The U.S. Air Force has opened its own investigation to try to determine how an Air National Guard member accessed and possibly distributed hundreds of highly classified documents, official sources said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Congress, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said he had directed the Inspector General of the Air Force to investigate the Air Guard unit in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Airman First Class Jack Teixeira was serving, as well as “any other indicator of failure that related to this information leak” and what allowed this to happen.
Teixeira, 21, was charged Friday by a Boston court with unauthorized removal and retention of classified and national defense information.
The young man will appear in court again on Wednesday.
The information leak raised questions about how a single member of the Air National Guard could delete so many documents without being discovered, why there were no security checks, and how the documents remained “online” for weeks without being discovered.
“How can this guard take this information and distribute it electronically for weeks, if not months, and no one knows about it?” asked Democratic Senator Jon Tester, asking Air Force chiefs to testify before a Senate Defense Subcommittee.
In addition, the Air Force is conducting a general investigation to determine how each command handles classified information, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Quinton Brown told committee members.
The Air Force investigations add to a military investigation launched Monday by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Austin ordered all military installations handling classified information to report within 45 days on how they access, share, store and dispose of classified information in the country.
The leaked documents revealed secret US assessments of the war in Ukraine, other countries’ geopolitical capabilities and interests, and other national security issues to the world.
Teixeira posted the highly confidential material to Discord, an online platform that began as a meeting place for gamers.
“He had access to some aspects based on his work as an ‘online’ administrator. He took advantage of that access,” Brown said.
Source: DN
