Air Force to review Cape Cod base after airman Jack Teixeira allegedly leaked classified documents
WASHINGTON - The Air Force has opened its own investigation into how a lone airman from Massachusetts could access and distribute possibly hundreds of highly classified documents, top Air Force leaders told Congress on Tuesday.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he has directed the Air Force inspector general to go look at the Air National Guard unit based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira served and "anything associated with this leak that could have gone wrong" and allowed the leak to happen.
Teixeira, 21, was charged Friday in the U.S. District Court in Boston with unauthorized removal and retention of classified and national defense information. He is expected back in court for a hearing Wednesday.
The leaks have raised questions as to how a single airman could have removed so many documents without being detected, why there were not safety checks in place and how the documents could have lingered online undetected for months.
"How could this guardsman take this information and distribute it electronically for weeks, if not months, and nobody knew about it?" Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana asked the Air Force leaders testifying before a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee.
In addition, the Air Force is conducting a service-wide review of how each command handles classified information, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown told committee members.
The Air Force's own reviews are on top of a military-wide review directed on Monday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Austin has ordered that all military facilities that handle classified information report to him within 45 days on how they access, share, store and destroy the nation's secrets following the leaks.
U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lushenko says the move is about minimizing risk as the Air Force and Department of Defense investigate how this leak was possible.
"Stripping an organization of its core mission can take on a pejorative or negative connotation. But in this case, from a leadership optic and managing the risk to mission, risk to force, risk to reputation, I think this is a really prudent measure," Lushenko said.
Lushenko said the investigation will improve any vulnerabilities or failures with intelligence oversight, and determine if there should be any punitive measures.
The leaked documents exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments on the war in Ukraine, the capabilities and geopolitical interests of other nations and other national security issues.
Teixeira posted the highly classified material in a geopolitical chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers.
"He had access to some aspects based on his job as a cyber administrator. He took advantage of that access," Brown said.
While the intelligence unit's work is on pause during this investigation, Lushenko said that poses no threat to national security.
"So, we have a saying in the military one is none, two is one," Lushenko said. "And so, I think what you're seeing is the deep institutional resources and expertise that the U.S. Military in this case you have U.S. Air Force, draws upon in terms of redundancy to ensure there's no hiccup."
