Pantagon leaks: FBI arrests 21-year-old suspect

Washington is going to have a hard time explaining how the biggest U.S. intelligence leak in a decade may have been committed by a 21-year-old airman whose role — “cyber transport systems journeyman” — required a high-school degree, a driver’s license and up to 18 months of on-the-job-training. The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, of Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday, with the promise of a swift arraignment on Friday. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was being held in connection with the “unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.” US authorities say sensitive government secrets were leaked in an online gaming chat group.

As Pentagon jobs go, Teixeira’s was pretty junior. An Air Force job description says workers like him “keep our communications systems up and running and play an integral role in our continuing success.” He joined the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record. That will raise the inevitable question: If a low-level Defense Department employee has access to such sensitive information, who doesn’t? “It’s outrageous that these kinds of documents would be shared with an insignificant national guard unit,” said Dennis Wilder, former senior editor of the President’s Daily Brief. “This is a real Pentagon problem.”

 Experts and former officials said it was a massive exposure that highlighted not only up-to-the-minute assessments of the Ukraine war, but also how the U.S. collects intelligence around the world. One official from an allied nation described how telephones immediately began ringing when a Washington Post report landed Thursday night describing the leaker as a military buff who started sharing the documents with online friends and acquaintances - some of them just teenagers - in an apparent bid to stave off isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. It was, the person said, a fresh reminder of a question that's dogged the US after a series of intelligence failures - whether the most powerful nation on Earth is able to keep a secret. To address those concerns, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Thursday that he'd ordered a review of the Pentagon's "intelligence access, accountability and control procedures" to make sure a leak like that never happens again.

"It's clear that we have a problem of a huge number of people with access to classified information," said Holden Triplett, founder of Trenchcoat Advisors and a former FBI counterintelligence official in Moscow and Beijing. "I don't think the US has made as much progress as it could controlling who it gives what to and when." The unit where Teixeira is assigned sheds light on his proximity to Top Secret information. Based on Cape Cod, the 102nd Intelligence Wing provides "worldwide precision intelligence and command and control along with trained and experienced airmen for expeditionary combat support and homeland security," its website says.

Teixeira was with the unit on a one-year active duty deployment that started last September. His job was network defense and he held a classification known as Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information, the official said. That's one of the highest classifications and involves extensive vetting. It would have given Teixeira access to information that's defined as "concerning or derived from intelligence sources, methods or analytical processes that is required to be protected within formal access control systems established" by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, according to the office.