Late, from start to finish. Faced with a serious leak of classified documents on several messaging and online platforms, the American authorities are struggling to control the scandal. Their communication was minimalist and the federal investigation remained in tow of media revelations. It took a week to identify the main suspect. On Thursday, April 13, shortly before 2 p.m., FBI police arrived in North Dighton, Massachusetts, at the home of Jack Teixeira. The 21-year-old young man, red shorts and khaki T-shirt, was boarded, his hands handcuffed. He is due in front of a Boston judge on Friday, to be charged under the Espionage Act.
His name had been published in the morning by the New York Times, whose door was knocked on the door of the house by a reporter before the police. Since September 2019, Jack Teixeira had worked in the National Guard’s Intelligence Department, where he worked on the security of military cyber communications. His role as host of an online discussion group, with which he had shared classified documents for many months, had been described in detail by the Washington Post from Thursday evening. The two newspapers therefore overwhelmed the investigators, adding embarrassment to the security crisis caused by this “deliberate criminal act”as the Pentagon puts it.
The Washington Post did not release the precise identity of the suspect on Thursday. But the daily had obtained the testimony of two members of the group that “OG” – his nickname – hosted on Discord, the usual meeting place for video game enthusiasts. This closed group of regarding twenty people was “united by their common love of weapons, military equipment and God”summarizes the Washington Post. This “tiny tribe” was made up of a majority of teenagers. For them, “OG” was a kind of guru or initiator. While the others overcame their isolation due to Covid-19 with gritty or racist exchanges and locker room jokes, “OG” spoke to them regarding the world and its secrets.
According to a minor member of the group, interviewed by the daily with the consent of his mother, “OG” would have started by sending them messages in which he reproduced the verbatim of confidential notes, which required him hours of work, adding annotations to explain certain acronyms or technical points. Then, tired of this restrictive method, he would have chosen in a more risky way to send them copies of the documents, several per week, from the end of 2022.
You have 68.99% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
