Jack Teixeira, a member of the United States Air National Guard, had received a secret defense clearance just two years after his enlistment, a clearance he is said to have abused to reveal important classified documents and which now raises other questions.
• Also read: Leakage of secret American documents: The young 21-year-old soldier is charged
As US authorities attempt to assess the damage of this leak, which is the country’s most significant in a decade, they must also explain why this 21-year-old soldier had such a clearance at such a young age and at such a low rank .
Indeed, the case seems to point to flaws in procedures for safeguarding state secrets.
“compartmental access”
Jack Teixeira’s age “isn’t really the issue,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday during a trip to Sweden, noting that “it’s not unusual for young people to take on important roles in our armed forces.”
The young man “was a computer specialist who worked in an intelligence unit. Part of his responsibility was to maintain the network they operate on,” the minister said.
The problem, according to Lloyd Austin, “is how responsibly you perform your duties and how you protect information. We all have an obligation to do so. And the superiors have a duty to ensure that.”
Jack Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019 and earned his secret defense clearance in 2021, as well as “sensitive compartmentalized access to other top-secret programs,” according to a federal police, FBI, court document coming in support of the criminal case against him.
He is accused of having used this access to photograph sensitive documents and shared them in an online discussion group he led.
From there, dozens of these images circulated around the Internet, exposing classified information to the public, such as US intelligence agencies’ concerns about the feasibility of a Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces or the gathering of information about US allies.
“Multiple Vulnerabilities”
“It’s not uncommon for someone that age to have a secret defense clearance,” Glenn Gerstell, a former adviser to the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Security Service, told the Pentagon’s AFP (CSS).
“There are a lot of people in the armed forces who — because they’re computer specialists or because they’re compiling intelligence files for higher ranks — have access to very high levels,” says Glenn Gerstell, now an advisor to the Center for Strategic and International studies think tank.
But “it’s not entirely clear why (Jack Teixeira) needed access to detailed intelligence reports,” he points out, specifying that the soldier shouldn’t be able to print out confidential documents, much less take them away from a safe place.
Glenn Gerstell is pointing the finger at “several security gaps”.
Speaking to elected members of the US Congress on Tuesday, Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown said Jack Teixeira “exploited his access” to confidential documents.
“We have taken many safeguards to protect classified information,” General Brown said.
“Obviously the procedures didn’t work in this case,” he concluded.