Jack Teixeira: The man behind the leaked US documents
3 Min Read
Opinions toward Teixeira are still forming, between people calling him a whistleblower in need of protection, and others saying he violated his country's national security.
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Police assembled in Dighton, Massachusetts near the home of Teixeira on Thursday, April 13, 2023. (AP)
Following the breach that is believed to be the most serious security breach to the United States in years, the identity of the source of the leaked US Pentagon documents has come to light.
21-year-old Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira was arrested Thursday at his house in Dighton, Massachusetts, by heavily armed FBI agents.
Video images circulated on news channels showed heavily armed officers in Massachusetts accompanying a young man into a waiting car.
BREAKING: US intelligence leaker Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Air National Guard, is arrested at his home in Massachusetts. pic.twitter.com/vZ2y6d3Fqd
— 301 Military (@301military) April 13, 2023
The Washington Post published an exclusive piece late Wednesday that presented a description of the guy behind the leaks, and provided insight into how the disclosures came to be. The story was based mostly on the information given by a minor who first met the leaker online four years ago in a Discord server for fans of the YouTuber Oxide.
Teixeira is expected to face Espionage Act charges, since Attorney General Merrick Garland previously stated that the military man was detained for allegedly “unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”
Teixeira's first court appearance is slated on Friday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The media frenzy has shifted the attention to the alleged leaker and away from the damning documents - which include information on Ukraine, China, and the Middle East.
Read more: Mossad backed Israeli anti-govt protests: Leaked Pentagon documents
Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard for over four years, was apparently assigned to manage and repair computers and communications systems for the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air Base, and came from a military background.
According to reports, a Pentagon official justified the Department of Defense's severe intelligence breach by saying, we entrust our members with a lot of responsibility at a very early age.”
The New York Times was quick to disregard Teixeira as "no whistleblower," citing a supposed video of the young airman spewing racist and antisemitic obscenities. Nonetheless, there are indications that Teixeira had severe issues with the US government.
According to WashPo, Texeira told his online friends that the government had previous knowledge a white supremacist "intended to go on a shooting rampage" in Buffalo in May 2022, but allowed him to do so in order to argue for increased funding.
Tucker Carlson from Fox News defended Teixeira on Thursday night.
“So this 21-year-old Air National Guardsman from Massachusetts is ‘not a whistleblower,’“ the prominent conservative pundit scoffed.
“He revealed the crimes, therefore he’s the criminal,” Carlson sarcastically explained, “That’s how Washington works: telling the truth is the only real sin.”
