In the hunt to find the leaker of a cache of US intelligence information, a trail of digital footprints has led to an Air National Guardsman.
The New York Times named Jack Teixeira of the Massachusetts Air National Guard as the source of leaks that have harmed the United States’ international relations and jeopardized top-secret intelligence about foreign allies and enemies. Teixeira is suspected of uploading confidential papers to a secret Discord discussion early this year. Several people from Europe and Ukraine participated in the Thug Shaker Central chat room.
Two US sources confirmed to the New York Times that authorities want to question Teixeira about the information leak, although they noted that no one has been named as a suspect.
Members of the Discord group referred to Teixeira as OG and refused to reveal his identity or whereabouts, but the Times was able to identify him by connecting online gamer profiles to other information. Photos from inside Teixeira’s home also resemble patterns in the backgrounds of photographs of secret materials he may have taken.
According to his social media posts, he is a member of the 102nd Intelligence Wing. His mother acknowledged that he had changed his phone number recently.
President Joe Biden, speaking from Ireland, said about the leaks, “There’s a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, and they’re getting close.”
According to the Washington Post, Teixeira’s rapport with members of his Discord group was exceptionally close, and members were emotionally concerned over the risks that followed media attention about the intelligence breach. One member who spoke with the Times expressed the common notion that he was not attempting to emulate Edward Snowden, the NSA employee who was responsible for a significant intelligence breach under the Obama administration.