Massachusetts AIr National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of classified document leak. CREDIT: Simon Ateba, Twitter
Posted on 04/13/2023 9:07:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Massachusetts AIr National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of classified document leak. CREDIT: Simon Ateba, Twitter
The big story Thursday was the arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who allegedly leaked more than 100 pages of classified documents that exposed extremely sensitive information from the Pentagon regarding Ukraine, Russia, China, Israel, and documents produced by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
That story changed markedly through the day, though, and the sparse information we have about Teixeira raised major questions about how he could have possibly had access to such a wide-ranging tranche of information, why what was finally reported as the true story was so different from what had been published earlier, and who was pushing the disinformation?
In addition, the way it all went down, with the New York Times beating the FBI to Teixeira, raised eyebrows, especially given that they were the first outlet to report on the leak, just a week ago. Who was their source for the stories?
When the story first appeared Reuters claimed – based on anonymous sources – that Russia was behind it.
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified U.S. military documents posted on social media that offer a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.
The documents appear to have been altered to lower the number of casualties suffered by Russian forces, the U.S. officials said, adding their assessments were informal and separate from an investigation into the leak itself.
For days after that there was no real speculation until the Washington Post published an exclusive interview Wednesday night with a teenage boy who was part of the Discord server where the documents were posted. The teenager said that the leaker went by the screen name O.G., and that he was probably in his mid-20s, in the military, and worked on a military base.
Despite reports Thursday morning that the leaker worked at Fort Bragg, NC (more on that below), it turns out that Teixeira worked at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. Otis is located on Joint Base Cape Cod and is the home of the 102nd Intelligence Wing.
Teixeira is an Airman First Class (E3) and his job title is cyber transport systems journeyman – working with IT infrastructure, not analyzing intelligence. According to Jennifer Griffin at Fox News, he has a TS/SCI security clearance. Obviously, he would have access to classified information and documents given his job, but there are documents in the leak that someone in his position should not have had. Mere possession of a security clearance doesn’t equal legal access to all documents/information that exist at that level of classification. He also would have needed to know the information to perform his job duties.
As I referenced earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday morning that investigators believed that the leaker was based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the time of the leak. After the Pentagon briefing and arrest, the story was significantly changed. From the original:
Investigators believe the leak of purported highly classified documents on Ukraine and dozens of other subjects likely originated from an Air National Guardsman who was based at Fort Bragg at the time of the leak, U.S. officials said, and an arrest could be made as early as Thursday.
The “updated” story made no reference to Fort Bragg, nor was there any note that significant changes had been made to it.
Curiously, an NBC News story about the imminent arrest and then the actual arrest was changed several times. The initial story read:
Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said that officials have been tracking Teixeira for some time and that an arrest is imminent.
The next version omitted Teixeira’s name and changed the characterization from “tracking” to “onto him.”
Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said they have been onto him for some time and that an arrest is imminent.
The current version (archived link here) deletes that sentence entirely.
Who told NBC News that they’d been tracking Teixeira for some time? NBC claims that the sources were part of the investigation. Was it an FBI source or a Pentagon source? These questions need to be answered.
More than an hour after the arrest, Gordon Lawson, a former Navy officer who was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, referenced Teixeira working at Fort Bragg in an appearance with Neil Cavuto.
He said:
“Especially if you’re in an intelligence role, you’re in that secure facility and you may have access to those computer systems. Now, I think this one had some human source intelligence that was well beyond what someone of this rank and responsibility should have. That could have been due to where he was assigned. I believe he was at Fort Bragg, which obviously has some sensitive commands there with Special Operations Command.”
Meanwhile, the Fayetteville Observer reports that Fort Bragg officials have stated that Teixeira never served at Fort Bragg and was never affiliated with any unit on Fort Bragg, which houses the Joint Special Operations Command.
An official at Fort Bragg late Thursday issued a statement saying a Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking classified documents does not appear to have served at Fort Bragg. Initial media reports suggested he worked at the military installation in North Carolina.
“After exhausting efforts across the organizations on our installation, we are unable to confirm that Jack Teixeira had any service history or has been affiliated with any unit on Fort Bragg,” Maj. Matt Visser, spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg said.
Who was telling the Wall Street Journal that Teixeira had a connection to Fort Bragg? In this case, it doesn’t really matter given the unit Teixeira was attached to, but WSJ has deep connections in the military intelligence community and doesn’t generally publish information that’s so easily and quickly disproven.
Who was telling Reuters that Russia was behind the leak? Why?
The changing stories, with no acknowledgment of or explanation for the changes, are likely part of an effort to distract from the elephant in the room. When reporters repeatedly confronted the Pentagon spokesperson with questions about how a 21-year-old, low-level enlisted airman had access to the scope of information that he apparently had access to, and how he could get more than 100 documents out of a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility), he answered by saying that they’re examining information distribution lists and that they had the rules in place and Teixeira broke the rules, so they shouldn’t be held responsible. That’s unacceptable.
As Marc Thiessen said, “the incompetence is stunning.”
“The idea that a 21-year-old kid can expose sources and methods of how we spy, how we have penetrated the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, because apparently we’ve exposed the fact we know they have a new hypersonic missile that can reach the United States, that they exposed our penetration of the Russian Defense Ministry, that could affect the war in Ukraine. I mean, the incompetence is stunning.”
And, Sean Duffy wondered if anyone in the command structure is going to be disciplined.
“What general is going to lose their job? Which general is at fault for national security to make sure you can’t breach into the Pentagon and get this highly classified information?… The problem with this administration is no one is held accountable. Someone has to lose their job. I mean, again, this guy should go to prison, but we have real problems in the Pentagon. And I don’t think the administration wants to look inside to go, who is the problem? Who else do we have to bring in to make sure our secrets are safe?”
A possibility that needs to be considered is that Teixeira was given many of the documents by someone else who did have access to them, and who wanted them to be leaked. Former congressional candidate Joe Kent, a combat veteran himself, made some points on Twitter that we should all be paying attention to – and which journalists should keep in mind more often. Kent wrote (emphasis mine):
The most important part of evaluating a source is to determine their access- how do they know what they know? If they can’t plausibly explain it & prove it, but they are giving u good intel, it’s being given to u for a reason. A cyber transport systems tech E-3 is not given access to sensitive information pertaining to NATO partners, Israel etc. even with a top secret clearance. The JCS docs, maybe, but that too is a stretch. Teixeira needs to explain how he obtained the leaked information, step by step. There’s either much more to the story or we have major holes in our systems. Post Manning/Snowden I find that hard to believe based on my time in the intel community.
I’m not saying Teixeira is innocent, he likely leaked something, but how did he get ahold of information that is highly sensitive & compartmentalized. The media’s man hunt & the WaPo’s intel mouth piece Shane Harris of Russian bounties fame, breaking the story also leads me to question the narrative.
Yes, Teixeira needs to explain exactly how he obtained the information, but investigators should be able to figure that out without his cooperation by examining data already possessed by DOJ, FBI, DOD, and our various intelligence agencies, in addition to Teixeira’s devices. If they can’t, we have a major problem.
What is the likelihood that we, the American public, will ever know how Teixeira got the information? I’m not going to hold my breath, but a lack of full transparency on this issue will destroy any remnants of confidence in our military leadership and intelligence community that remain.
Youre all being played but not the way you think. The issue is never the issue.
I believe I was in a field that was the predecessor to this kid. I know that what most of the people on this thread are claiming is entirely bullshit now even if it was once true.
Even the ones that are telling you the truth may be missing part of the issue being discussed and I believe are entirely missing the issue actually at hand.
You already know the story is a lie. You already know it is because the government told you about it. They were so helpful they even told you where to look so you all knew what to argue about. We even have a one hundred watt cauliflower on this thread to help get you to the proper conclusion.
Firstly, those that know dont do and those that do dont know. For example, USAF1985 has identified as a knower. That means for example that at no point will the military drop him behind enemy lines to blow up dams or kidnap aliens. He is not particularly valuable, the total accumulated information he could have is and may be devastating if he were to be captured. When someone claims they did blow up the dam or kidnap something then you know that they didnt plan it, they may not know why, the real reason they were told to do it and almost certainly have no idea what that has to do with the overall plan they are involved in. When someone claims to have both fully known and done something they are mostly full of shit. (No, not even members of special units. Time is a critical element of a piece of informations classification, they are only given what they need for this mission at this moment. If the bad guy eventually figures out that last week we missed smoking him at the Burger King no one cares.)
Rank has nothing to do with clearance as a number have said. That leads though to the next point. While this sounds like a clearance issue, which is part of the obfuscation (as though the DS mouthpieces in the video didnt give it away), this has nothing to do with clearance. You dont have to believe me and I dont want you to. Remember that time you tried to install something on your PC and couldnt? Your techy friend told you that it had to be run as Administrator. Talk to your IT friend, not the applications developers but the network engineer or the techs responsible for the operating system on your mainframe. Every bit comprising every file on a platform must know who their god is and who to obey. The network admin can see any file on the network. That day that you were written up for being late? Thats in the bosses folder and possible also in one in HR, the network admin sees both and can move, replace, or modify them. Same on mainframe end, there are those that can see anything from anyone and they have to in order to do their jobs. There are some that can see anything and do anything but only if you ask the right specific question at the right time.
There are people that like to brag something like “Well I knew [all kind of things] because I was in [intelligence/command post/other thing they think is impressive]. Im the only one that should have known...” No, they really didnt. They didnt know either, they asked a blind librarian to get them the answer. Imagine a library that held the complete information of all things known to all humanity. Anyone can go to the library and ask the librarian any question related to their field of work. The blind librarian can go to the correct volume an give the correct information regardless of how specific or detailed it is to that particular career because only with that question is the librarian authorized to look. If a doctor, an accountant, and a plumber comes in then at the end of the day the librarian knows very specific pieces of knowledge that “only a [doctor/accountant/plumber] would know.” That does not mean that the librarian is capable of doing those other individuals jobs because they dont have the full story, they just have a large accumulation of oddly detailed knowledge that doesnt add up to anything other than being the winner at Trivial Pursuit. If enough people asked enough questions about similar things the librarian would eventually know everything about that one thing but still not know the rest because no one asked them to learn it for them.
So those are my thoughts on the issue, but the issue is never the issue, right? I still think that if Theissen was going to make Chimpy the Pretzel Boy sound like The Tick he should have ended every speech with “Spooooooon!” The personal Bush operatives and the presence of our own neon cauliflower should be enough to make you look for who has the strings. Everything those clowns said was a lie or a truth that was the set up for you to accept the lie that followed. There is talk of pulling apart and extinguishing problem elements and departments within government and returning intelligence back over to the military where it belongs and once was. There are elements that dont want to lose their control and return it to the people. Putting further outside “oversight” gives problem elements more control and removes the people farther from understanding what is happening and directing the outcome.
Did this kid do something? Possibly most likely but what was the motivation? To impress some kids on his gaming forum? Really? When you were an 18yo E-1 is it possible that someone of seeming authority may have come up with a particularly convincing story and led you to believe it was true? I was older and higher ranking and most likely had a higher clearance when I was sent out on a detail. I had a briefing, I was involved with my own two hands, you cant tell me that Im not an “expert”. That was 40ish years ago. I only recently found out that what I was told was a lie and only part of what I thought I was doing was true. Apparently Im an expert on a particular something that never happened.
They must whip up hysteria about this thing over here lest you look at what their left hand is doing. Smell that skunk cabbage? Whats going on over there?
“There are people...to learn it for them.”
And I almost forgot, the librarian doesnt know the question, only that they have been given the sight to find the answer. Somewhere out there the number “4” is the answer and its classified. Knowing the answer without knowing the question is often times useless.
You feelin ok, bro?
Absolutely, and I was in a position and also a particular unique time to see what so many here claim to understand but absolutely dont.
I would be happy to try to explain points further if I can.
I dont know how to respond because I dont know what part that most seem to be missing that needs to be explained.
Why was this thread necro’ed and how did it come to my attention? I dont know.
To the supposed point of this article, his kid is not some analyst, that has nothing to do with access. Clearance has nothing to do with anything if you are a sysadmin as this kid is.
Who created a particular intelligence report has nothing to do with anything nor anything to do with who can view it once it has gone into the system.
This kid didnt hack something or somehow gain access to an area he wasnt supposed to be in or gain access to information he wasnt supposed to have. Thats all bullshit, this all went the way it was supposed to go and happens every day. The only real issue is who put him up to the unauthorized disclosure?
Right now commander HQ Europe has to report to the president, do you think he spends all day in a secret phone booth? Someone has to put all of this into the system. Someone has to maintain those systems and someone is administering and operating them at all times. There is no way to encrypt or otherwise keep this information from those people. Many of those people are E-3s and even lower. There is one batch of these people at HQ, these people are all connected to other communication hubs, there are people at a communication hub closer to the destination, and some at the destination and at all those points there are potentially people that can see all of this as it flows through.
None of ANY of that has anything to do with anything so why were they on the news telling you otherwise? Why does there need to be some more “Oversight” and who do you think that traitor was suggesting should do it?
You understand that in movies and TV that its important for the script to have the hero understand the entirety of the situation for you to be able to participate and enjoy it right? That isnt how any of that happens in real life.
You understand that many things that some people claim to have been in charge of or had access to was a situation they didnt understand and they were actually communicating with another?
When I was at my initial duty station I was standing in the chow line one night. Ahead of me was a sergeant bragging about his masterful computer skills and the incredibly advanced AI that the military was using. A persons ID lets the sysop know the rank and location that a person works from and what kind of information they are allowed to access and that persons name. I knew exactly who that person was and I never told him or his little buddies that I was the incredibly advanced AI that he was interacting with. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about other than what I had given him when he requested it. This is the same situation with other departments. You do understand that just because you dont know there is someone else there that doesnt mean that someone else isnt there in cyberspace doing things and manipulating things? You arent and werent alone on radio nets. You arent alone on the autovon. If your call went through a military switch board neither you nor your snoogie woogums were alone. That report you did on the supply of snowboots at your base didnt just sit in some computer that was only accessible by supply headquarters. No, that intelligence guy is full of it, he asked someone for those locations and coordinates and when they thought they were on some special exclusive network communicating directly with headquarters they were actually handing that report to someone else on a network maintained by someone else with answers they got from the same person they think they are keeping the information from.
There are people on this forum, all over the internet, and in officially sanctioned propaganda that confuse these things and claim to not only know the full story about certain things but also done certain particular things that confuse all civilians and many in the military community alike. “Well, I did this and planned this”...you may have done it, you may have planned it but you didnt do both and many of those that take responsibility for planning/other participation didnt really do anything other than to ask people that knew the answer that had access to the information. These lies and manipulations cause people to cry out for a fix to some perceived fear that isnt real. What does government do? It creates problems then offers the answer.
There are many different issues here. The issue they are presenting is entirely nonsense and needs to be debunked and a bunch of nonsense answers trying to control the conversation from people that never did any of these things dont help most of you come to a proper conclusion.
Are you asking me to single out the weasel that always shows up on these threads to create confusion? I dont think that would do any good, those that follow this type of information on this forum know who it is and I would encourage everyone to watch for it and respond appropriately.
Though its not the emergent spirit of a computer, the ghost in the machine is real...even if its far underground...eating cold pizza and drinking its tenth pot of coffee...smoking packs of cigarettes and talking to its friend the black mold on the wall....mostly because it got tired of watching water drip in through the cracks in the tunnel...some of them may even post to game forums.
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