US Attorney General Merrick Garland says a US air force National Guard member has been arrested on suspicion of the Pentagon document leak. He said that Jack Teixeira was arrested in connection with a probe for the unauthorized disposal, holding, and transmission of classified National Defense secrets. FBI took the search and arrested Teixeira without incident. The leaked classified document, shared online, has been all over the Headlines, and President Biden’s administration has been trying to dig into “how the leak happened.” 

The leaked paper reveals much information about the military assessment of the Ukraine war and the US’s top allies, such as Israel and South Korea. The revealed details show that America continuously monitored Antonio Guterres, US chief, as he was believed to have a soft attitude towards Russia after the Ukraine war.

It is reported that about six armed FBI agents raided a Massachusetts property to arrest Teixeira, the suspected documents leaker. The arrest occurred in North Dighton, a small town about 30km east of Providence, Rhode Island. FBI said they persuaded the investigation the hard way since last week, and the arrest itself showed their commitment to setting those accountable who have been responsible for putting National security at risk. Footage for the arrest was also shared and played on American news channels. The video showed that the apprehended person wore a T-shirt and shorts, and FBI officers accompanied him to a waiting car.

David Silbey, an associate professor at Cornell University, said that the strangest thing from the beginning of the document leak was the platform where the papers were leaked. He added that if a document leak was an act of spying, then why were they revealed on a social media platform when they could be directly passed to Russia? He further said sharing the classified documents on Discord was the worst possible method of the leak, but regardless of the form, the leak remained significant.

Who is Jack Teixeira?

US Defense Department spokesperson Pat Ryder said the leak was a criminal act, and they have been working around the clock with the intelligence community to understand the impact and scope of the leak. He further said they could say nothing about the investigation held by the Justice Department, nor could they say much about the documents.

Jack was the head of a private online group that mostly had stuff about video games, Guns, memes, and classified US documents. He was active on Discord, social media platform popular for games, and now he is arrested and facing the charges of the Espionage Act. 

He graduated in 2020 and enlisted in the Massachusetts Air National Guard a year earlier, joining the 102nd Intelligence Wing. Mr. Teixeira was promoted to an airman last July, and by his service record, he had the title of Cyber Transport Systems journeyman. According to the Airforce website, Cyber Transport Systems jobs are responsible for the global communications network operations of the Air Force.

Reportedly Teixeira was a leader at a small gaming chat group on the social media app “Discord,” where secret documents were leaked over the last few months. The arrest of 21 years old boy raised questions on how a high-profile US intelligence leak has been caused by such a young boy who was a low-rank serviceman.