The Pentagon came under new pressure to explain why it failed to catch the airman accused of leaking classified information after prosecutors revealed that he had accessed secrets with no link to his job and posted online about violent fantasies such as killing the “weak minded.”
(Bloomberg) — The Pentagon came under new pressure to explain why it failed to catch the airman accused of leaking classified information after prosecutors revealed that he had accessed secrets with no link to his job and posted online about violent fantasies such as killing the “weak minded.”
An 18-page government filing ahead of a new detention hearing for 21-year-old Jack Teixeira added vivid new detail to the litany of information about him. Among the allegations: His access of classified information “far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed” and that he had been suspended from high school in 2018 for comments he made about guns and racial threats.
According to the FBI document, Teixeira he had “stated that if he had his way, he would ‘kill a [expletive] ton of people’” because it would be “culling the weak minded.” That evidence was cited to bolster the government’s argument that Teixeira shouldn’t be granted bail.
Just as damning to the Defense Department, the Air National Guardsman was accessing documents “that had no bearing on his role as essentially an information technology (“IT”) support specialist,” according to the new affidavit. It also said he was making online comments about violence and murder just months after he was granted one of the government’s top clearances.
Those revelations added to questions around the Pentagon’s ability to handle classified information and the process by which it grants security clearances. Those clearances are designed to avoid insider threats and reassure allies the US can be trusted with their most sensitive secrets.
“The leaker’s background investigation does not appear to have been up to the rigorous standards normally required,” Dennis Wilder, a former deputy assistant director of the CIA and senior editor of the President’s Daily Brief, said in an interview. “Things like poor behavior in school are red flags that should lead the investigators to dig deeper.”
Senators Warn of Broken Classification System After Major Leak
Officials have defended the systems in place while acknowledging the damaging nature of the leak, which exposed US assessments of the Ukraine war, as well as intelligence about China, Iran and other matters. The leaked documents also confirmed anew that the US spies on its allies as well as its adversaries.
Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s spokesman, said the case doesn’t represent a “systematic breakdown” in security but the Pentagon is reviewing the process it uses to vet people for such high-level access to classified information.
“There’s an ongoing investigation that will tell us a lot more about this individual,” including whether the Defense Department missed clues about the alleged leaker’s background and online activities, Ryder said.
Teixeira is accused of sharing the documents among a small group on the Discord text and video chat app before being picked up and circulated more broadly on the Russia-owned Telegram messaging service. The picture that’s emerged is that the leaker posted the documents to impress his friends and not at the behest of a foreign adversary such as Russia.
On Wednesday, two commanders at Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron, were suspended“pending further investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” according to the Air Force.
“First blush, it looks like the right policies were set out for this location at Otis Air Force Base, something clearly has gone wrong here,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in an interview last week. “So first and foremost, is everyone compliant with the rules as they are?”
Others believe that it’s the Pentagon processes themselves that are insufficient.
“The security clearance process is slow and laborious, but it still misses a lot and is highly reliant on compliance from those being investigated and the individuals being interviewed about them,”said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
–With assistance from Roxana Tiron and Tony Capaccio.
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