Major security violation. Infuckingcredible.
The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who posted highly sensitive Pentagon documents online was privy to weekly intelligence briefings — despite the fact that he was only meant to maintain HVAC units and answer phones, according to a bombshell Air Force investigation.
The access given Jack Teixeira was just one of several glaring mistakes that led to disciplinary measures against 15 of his fellow Guard members — including his former unit commander — for failing to sufficiently supervise troops and alert proper authorities of concerning espionage-like activity.
Teixeira was indicted in June on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national military information after illegally obtaining and sharing dozens of classified documents online – including some papers related to Ukrainian troop positions. Teixeira pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Monday’s report found that the failures of Teixeira’s colleagues and superiors in the 102nd Intelligence Wing enabled the private to collect and disclose the sensitive information for more than a year completely undetected.
“Evidence indicates some members in Teixeira’s unit, reporting chain and leadership had information about as many as four separate instances of his questionable activity,” the report said. “A smaller number of unit members had a more complete picture of Teixeira’s intelligence-seeking behaviors and intentionally failed to report the full details of these security concerns/incidents as outlined in DoD security policies, fearing security officials might ‘overreact.’
“Overreact”??? Like doing their jobs and correcting the security violation??
……While the report found Teixeira acted alone in leaking the material, investigators also revealed “a number of factors, both direct and indirect, that contributed to the unauthorized disclosures.”
Among those was an “improper” initiative by Teixeira’s unit that “encouraged [IT specialists] to receive weekly intelligence briefing to better understand the mission and the importance of keeping classified networks operating.”
The problem, the report noted, is that lower-ranking airmen like Teixeira were let in on sensitive national security information that they had no “need to know.”
……During one such briefing in October 2022, Teixeira “asked very detailed questions and even attempted to answer questions using suspected TS-SCI information” that he should not have known, the report said.
While the suspicious activity raised red flags among leadership at the briefing, the airman shrugged off their questions by claiming the information “was also available via ‘open sources.’”
“Contrary to his assertion, the information was not believed to be publicly available and Teixeira’s supervisor was again advised of his suspected intelligence-seeking behavior,” the report said.
Every swingin’ dick in his chain of commend who knew about the security violation but did nothing, should be prosecuted as well.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.com/leaked-ukraine-documents-came-from-massachusetts-air-national-guardsman/