As a leaker of government material, Jack Teixeira isn’t a very impressive figure. Only 21 years old, he is a lower-ranking airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, not exactly the most prestigious part of the US military system.
But Teixeira was arrested on charges related to revealing highly classified, damaging materials, with some material making US allies doubt their ability to share intelligence with Americans and other material threatening to reveal US intelligence methods. Some of the revelations could even have hurt the Ukrainian military effort against Russia.
The US, among other leading countries, appears to have a particular problem with leakers. Edward Snowden, Bradley (Chelsea) Manning, Reality Winner and others have leaked out damaging US secrets despite not being particularly high-placed individuals.
These latest leaks once again raise the question: How can America safeguard its secrets from being leaked—by its own citizens?
How the case unfurled
On April 6, The New York Times revealed that classified documents, including those used to brief senior government officials on intelligence matters, had been leaked in online chat rooms on the social network Discord.
Those leaks had been going on since December of 2022, when someone first started posting classified information in a Discord server for gun enthusiasts. Members of that server only started releasing a few of the documents outside that private server in March.
A few were first spread to a different Discord server. Some images then ended up on the online forum 4chan and some were then posted in a pro-Russian Telegram chat.
By April 13, the FBI had identified and arrested Teixeira. He was charged the next day with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents. Those charges carry a maximum combined total sentence of 15 years in prison.
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