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CNN —The US received intelligence from a European ally last year that the Ukrainian military was planning an attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were hit, three US officials told CNN. The attack on the pipelines last September has been condemned by US officials and Western allies alike as a sabotage on critical infrastructure. CNN has not seen the document but the three officials confirmed the US was told about the Ukrainian plans. But, the intelligence also said that Ukraine’s military operation was “put on hold.”CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment. “I think you know there are three countries conducting an investigation of the Nord Stream sabotage — and we called it sabotage at the moment — Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.
Persons: Jack Teixeira, , Valerii, Volodymyr Zelensky, , John Kirby, ” Kirby, Magdalena Andersson, ’ ” Mykhailo Podolyak, CIA “ Organizations: CNN, The Washington Post, Air National, Washington Post, ” CNN, White, National Security, European Union, Twitter, Russia, Post, CIA Locations: Western, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nord, Russia, Baltic, Europe, Swedish, Danish, Ukrainian
A federal magistrate ruled on Friday that Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air Force National Guardsman accused of posting scores of secret documents to an online gaming platform, will remain behind bars pending his trial because he poses a continuing threat to national security. The judge, David H. Hennessy, cited Airman Teixeira’s history of seeking out, gaining access to and posting classified intelligence materials, in defiance of superiors at an Air Force base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, in denying the airman’s request to be released on bond into the custody of his father. Airman Teixeira’s actions were “a profound breach” of the oath he took to protect sensitive information when he was given his security clearance, Judge Hennessy said during a custody hearing at the federal courthouse in Worcester, Mass. His ruling came after the government introduced evidence that the airman continued to have access to sensitive intelligence months after his superiors noted his suspicious behavior. The decision was a victory for the government, which is seeking to send the strongest possible message to potential leakers after a humiliating disclosure of national security secrets that appears to have been pulled off by a boastful young man trying to impress his online friends.
As a low-level airman, Teixeira had broad access to military secrets at the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing. He received a warning, and was admonished again a month later after asking detailed questions at a briefing, according to the Justice Department. Attorneys with the Justice Department argue that Teixeira cannot be trusted to live at home with his father. Even after his warnings last year, Teixeira bragged online in early January that he had broad access to top secret information. “I have stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” Teixeira said on social media, according to prosecutors.
WORCESTER, May 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking military secrets to remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges he violated the Espionage Act. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made the decision after lawyers for Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, asked for him to be released to house arrest pending trial. Teixeira leaked classified documents to a group of gamers on the messaging app Discord, according to prosecutors. While a low-level airman, Teixeira had broad access to military secrets at the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, according to U.S. Justice Department lawyers. “I have stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” Teixeira said on social media, according to prosecutors.
There are rules people must agree to before joining Unloved, a private discussion group on Discord, the messaging service popular among players of video games. They share some harmless memes but also joke about school shootings and debate the attractiveness of women of different races. Users in the group — known as a server on Discord — can enter smaller rooms for voice or text chats. The name for one of the rooms refers to rape. In the vast and growing world of gaming, views like these have become easy to come across, both within some games themselves and on social media services and other sites, like Discord and Steam, used by many gamers.
He was caught taking notes on classified information before his arrest, prosecutors said Wednesday. Superiors had warned Teixeira on multiple occasions, but he didn't listen, they said. The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman has been indicted in connection to a classified information leak that involved hundreds of Pentagon documents. Some of the documents Teixeira is accused of leaking online included details about Russia's spy agencies' activities and details about aid to Ukraine. However, federal prosecutors are arguing that Texeira poses a security risk because he must still be in possession of classified documents.
A courtroom sketch shows Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira in U.S. District Court in Boston last month. Photo: Margaret Small/Associated PressNearly seven months before federal authorities charged an airman with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, members of his unit saw him take notes from classified information, access classified information not related to his job and repeatedly told him to stop, according to memos submitted as part of prosecutors’ latest court filings.
CNN —Iran smuggled weapons and military equipment into Syria using humanitarian aid shipments as a cover following a devastating earthquake there in February, two sources familiar with US intelligence and an Israeli defense official told CNN. Intelligence officials believe the weapons were destined for Iranian proxy groups in Syria, who have repeatedly attacked US military personnel stationed there as part of the anti-ISIS coalition. “The humanitarian assistance of Iran to Syria was used as an umbrella of moving weapons capabilities into the region,” the Israeli defense official said. Reuters earlier reported that regional and western officials believed Iran was smuggling the weapons under the guise of earthquake relief. Foreign aid poured into Syria and Turkey after February’s earthquake, which killed more than 50,000 people.
Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman implicated in a vast leak of classified documents, was fixated on weapons, mass shootings, shadowy conspiracy theories — and proving he was in the right, and in the know. Even as he relished the respectability and access to intelligence he gained through his military service and top secret clearance, he seethed with contempt about the government, accusing the United States of a host of secret, nefarious activities: making biological and chemical weapons in Ukrainian labs, creating the Islamic State, even orchestrating mass shootings. “The FBI and other 3 letter agencies contact these unhinged mentally ill kids and convince them to do mass shootings,” Airman Teixeira, 21, wrote in an online chat group, sharing a debunked conspiracy theory after a gunman killed three people at a mall in Indiana last summer. In messages posted on Discord, a social media platform popular among gamers, Airman Teixeira claimed that the 20-year-old gunman behind the rampage at Greenwood Park Mall was one of many mass shooters groomed by the American government as part of a secret plot “to make people vote for” gun control.
Prior to his arrest for leaking classified Pentagon documents, Jack Teixeira was stockpiling weapons, The New York Times reported. The Times spoke to a Discord user who was in frequent contact with the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman. The user said Teixeira often spoke of his fascination with mass shootings and acquiring new weapons. The user, who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity, said Teixeira claimed to be stockpiling weapons and military gear. The anonymous source told The Times that Teixeira spoke of his aspirations to confront protestors he might come in contact with during the 2024 presidential campaign.
CNN —Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had no conversations with the White House after a trove of classified US intelligence documents were posted on social media, he told The Washington Post Monday. In an interview with the Post, Zelensky said he learned about the Pentagon leak through news coverage and claimed he “did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand.”“We did not have that information. “I don’t want to speak for President Zelensky. While FBI and Pentagon officials piece together how a junior enlisted airman allegedly smuggled classified intelligence documents off a secure air base, defense and intelligence sources say the leak exposed glaring weaknesses in how the Pentagon safeguards its most sensitive secrets. Teixeira faces charges under the Espionage Act after allegedly posting the sensitive intelligence to the social media platform Discord, but has yet to enter a plea.
Photo Illustration: Madeline MarshallAs a high-school student, the Air National Guardsman charged with leaking classified intelligence documents admitted he made violent threats that prevented him from getting a firearms license. Two years later, however, he secured a top-secret security clearance.
But that didn’t stop the Pentagon from granting a top-secret security clearance to Jack Teixeira, who prosecutors say had an arsenal of weapons at home and a history of violent online rhetoric. And the Air Force’s Inspector General investigation is specifically examining the Pentagon’s vetting process and whether any procedures were violated or ignored, Pentagon officials said. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that when vetting someone for a security clearance, the adjudicator examines “a sufficient period” in someone’s life to determine if they are eligible. That program – largely run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) – aims to continuously vet security clearance holders for warning signs than periodically investigate them every five to 10 years. “Social media is a new world that the government really hasn’t gotten ahold of yet,” said Brad Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security and security clearance law.
Photo Illustration: Madeline MarshallFederal prosecutors and the defense team representing a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with taking and sharing highly classified intelligence documents argued ahead of a high-profile court hearing Thursday over whether he should remain in custody while his criminal case proceeds. Prosecutors are seeking Airman First Class Jack Teixeira’s continued detention, saying he might still have access to sensitive material that could aid foreign adversaries. He has been jailed since his arrest earlier this month.
Photo Illustration: Madeline MarshallThe Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with taking and sharing highly classified intelligence documents might still have access to sensitive material that could aid foreign adversaries, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in court filings seeking his continued detention. Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, who has been jailed since his arrest earlier this month, “accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States,” prosecutors said late Wednesday in a filing.
Photo Illustration: Madeline MarshallA judge was considering Thursday whether to further detain Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with taking and sharing highly classified intelligence documents, after prosecutors argued he would obstruct their probe if he were freed. “I’m going to take the matter under advisement,” Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy said after nearly an hour and a half of arguments from both sides.
WORCESTER, Mass. — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of posting classified documents online, will remain in custody while a judge considers new evidence that raised serious questions about the military’s decision to grant him a high-level security clearance. During a tense 90-minute hearing on Thursday, lawyers for the Justice Department asked a federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts to detain Airman Teixeira indefinitely pending his trial, arguing that his history of violent and racist remarks, coupled with his attempts to obstruct its investigation, made him a “serious flight risk.”The magistrate judge, David. H. Hennessy, did not immediately rule on the matter, saying he needed more time to consider that motion and a request by the airman’s court-appointed lawyers that he be immediately released to his parents’ custody on $20,000 bond.
[1/6] Photo evidence collected during the investigation into U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking classified documents online, is released in a document by the U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Justice/Handout via REUTERSApril 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified documents online, may still have access to classified materials, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday. Teixeira also "took steps to obstruct the government's investigation" into the leaks, prosecutors said, in a motion filed ahead of a hearing into his detention. "His release would heighten the risk that he would make further unauthorized disclosures of classified national defense information," prosecutors said in the documents. The motion said that in February 2022 Teixeira began to access hundreds of classified documents that had no bearing on his job.
WASHINGTON — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of posting classified documents online, repeatedly tried to obstruct federal investigators and has a “troubling” history of making racist and violent remarks, Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing late Wednesday. In an 18-page memo, released before a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday in a Massachusetts federal court, the department’s lawyers argued that Airman Teixeira needed to be detained indefinitely because he posed a “serious flight risk” and might still have information that would be of “tremendous value to hostile nation states.”Airman Teixeira tapped into vast reservoirs of sensitive information, an amount that “far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed” so far, they wrote. Prosecutors pointedly questioned Airman Teixeira’s overall state of mind, disclosing that he was suspended from high school in 2018 for alarming comments about the use of Molotov cocktails and other weapons, and trawled the internet for information about mass shootings. He engaged in “regular discussions about violence and murder” on the same social media platform, Discord, that he used to post classified information, the filing said, and he surrounded his bed at his parents’ house with firearms and tactical gear.
Jack Teixeira, who is suspected of leaking secret Pentagon documents, is due back in court. In court documents, they also allege that he tried to cover up his tracks by destroying evidence. Prosecutors allege they were destroyed to try and cover his tracks. "These efforts appeared calculated to delay or prevent the government from gaining a full understanding of the seriousness and scale of his conduct," prosecutors allege in the court documents. The documents contain sensitive information about US allies — like Israel, South Korea, and Egypt — and also its adversaries, like China, Russia, and North Korea.
Jack Douglas Teixeira was arrested by the FBI on April 13 at his home in Massachusetts and charged with violating the Espionage Act. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Worcester, Massachusetts on Thursday afternoon for his detention hearing. Prosecutors say the 21-year-old leaked classified documents, including some relating to troop movements in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, to a group of gamers on the messaging app Discord. In 2018, while in high school, Teixeira was suspended after he was overheard making racial threats and remarks about guns. Teixeira attributed those remarks to a reference in a video game, according to prosecutors.
The Pentagon leak suspect allegedly boasted on social media that he was untraceable and had thought of everything. But FBI investigators found him by asking Discord for the subscriber info connected to his username. Teixeira is suspected of leaking hundreds of classified documents and faces up to 25 years in prison. In new court documents filed late Wednesday evening, an FBI investigator, special agent Luke Church, revealed a number of incriminating text exchanges between Teixeira and other users on the platform. Teixeira was arrested on April 13 and now faces up to 25 years in prison.
There's no reason to think the Discord leak has damaged US national security, Daniel Ellsberg said. "Top secret is like toilet paper" at the Pentagon, said Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg told The Washington Post that the US government tends to keep a "mystique of secrecy." "At the Pentagon, top secret is like toilet paper, it's nothing," the former military analyst told the outlet. Like Teixeira, Ellsberg was charged by the US government in January 1973 for revealing classified information.
How the U.S. government clears personnel to see and share its secrets is coming under new pressure after the alleged leak of classified information by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, according to federal reviews of the process and lawmakers. The widespread number of both government and civilian jobs requiring access to classified information make the system that provides security clearances to millions of people hard to run effectively, those who study it say. Additionally, an explosion of the amount of classified material produced by the government—estimated to be in the billions of records annually—has eroded the significance of classification levels and complicated efforts to create walls around what is truly sensitive, say former officials and outside analysts who study the system.
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Too many people have access to the U.S. government's closest secrets and a central entity should oversee the classification process, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Sunday, addressing leaks of documents in an online chat group. The United States has numerous intelligence gathering entities and Warner said the situation needed to be dealt with. "We need somebody fully in charge of the whole classification process and I think for those classified documents there ought to be a smaller universe," he said. As an example, Warner said the National Security Agency has suffered leaks in the past and internal controls limit the copying of documents. Warner also said that not everyone handling a document needs to see the whole document and that just seeing the header could be enough.
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