Scapegoat or access loophole? Was the mystery of the leaked documents solved by the arrest of a twenty-year-old conscript?

While the voices said that the young man was nothing but a "scapegoat" to cover up the big leak scandal, many wondered how a young man in his twenties had obtained permits to access so much sensitive intelligence information.

After the massive leak of dozens of pages of classified Pentagon documents, the FBI on Thursday arrested the first accused of the leak, Jacques Teixeira, a recruit in the Air National Guard at a Massachusetts base, and he is only 21 years old.

Teixeira, who is said to have run an online chat group where the documents were leaked, will appear in a Boston court on Friday on charges related to his connection to the leaking of classified US defense and intelligence documents on the war in Ukraine, as well as other documents that reveal US spying on allies and enemies alike. .

In conjunction with the spread of a video clip showing the arrest of the young man from his home, voices were raised that said that Teixeira was nothing but a "scapegoat" to cover up the failure to leak such sensitive documents, while many wondered how a young man in his twenties obtained permits to access this. Quantum of sensitive intelligence.

How junior staff can access sensitive documents?

According to Defense Department officials and experts quoted by Politico , it's not uncommon for relatively young service members to gain access to highly classified information. In fact, more than a million US government employees and contractors enjoy this privilege.

At the Pentagon, for example, junior officers are often tasked with summarizing large reports for senior leaders, such as several leaked Joint Chiefs of Staff products, said one Defense Department official who requested anonymity. Our members take a lot of responsibility from a very young age.”

Following his arrest by the FBI, Teixeira's service record released by the Pentagon states that he was with the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron at Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts. He was recruited in 2019 and has been working on cyber transportation systems as a network manager, according to National Guard office spokesperson Nahako McFadden.

How and why did Teixeira leak these documents?

The New York Times reported that Teixeira was leading a 30-person chat group on Discord, a social network for video game fans. At first the messages he shared with members of the group were about weapons and toys, but as time went on Jacques Teixeira began sharing sensitive intelligence documents, mostly about the war in Ukraine.

And about the reason for sharing confidential information, a member of the group told the New York Times: "This young man was a Christian, against the war, and he just wanted to inform a number of his friends about what was going on."

According to the Washington Post , Teixeira began posting sensitive information across the chat room after becoming frustrated that other members of the chat group were not paying attention. She said that the twenty-year-old had accessed sensitive information through his work in the information technology department of the military.

Precautionary measures

Since news of the leak broke last week, Pentagon leaders have clamped down on the distribution of classified information. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters Thursday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin holds daily meetings about the impact of the breach on national security and how to manage military secrets.

Ryder added that Defense Department officials are reviewing "a variety of factors" related to protecting classified materials, taking steps such as updating distribution lists and evaluating how and where intelligence is shared. He continued, "It is important to understand that we have strict guidelines in place. This was a willful criminal act, a violation of those guidelines."

Austin said he "will not hesitate to take any additional actions necessary to protect our nation's secrets. He added that he has instructed the Department's intelligence leaders to review intelligence access, accountability and oversight procedures within the department to inform our efforts to prevent this type of incident from happening again."

In a related context, White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said: "The US government wants social networks to "avoid facilitating" the distribution of classified materials like this. At the same time, she stressed that social networks bear "a responsibility towards their users and towards the state."