Intelligence leak: U.S arrests 21-year-old suspect

Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, has been arrested as suspect in the leak of classified documents that has embarrassed Washington and its allies.

U.S Federal agents in an armoured car and military gear swooped in on Teixeira, dressed in gym shorts, a T-shirt and trainers, at his home in Dighton, Massachusetts, a mostly wooded town of 8,000 about 50 miles (80 km) south of Boston.

U.S Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters Teixeira was wanted “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information.”

The FBI said its agents had conducted “authorized law enforcement activity at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts.”

The arrest comes a week after the leaks first became widely known, setting Washington on edge about the damage they may have caused.

The episode embarrassed the U.S. by revealing its spying on allies and purported Ukrainian military vulnerabilities.

The leak of documents, posted largely on social media sites, was believed to be the most serious security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement a Pentagon task force had been “working around the clock to assess and mitigate any damage.”

Although the leak only garnered widespread attention after an April 6 story in the New York Times, journalists have found evidence that the documents – or at least some of them – had been floating around on social media as far back as March or even January.

Also Read: U.S investigates source of leaked classified documents

Discord

Bellingcat, the Washington Post and The New York Times have traced the documents’ earliest appearance to a defunct server on the instant messaging site Discord.

In a chat group on the site, Teixeira went by the handle OG and was admired by the group’s mostly young members, who shared a love for guns and military gear.

Teixeira was an airman 1st class at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, according to his service record. He joined the Air National Guard in 2019 and worked as a “Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman,” or an IT specialist.

The Justice Department opened a formal criminal probe last week, after a referral from the Defense Department, which called the leak a “deliberate, criminal act.”

A number of countries have questioned the veracity of some of the leaked documents, including Britain, which said there was “a serious level of inaccuracy” in the information.

U.S. officials believe most of the materials are genuine. Some, however, appear to have been altered to show inflated estimates for Ukrainian battlefield casualties in the war with Russia as well as understated numbers for Russian forces.

Zainab Sa’id