Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that 21-year old Massachusetts US Army Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was the leader of a Discord group that shared racist memes called Thug Shaker Central. (Read More Here).
FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier Thursday afternoon “without incident,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in brief remarks at the Department of Justice, which has been conducting a criminal investigation into the matter.
“Today, the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard,” Garland said.
He described the leaker as a young, charismatic gun enthusiast in his early to mid-20s who works at an unnamed military base.
The Post reported that the man was the leader of a Discord chat room including roughly two dozen members who swapped “memes, offensive jokes and idle chitchat” and prayed and watched movies together.
The members included people from Russia and Ukraine and a number of other countries in Europe, Asia and South America, the paper reported.
At first the leaks were kept inside the small chat room, but in early March members began posting them on other Discord servers, including ones dedicated to the game Minecraft and a Filipino YouTuber.
From there they were posted on the fringe message board 4chan and on the Telegram chat app, particularly on pro-Russia channels. In some cases they were altered to increase Ukrainian casualty counts.
At least 50 but perhaps more than 100 classified documents were posted on Discord – a social media platform popular with gamers.
The documents contain a range of intelligence assessments about the war in Ukraine, but also sensitive intelligence about countries around the world, including US allies.
The New York Times earlier used interviews and social media clues to identify Mr Teixeira before the confirmation of his arrest.
A Department of Defence spokesman has said the Pentagon is continuing to work to “understand the scope, scale and impact of these leaks.”
The victim told police that Pearson had hit her several times and that he had a gun. Gorman said that firearm turned out to be an airsoft gun.
A police report at the time stated the victim had “multiple visible injuries” on her face. Gorman said after Pearson was taken into custody, he was upset the victim was not arrested instead.
That’s when he started kicking at the doors in the officer’s vehicle. When the officers opened the door to tell him to stop, Gorman said he spit at both officers.
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen Pat Ryder declined to confirm the leaker’s identity at the press briefing on Thursday and referred reporters to the Department of Justice because it’s a “law enforcement matter” and ongoing investigation, he said.
The Defense Department is “working around the clock” with the intelligence community, Ryder said, “to better understand the scope, scale of these leaks.” Ryder also said that the Pentagon is also “very limited” in what it can say about the documents themselves.
A Facebook post in July from the 102nd Intelligence Wing, which is headquartered at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, congratulated an individual with the same name as Teixeira on a promotion to airman first class.
Asked about the intelligence activities of the Massachusetts Air National Guard where Teixeira worked, Ryder said that, “In general, intelligence wings throughout the Air Force support what you might imagine — Air Force intelligence requirements worldwide to support a variety of types of intelligence missions and requirements, which include active guard and reserve components.”
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