After a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman IT specialist allegedly leaked extremely categorised Pentagon paperwork and was arrested at his North Dighton house this week, navy specialists are questioning how this might occur, with one calling it “a failure by leadership.”
Jack Teixeira, who has been stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, is accused of publicly posting high secret authorities paperwork on the battle in Ukraine and different extremely delicate issues. He was arraigned on federal prices in Boston’s U.S. District Court on Friday.
As a “cyber defense operations journeyman,” Teixeira has held a high secret safety clearance since 2021. For this, he needed to an indication a lifetime binding non-disclosure settlement, acknowledging that disseminating protected data may lead to prison prices.
“He took advantage of his position, copying that highly classified information and then subsequently photographing it and posting it online,” retired naval Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, the previous commander of the USS Cole when the ship was attacked by terrorists, instructed the Herald on Friday.
“He violated that trust, and he should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, as should his superiors,” mentioned Lippold, who added, “This was a failure by leadership. There was inadequate oversight, and there was a lack of accountability throughout the chain of command for this to happen.”
Officials want to determine how this leak occurred, he emphasised.
“They’re going to look at any major breakdowns that can prevent this from happening in the future,” Lippold mentioned. “Clearly there was a breakdown.”
In addition to Teixeira’s high secret clearance, he maintained delicate compartmented entry to different extremely categorised packages. He has had this entry since 2021, like the highest secret clearance.
Top secret and navy clearances are based mostly on belief, mentioned Monica Toft, professor of International Politics at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
“There’s an issue here with giving clearances of highly classified information to very young folks,” Toft mentioned.
“99.999% of folks with these clearances behave, but you can see what happens when one person goes awry,” Toft added. “If you break the law with classified information, there are really dire consequences.”
Teixeira may face 15 years in jail if he’s discovered responsible. He’s accused of: unauthorized retention and transmission of nationwide protection data, and unauthorized elimination and retention of categorised paperwork or materials.
“The Pentagon and the intelligence community are doing what they need to do, demonstrating that there are real implications, real consequences for sharing this highly classified information,” Toft mentioned. “They need to prosecute this behavior to show what happens if you leak this information.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”