A 21-year-old national guardsman named Jack Teixeira was arrested by the FBI on Thursday for being the suspected culprit behind a major leak of sensitive US government secrets, including information about the Ukraine war. Teixeira is an employee of the US Air Force National Guard and the leader of the online chat group where the leaked documents first emerged. He was arrested "in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information" and was taken into custody without incident.
The Pentagon has said that the leak presents a "very serious" risk to US national security, and spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder has condemned it as a "deliberate criminal act." The embarrassing security breach included top-secret documents and has revealed US unease over the viability of a coming counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces against Russian troops, as well as concerns about Ukrainian air defenses. It also pointed to US spying on allies, including Israel and South Korea.
According to The New York Times, a "trail of digital evidence" pointed to Teixeira as the leader of the private group on Discord, called Thug Shaker Central, where the documents surfaced. The group of around 24 people, including some from Russia and Ukraine, bonded over their "mutual love of guns, military gear and God," and formed an "invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord," reported the Post.
OG, the alleged leaker, reportedly went by the nickname "OG" and regularly posted documents in the chat group in question for months. He first wrote down the contents of classified documents to share with the group, but later began taking photos, telling other members not to share them. OG had a "dark view of the government" and "spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark," the Post said, citing one of the group's members.
President Joe Biden addressed the leak during a visit to Ireland, saying he was "concerned" but that the intelligence community and Justice Department were "getting close" to identifying the source of the leak. The FBI made a "probable cause" arrest of Teixeira, who was expected to make an initial appearance as early as Friday at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
In response to the leak, the Defense Department is "examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared, and a variety of other steps," Ryder told journalists. A Discord spokesperson told AFP that user safety is a priority, and that content violating its policies can result in people being banned, servers being shut down, and police alerted. "In regards to the apparent breach of classified material, we are cooperating with law enforcement," the spokesperson said.
