Jack Teixeira: US airman to appear in court over intelligence leak

A US Air National Guardsman is to look successful tribunal connected Friday successful Boston, Massachusetts, charged successful transportation with a leak of classified US subject quality connected the warfare successful Ukraine.

Jack Teixeira, 21, was arrested by the FBI astatine his household location successful Dighton, agrarian Massachusetts, connected Thursday.

Dressed successful shorts and T-shirt, helium was led distant arsenic quality helicopters hovered.

Airman Teixeira has been identified arsenic the person of an online chat radical wherever the documents archetypal emerged.

He is charged with the unauthorised removal and transmission of classified information.

The leaks revealed US assessments of the warfare successful Ukraine, arsenic good arsenic delicate secrets astir American allies, embarrassing Washington and posing risks to nationalist security.

Airman Teixeira worked arsenic an IT specializer successful the quality helping of the Massachusetts National Guard, based astatine Otis Air National Guard Base successful occidental Cape Cod.

Separately, helium oversaw an online chat country made up chiefly of antheral teenagers, with whom helium had allegedly been sharing apical concealed accusation for months.

It was not until quality worldly was posted extracurricular the chat country radical that Pentagon officials became alert of the leak, prompting a monolithic hunt for the culprit.

Aside from the property of the suspect, the motive is besides thought to beryllium unusual.

While Airman Teixeira is said to person harboured a scepticism of government, friends said helium was neither a whistle-blower nor a overseas agent.

He joined the National Guard successful 2019, according to his work record, obtained by the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

His authoritative rubric is Cyber Transport Systems journeyman and helium holds the fertile of Airman 1st Class - a comparatively inferior position.

The Pentagon says it volition re-examine however classified accusation is distributed, but a spokesperson said it was "the nature" of the US subject to entrust young work members with precocious levels of responsibility.

Footage of the apprehension successful Dighton, a municipality of 8,000 radical astir an hr southbound of Boston, shows a young antheral walking backwards with his hands raised to equipped FBI officers. He was handcuffed and led to a vehicle.

"There were astir six to 8 Army guys with rifles walking around," section nonmigratory Dick Treacy told Reuters quality agency. "This is simply a precise quiescent area."

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the fishy had been taken into custody without incident. He provided nary further details connected the probe oregon the motive for the leaks.

At a abstracted quality league earlier successful the day, defence section spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the leak had been a "deliberate transgression act".

Eddy Souza, a 22-year-old antheral who said helium went to schoolhouse with Airman Teixeira, told Reuters helium was amazed his erstwhile classmate had been identified arsenic the fishy successful the leaks.

"He's a bully kid, not a troublemaker, conscionable a quiescent guy," Mr Souza said. "It sounds similar it was a anserine kid's mistake."

Starting respective months ago, astatine slightest 50 but possibly much than 100 classified documents were posted connected Discord - a societal media level fashionable with gamers.

A defence section spokesperson said the Pentagon was continuing to enactment to "understand the scope, standard and impact" of the leaks.

Republican congressman Mike Turner - the president of the House Intelligence Committee - vowed to "examine wherefore this happened, wherefore it went unnoticed for weeks, and however to forestall aboriginal leaks".

The Post reported that the antheral was the person of a Discord chatroom whose astir 2 twelve members swapped "memes, violative jokes and idle chitchat" and prayed and watched films together.

The members included radical from Russia and Ukraine and a fig of different countries successful Europe, Asia and South America, the insubstantial reported.

At archetypal the leaks were kept wrong the tiny chatroom, but successful aboriginal March members began posting them connected different Discord servers, including ones dedicated to the crippled Minecraft and a Filipino YouTuber.

From determination they were posted connected the fringe connection committee 4chan and connected the Telegram chat app, peculiarly connected pro-Russia channels. In immoderate cases they were altered to summation Ukrainian casualty counts.