Member of the Air National Guard of the United States, Jack Teixeira had acquired a secret defense clearance only two years after his recruitment, a clearance which he is accused of having abused to leak important classified documents and which now raises other questions.
As US authorities try to assess the damage of this leak, the largest for the country in a decade, they must also explain why this 21-year-old soldier had such a clearance at such a young age and such low rank.
The case indeed seems to indicate the presence of flaws in the procedures aimed at preserving state secrets.
Jack Teixeira’s age is “really not the issue”, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday during a trip to Sweden, noting that “it is not exceptional that young people perform important tasks in our armed forces”.
The young man “was a computer specialist who worked in an intelligence unit. Part of his responsibilities was to maintain the network on which they operate”, indicated the minister.
The problem, according to Lloyd Austin, “is how you responsibly perform your duties and how you protect information. We all have an imperative to do that. And supervisors have an imperative to make sure of that.”
Jack Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019 and acquired his secret defense clearance in 2021 as well as “sensitive compartmentalized access to other highly classified programs”, according to a federal police court document. , the FBI, coming to support the criminal proceedings against him.
He is accused of having used this access to photograph sensitive documents and to have shared them on an online discussion group which he managed.
From there, dozens of these images spread on the internet, revealing secret information to the public, such as the concerns of American intelligence services about the viability of a Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces, or the collection of information about US allies.
“It’s not unusual for someone that age to have a secret defense clearance,” Glenn Gerstell, a former counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Security Service, told AFP. CSS) from the Pentagon.
“There are a lot of people in the armed forces who — because they’re computer specialists or because they put together information files for higher-ups — have access to very high levels,” says Glenn Gerstell, now an advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
But “it is not very clear why (Jack Teixeira) needed access to detailed intelligence reports”, he raises, specifying that the soldier should not have been able to print documents sensitive and even less to take them away from a secure place.
Glenn Gerstell thus points the finger at “multiple security flaws”.
In front of elected members of the US Congress on Tuesday, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Charles Brown, explained that Jack Teixeira had “took advantage of his access” to confidential documents.
“We have many safeguards in place to protect classified information,” General Brown said.
“Obviously in this case, the procedures did not work,” he concluded.
19/04/2023 22:37:00 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP