IN THE MIDDLE of the biggest ‘spy’ scandal to rock the United States in decades, the probable author of the leak of dozens of Pentagon documents was captured, but the reasons and purposes that this young aviator had for these leaks remain a mystery.
Defined by his friends as a patriot, devout Catholic, libertarian and even a loner, Jack Teixeira, at the age of 21, became the unlikely protagonist of this event, both because of his high access capacity despite his low rank, and because of the place where he decided to disclose them: the chat room of the social network Discord, described by experts as a natural place for online renegades and nerds, for which reason it is little known.
But who is Teixeira? What is known of the documentss filtered? And why has this unexpected breach in ironclad security shaken the foundations of US policy?
Texeira is the son of a long line of military men and the portrait made in the US media by his acquaintances is more that of a naive young man who wanted to impress his friends than that of a warning person determined to reveal the secrets of the United States.
If found guilty of leaking dozens of secret documents, this low-ranking national guard, who gained confidential access to sensitive information from a young age, could face a long sentence. On Friday he was charged with “withholding and unauthorized transmission of national defense information and classified material.”
The 21-year-old, originally from the small southern Massachusetts town of Dighton, enlisted in the Air Force National Guard in September 2019.
According to court documents citing government records, Teixeira achieved the rank of airman first class – the third lowest for enlisted personnel in the air force – last May.
He is a communication and technology expert stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, about 110 kilometers south of Boston.
As of February this year, Texeira was a cyber defense operations officer, an FBI agent said in an affidavit released Friday.
According to special agent Patrick Lueckenhoff, “as required for his position, Teixeira had a top-secret security clearance that was granted in 2021.”
In addition to this authorization, Teixeira also maintained “Sensitive Compartment Access (SCI) to other highly classified programs.”
SCI is information with high restrictions. To access it, Teixeira must have agreed to “properly protect” the information and not reveal it to people without privileged access.
You must also have agreed not to remove it from “unauthorized storage facilities” or store it in “unauthorized locations,” the affidavit states.
The indictment claims that Teixeira began posting classified information in a group chat on the online platform Discord around December of last year.
The group’s goal was to “discuss geopolitical issues and current and historical wars.”
Teixeira is accused of first posting paragraphs of text from the classified documents before starting to post photos of them.
The government says computer records show the young military man accessed a document on troop movement in the Russia-Ukraine war a day before the content was posted online.
A friend said to The Washington Post that Teixeira did not want to undermine US national security, but rather to educate the younger members of the online group.
“I loved America, but I just didn’t have confidence in its future,” the person quoted in the newspaper said.
Teixeira comes from a family with decades of military service. His stepfather spent 34 years in the same unit as his son, while Teixeira’s mother worked for NGOs that support military veterans, according to the same outlet.
Revelations?
The leaked classified documents, some highly classified, detail Washington’s views on the war in Ukraine and appear to indicate intelligence gathering on close Washington allies.
The Pentagon, through its spokesman, General Pat Ryder, maintained that the unauthorized disclosure of several documents was “a deliberate criminal act” and added that “It is important to understand that we have strict guidelines in place to safeguard confidential and classified information. This has been a violation of those guidelines.”
However, the authenticity of the photographed materials, which are circulating on various websites, has not yet been publicly confirmed by the authorities, nor could it be immediately verified independently.
One of the documents takes stock of the conflict in Ukraine as of March 1, 2023, that is, after just over a year of fighting, and assesses Russia’s losses of between 35,500 and 43,500 people, compared to 16,000 to 17,500 in Ukraine. Moscow also reportedly lost more than 150 planes and helicopters, compared to more than 90 for kyiv.
Another version of the document, apparently doctored, claims instead that Ukrainian losses would be higher than Russian ones, which seems to confirm Pentagon fears that this leak could “potentially feed disinformation.”.
Two documents dated February 28 detail the worrying state of Ukraine’s air defenses, which have so far played a crucial role against Russian attacks, preventing Moscow from gaining control of airspace.
kyiv’s ability to maintain medium-range air defenses to protect the front line “will be reduced to zero by May 23,” they say.
One of the documents notes that nearly 90% of Ukraine’s medium- and long-range defenses are made up of Soviet-era SA-11 and SA-10 systems, which could run out of ammunition by late March and early May respectively. .
The document lists possible responses, such as resupplying ammunition from allies and partners in the near term, and calling for contributions from Western air defense systems – several of which have already been promised – in the medium term.
Another undated report says that Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky reportedly regretted to his highest general that the Ukrainian army did not have long-range missiles that would allow it to directly attack enemy forces on Russian soil, and suggested in late February to take carry out such an attack by means of drones.
This information, which seems to indicate that Washington is watching its partner, could partly explain the US reluctance to provide Kiev with the longer-range weapons it has been asking for, but this US hesitation predates the aforementioned exchange.
In another file, also undated, it is claimed that the leaders of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, encouraged both agency officials and ordinary citizens to protest against the controversial judicial reform promoted by the Israeli government.
The source of this information, the interception of electronic communications, seems to point to espionage operations by the United States against an allied country.
According to another of the documents, detailing a March 1 exchange between two South Korean officials, the South Korean national security council feared the United States would transfer certain munitions ordered from Seoul to Kiev.
That would have violated South Korea’s policy not to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, whose forces have faced critical ammunition shortages.
This revelation, which again seems to suggest that Washington is spying on a close ally, has sparked criticism in South Korea, where the opposition called on Wednesday for an investigation to be opened. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office countered that the spying allegations were “nonsensical lies.”
Other papers, dated February 27, discuss surveillance flights of the Black Sea by the US, UK, France and NATO from late September to late February using drones and manned aircraft.
About two weeks after the date of this document, Washington accused the Russian military of intercepting one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones over the Black Sea and damaging it, which Moscow denied.
To prevent situations like the ones mentioned above from recurring, the Biden administration ordered to review and refine” the “strict protocols” that exist in the institutions for the “protection and safeguarding” of information, which, due to its importance and implications, is classified. / International writing with AFP