US television broadcast aerial footage showing the suspect, wearing red shorts and hands behind his back, being placed by heavily armed officers in an unmarked vehicle in a wooded area in North Dighton, Massachusetts. ).
The United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland, announced the arrest and assured that it is “in connection with an investigation into the alleged unauthorized extraction, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”
At a news conference, Garland identified the suspect as Jack Teixeira, quoted the AFP news agency.
Garland confirmed that Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard and said FBI agents took him into custody “without incident.”
Teixeira is due to appear in federal court for the district of Massachusetts.
The suspect had previously been described by US media as a 21 year old aviator and the apparent leader of an online chat room where the batch of classified documents first appeared.
how they identified it
According to The New York Times, a “trail of digital evidence” pointed to Teixeira as the leader of the private chat group on Discordcalled Thug Shaker Central, where the documents appeared.
Earlier, The Washington Post had published that the alleged perpetrator of the leak is a young gun fan who worked at a military base.
The outlet questioned on condition of anonymity two members of a group formed in Discord, the social network where hundreds of confidential documents began to be published, some classified as “top secret”coming from a man who used the pseudonym OG.
OG published for months hundreds of pages copied from documents from the military base where he worked, the newspaper said.
According to the article, OG told members of the group that he spent “part of the day inside a secure facility where cell phones and other electronics are prohibited” and that “he worked piecemeal for hours” preparing documents “to share with his colleagues on the Discord server.”
Some information was so sensitive that it was marked with the label “NOFORN”that is, they could not be disclosed to foreigners, the Washington Post reported.
The group of about 24 people – mostly young men and boys – was formed around their “mutual love for firearms, military equipment and God”, creating in 2020 “a club” that could only be access by invitation.
Concern for sensitive data
The president of United States, Joe Biden, He had assured today that he was “worried” about the leak of highly sensitive documents from his government, but seemed to rule out any immediate risk.
“I am concerned that it has happened,” the president told reporters in Ireland, where he is traveling, adding that the ongoing investigation is “getting closer” to some conclusions.
The published documents account for the concerns of US intelligence services regarding the feasibility of a Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces, due to training and supply problems.
In that sense, A file reviewed by the AFP news agency reflects US concerns about Ukraine’s ability to continue defending itself against Russian bombing.
Dozens of photos from those files have been shared on Twitter, Telegram and Discord in recent days. Some had been circulating on the internet for weeks or even months without the press noticing them.
Meanwhile, after the arrest of Teixeira, The FBI said in a statement sent to Russia’s Sputnik news agency that federal agents continued to conduct authorized activities at the residence where the suspect was detained.
The FBI added that since late last week the bureau has been following leads that led to the suspect’s arrest.
The US authorities did not publicly confirm the authenticity of the leaked files, which were also not verified by any independent source.
In addition to information on Ukraine, the documents also include confidential analysis by US allies, whom US officials are now trying to reassure.
Many of the documents are no longer available where they first appeared, and others have been removed by the United States.
Source: Ambito
