US arrests suspect in massive intelligence leak

the person suspected of uploading hundreds of classified files This seems to be what messaging platform Discord has done in recent months to show off friends on the internet. Known as “OG” to his devotees, the suspect has been named by newspapers as Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Mr. Teixeira’s home was in a small town in Massachusetts. Surrounded by police and searched on the afternoon of 13 April. He was arrested by the FBI shortly thereafter. The attorney-general, Merrick Garland, said Mr Teixeira was arrested in connection with the “unauthorized removal, retention and transmission” of classified national defense information. ,

The Discord leak has rocked America’s national-security bureaucracy. It appears that the leaker has shared classified Pentagon slides and CIA assessments with a tight-knit group of friends on Thug Shaker Central, a Discord server, for at least the past year. The Washington Post reported that the leaker “had a dark view of government” and frowned at “government overreach”. He was also a gun enthusiast who used racial and anti-Semitic slurs in a video. He is said to have told others in the group that he was a technology support staffer for the intelligence wing, which may explain why he had such extensive access to highly classified information.

An initial batch of just over 50 files went from that server to others, and eventually to Telegram, a social-media site popular among Russians, including those tracking the war in Ukraine. The files, reviewed by The Economist, include a detailed assessment of Ukraine’s armed forces, during the war, and the effectiveness of specialized US weapons there. They also included a variety of CIA reports on world events, including private conversations within the Allied governments between Israel, South Korea, and Hungary.

Many include sensitive details. A slide on Western surveillance flights over the Black Sea between September and February, marked “NOFORN” to indicate that it could not be shared even with America’s closest intelligence allies, Russia’s Close shows the path taken by American, British, French and NATO spy planes. Occupied Crimea. It is also claimed that a British surveillance plane was nearly shot down by Russian jets on one such mission in September. The event was disclosed by Britain at the time, but in far more optimistic terms.

Another slide depicts a delivery timeline of 155mm artillery ammunition from South Korea, presumably bound for Ukraine (see picture). This suggests that at current rates of fire a total of over 250,000 shells would have been delivered – about a month’s supply. A separate CIA report from early March captured by Signals Intelligence describes internal discussions from South Korea’s National Security Council about sending ammunition through Poland. Other documents reveal sensitive capabilities, including previously unknown spy satellites and electronic intelligence-gathering that traces Russian and Ukrainian structures by their radio emissions.

All this can only be the tip of the iceberg. New files are still coming out and “OG” is said to have circulated hundreds of documents. The Washington Post said he first gave almost verbatim summaries of intelligence reports to his friends and later, when he felt he was not being taken seriously, posted the photos to an online group created during the pandemic, a friend told the Post. Both Americans and foreigners were involved, including Ukrainians and Russians.

In the latest revelations, the Post reports US intelligence assessments of an upcoming counter-invasion of Ukraine and subsequent peace talks (low), and alleged plans by Egypt, a major recipient of US aid, to secretly supply 40,000 rockets to Russia. has been described. , The Associated Press reported that the Russian spies had been caught boasting about their cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. The New York Times says Russia’s FSB, the KGB’s successor, accused the Defense Ministry of covering up high casualties in Ukraine. And the BBC describes US accounts of private conversations involving UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Some governments have questioned the authenticity of the documents. At least one slide was modified to show less Russian casualties, although this appears to have happened long after publication. A Pentagon spokesman said on April 10, “I would just urge caution,” as it appears some of the slides have been tampered with. South Korea said its defense minister and the US secretary of defense had agreed that “a significant number of relevant documents were forged.” To spread misinformation”.

Yet the US government is decidedly acting as if the leak is real. A Pentagon spokesman acknowledged, “These slides are highly classified and contain sensitive information.” , Joe Biden, the President of the United States, downplayed the seriousness of the breach. “I am concerned that it happened,” he said, “but there is nothing contemporary that I know of that is of great consequence.”

If Mr. Teixeira is indeed the culprit, it shouldn’t be hard to prove. The post’s investigation describes the leaker’s photos and videos, and sites such as Discord maintain records of visitors’ IP addresses. Systems used by defense and intelligence agencies typically log details of those printing classified material, and printouts often include subtle details, nearly invisible to the naked eye, that provide further clues. Are. Hidden Dots blames Reality Viner, a translator for the NSA, who leaked top-secret files to The Intercept, a news outlet, in 2017.

Then what punishment can wait? In a paper “The Leaky Leviathan” published in 2013 for the Harvard Law Review, David Pozen of Columbia University notes that only a dozen or so criminal cases have been brought against suspected leakers throughout US history. Leak laws are rarely enforced. but then most leaks Not so dramatic.

Ms Viner was sentenced to more than five years in prison for leaking a report. Mr Snowden, who may have stolen more than 1.7 million documents, faces three charges under the US Espionage Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years. (He is now a fugitive in Russia, which granted him citizenship last year.) Mr. Ellsberg faced a maximum sentence of 115 years, though the charges were later dropped. Ms Manning served seven years in prison before her sentence was reduced. The Discord leaker’s fate may depend on the damage done by the revelations he set in motion months ago, and which are only now trickling down — and into the arms of America’s adversaries.

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