military gear and God.

The source commented that the young man is known to members as OG, a "gun enthusiast." He revealed that the leaker shared a large amount of classified material in the chat room and last year he posted a message "loaded with acronyms and strange jargon." He stated that he believed OG only shared the documents to keep the group "in the loop" and that he was not hostile to the U.S. government, nor was he working to help another country.

He also stated that he is "not a Russian, not a Ukrainian operative" and that he must have obtained the confidential information from his work at an "unidentified military base" at the time.

What did the classified information contain?

The source stated that OG did not intend to be a whistleblower, as he did not share the information with the public. The secret documents were posted on the internet by another teenage user from the group chat.

Top-secret information shared in the group chat included movements of high-ranking political leaders, tactical updates on military forces, detailed graphics of battlefield conditions in Ukraine, and satellite images of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes.

Other documents contained the potential trajectory of North Korean nuclear ballistic missiles that could reach the country and information on surveillance technology attached to the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the country in February.

Biden stated that "they are getting closer" to finding the culprit

President Joe Biden said hours earlier that the administration is "closing in" on the person responsible for the leak of Pentagon documents that the Department of Defense (DoD) described as "sensitive and highly classified material."

I cannot now give an update. A full investigation is underway with the Intelligence community and the Department of Justice and they are getting closer (...) I don't have an answer for you (...) I am concerned that it happened, but there is nothing contemporaneous that I know of that is of great importance.

White House quietly takes action

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the DoD took "steps to further restrict access to classified information" in the wake of the leaks, without commenting further:

Certainly, we are reviewing the national security implications of disclosure (...) And I can add that, you know, to mitigate the impact that the release of these documents has on our U.S. national security and also on our allies and partners.