The US Air Force on Monday imposed sanctions on 15 members of the unit of Portuguese descendant Jack Teixeira, an alleged Pentagon informant, for allowing the disclosure of classified information by failing to take action when they witnessed questionable activities .
Jack Teixeira is accused of releasing hundreds of confidential Pentagon documents on the social network Discord after obtaining the information while serving at a Massachusetts Air National Guard base.
According to the indictment, the young man, who was arrested by the FBI in April and has been in custody since then, is suspected of leaking information about the military equipment the US sent to Ukraine and how it should be sent and used.
The published report on the investigation specifies that the 15 punished members of the base’s 102nd Intelligence Unit were subject to sanctions ranging from dismissal from office to “extrajudicial punishment.”
The individuals in question were previously suspended after it was discovered that Teixeira was the source of the unauthorized information leaks and the squadron’s mission was reassigned to other air force units.
The internal investigation is separate from the Justice Department’s criminal investigation, in which Teixeira is charged six times with knowingly possessing and sharing national defense information.
The document describes a pattern of “negligent” supervision by employees at the base where Teixeira worked, but concludes that he was solely responsible for the information leaks.
The report concludes that at least three Teixeira supervisors had information about up to four separate security incidents between July 2022 and January 2023 involving the suspect and failed to report them.
Another finding of the investigation is that the unit did not exercise “adequate oversight” of night shift operations, with Teixeira working as a “cyber defense operations officer” assisting the unit with technology tasks.
Source: DN
