The story of the security leaks continues to unfold. The latest development is that a 21 year old guardsman has been arrested. Evan Perez, Jeremy Herb, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen and Kevin Liptak report at CNN:
CNN
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A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday.The arrest of Jack Teixeira, 21, comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.
Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts without incident, Garland said, and will be arraigned in federal court there. “This investigation is ongoing. We will share more information at the appropriate time,†the attorney general said, declining to answer questions.
Teixeira will first appear in court on Friday in Boston, according to the US attorney’s office there.
At Outside the Beltway James Joyner posts in reaction to my post yesterday. After citing some of the comments here he remarks:
I’m with Dave on this one: if any idiot private with a security clearance has access to SCI, then we might as well just post it on the open Internet. I honestly don’t know how much value a junior enlisted Guardsman could possibly bring as an intelligence analyst on strategic level matters. But, in this case, he’s not even an intel guy—he’s a low level NerdsToGo tech. Obviously, he would have to be able to access the facilities and equipment but there’s zero need for him to access so much as Controlled Unclassified Information, let alone TS/SCI. The very fact that he downloaded so much as a single document should have sent up a huge red flag.
Is this the end of the story or just its beginning? I sincerely hope it’s the latter. IMO if Mr. Teixeira actually was the culprit it’s a command problem. If he did not follow the procedures that have been put in place, it’s a breach of discipline at the lower level. If the procedures that were put in place were inadequate to prevent the leak, it’s a higher level command problem.
I would add that I disagree with President Biden’s dismissal of the leak as inconsequential. At the very least information released has been embarrassing to the administration. Shrugging and moving on is an inadequate response. Furthermore, if the contents of the documents as described in the media are accurate, the administration’s characterization of the situation in Ukraine has been something between misinformation and disinformation. I don’t see how that can be described as democratic.
I wanted to make one last point. I have read reactions from veteran journalists that I found incredibly naive, effectively deeming the possibility that anything could be given a high security classification simply because it’s embarrassing to the higher ups. Sadly, I think that’s one of the main reasons so much is classified these days. I honestly don’t know how we can assess the conduct of our leaders in an environment in which so much is concealed from us. “Just trust me” is inconsistent with the values on which the United States was founded. If that puts us at a disadvantage by comparison with more authoritarian regimes, that’s the price of democracy.
Jack Teixeira now joins the ranks of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, and maybe even Seth Rich in being government whistleblowers who had the audacity to expose the truth. In their cases “government secrets,†and the deception imposed on the American people became public and an embarrassment for the government in power.
Teixeira’s gambit cast a light on the Biden’s Ukrainian lies. They now want to take this guy down in order to bury the narrative they never intended to be revealed. Other whistleblowers, like Tony Bubbalinsky who had documented evidence of the Biden family’s scurrilous business dealings, have been successfully downplayed and vanquished. But, more people are coming forward tarnishing Biden’s credibility and the dishonesty of his administration.
As of this writing there is no evidence that Teixeira was a “whistleblower”, at least not intentionally. The available evidence suggests he was showing off for his buddies.
I see the talking points have spread quickly.
Steve
Most importantly, was this guy using the Cheat Engine?
Again, something about this does not seem right. I do not mean a distraction created by the Biden Administration because something is going badly. I mean strange.
Some low level nobody is able to steal highly important classified documents, and they are on a gaming chat server for months without anybody noticing. Then, they appear on some non-gaming (non-racist?) platform, but they have been altered.
Supposedly, the alterations were by the Russians as disinformation. The information was of vital importance, but it is being dismissed as a nothingburger. Something seems off.
Anyway, I need to find some skimpy armor mods.
@jan
If he were playing Grand Theft Auto, would it make a difference?
Teixeira is being depicted as a low-level tech “kid,†with surprising access to distribute highly classified info to his pals, along with an easy capability to take these docs home to photograph. Was it just a lark for him? Or, were there underlying reasons provoking red flags type of interest in him, regarding how dishonest the Ukrainian narrative was being both portrayed and played out?
Whether or not Teixeira can claim a whistleblower status, he nonetheless pulled the curtain, like official whistleblowers do, on how much disinformation, misinformation, and falsehoods were being conveyed by the government to the people of this country. And, similar to Tasty, something about this whole scenario does not seem right. Some are actually questioning the government’s intended use of this incident, parlaying it perhaps as a ploy to encourage a bigger bipartisan vote for the Restrict Act. If this legislation goes through it would certainly strengthen the kinds of censorship that has become rampant during the Covid fear mongering era the last 3 years.
It seems that “never let a crisis go to waste†is a mantra that continues to be dragged out and successfully implemented to push a political agenda by the Dems.