Seeing him, it’s hard to believe that he made the powerful American intelligence services and the White House tremble. “He” is Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old military man. Dressed in a green t-shirt and red athletic shorts, he was arrested Thursday, April 13, by armed FBI agents in bulletproof vests at his mother’s home in a small rural town without Massachusetts history. A surreal scene filmed from the sky by television crews in helicopters.
He was charged in federal court in Boston on Friday with “unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information” and “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials,” according to a court document. According to reporters in the courtroom, he did not look at the audience during his appearance, including when a man shouted at him, “Love you, Jack. “Me too, Dad,” he replied.
A double face emerges in the press. The first is that of a devout Catholic from a respected military family. A member since 2021 of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, a state army that can be mobilized to respond to crisis situations in particular, he had joined the same intelligence unit as his father, on a military base at the exterior of Boston. The latter retired in 2019 following thirty-eight years of good and loyal service. The other face is that of a libertarian and isolated young adult, making racist and extremist remarks in videos, and pessimistic about the future of the country. He found an audience during the pandemic in a group he formed on the Discord messaging platform: a community of around 20 young men, like him, with a common interest in guns, video games and black humor.
During a discussion of the conflict in Ukraine, which the soldier considered “depressing” because it pitted “two countries that have more in common than things that separate them”, according to a friend quoted in the Washington Post, he wanted to show group members the reality of war. This would have led him to divulge dozens of secret documents since December 2022. Despite his relatively recent recruitment, Teixeira could have had access to these secrets through his activities within the intelligence unit of his base, in which he dealt in particular with computer systems where confidential information was visible.
The rookie was aware of the risk involved in his alleged act. According to a friend, he asked members of his Discord group not to relay information outside their circle. And according to court documents made public on Friday, he decided to take them home to photograph them rather than make photocopies of them on the base in order to avoid arousing the suspicions of his superiors. Ironically, it was this decision that helped identify him. His photos showed details (furniture, floors, etc.) in the background that helped investigators find him.
A heroic whistleblower for America’s far-right, targeted for being “white, male, Christian, and anti-war” for hardline Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, he faces 15 years in prison for violating U.S. law on espionage. “People who sign agreements to handle classified information recognize the importance of keeping it confidential to preserve national security. We intend to send a message of this importance,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warned Friday. Private Teixeira’s anonymous life in virtual communities is well and truly over.