Jake Teixeira posted secrets on Discord

[Foggy]

!

Message from: Foggy

Placeholder. Please post here about Jake Teixeira, and I will move a lot of existing posts into this thread. I should have realized days ago that he deserved his own thread, but h/t Eurobot for finally giving me a hint. I had a rough week last week. I will work on moving posts later, they all have timestamps so I can move posts into this thread and they will remain in chronological order, so don't worry about waiting for me to finish moving posts. Have at it, and ... Carry on.

[Wendybird]

Thanks for this. I don't know what upsets me more, that our own military can be so lax at monitoring the young recruits with such enormous access, or how so many young men were aware of a crime happening and felt no compunction to do anything about it. And then there's the "casual racism". Ugh!
Also, I was discussing this topic with an overseas friend who said she read that this kid was pressured by family into his military job, became unhappy at it but had no outlet (or ability) to express his dissatisfaction. I should have asked where she read this but didn't. I have not come across that angle myself in the articles I've read (not that it would be an excuse for his behavior, but perhaps a partial explanation). Has anyone here read such a piece?

[Phoenix520]

I haven’t heard that, but I’m not following that closely. I did hear that he was gung-ho to join the military from a young age. Maybe he was disillusioned.

[humblescribe]

And perhaps slightly incompetent.

[RTH10260]

07.19 BST
Jack Teixeira shared secret intelligence earlier and to a much larger audience, NYT reports

The US air national guardsman accused of leaking classified defence documents to a small group of gamers, posted sensitive information months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group, according to online postings reviewed by The New York Times.

In February 2022, soon after the invasion of Ukraine, a user profile matching that of Jack Teixeira began posting secret intelligence on the Russian war effort to a previously undisclosed chat group of about 600 members on the social platform Discord.

The newly discovered information included details about Russian and Ukrainian casualties, activities of Moscow’s spy agencies and updates on aid being provided to Ukraine. The user claimed to be posting information from the National Security Agency, the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the new report.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... an-thought

[much ado]

Original lengthy NY Times article gift link:

Airman Shared Sensitive Intelligence More Widely and for Longer Than Previously Known

[RTH10260]

How did this guy slip thru the cracks? How did he get all those clearances to access information at various other agencies?

[pipistrelle]

How did this guy slip thru the cracks? How did he get all those clearances to access information at various other agencies?

This is what I want to know.

[Suranis]

How did this guy slip thru the cracks? How did he get all those clearances to access information at various other agencies?

Same way Snowden did.

Like it or not the Intelligence machine needs people, and society right now is not generating people with a sense of loyalty or morality, at least not enough to care about breaking their oaths. Or they are stuck in online bullshit where they think they are "seeing through the Matrix," or are "awake."

Or society is generating these people, nbut not in enough numbers to staff these positions, and the machine has to take what it can get to fill the positions.

[pipistrelle]

How did this guy slip thru the cracks? How did he get all those clearances to access information at various other agencies?

Same way Snowden did.

Like it or not the Intelligence machine needs people, and society right now is not generating people with a sense of loyalty or morality, at least not enough to care about breaking their oaths. Or they are stuck in online bullshit where they think they are "seeing through the Matrix," or are "awake."

Or society is generating these people, nbut not in enough numbers to staff these positions, and the machine has to take what it can get to fill the positions.

Yabbut I would be sacked if I posted the kind of stuff he did.

[Maybenaut]

Yabbut I would be sacked if i posted the kind of stuff he did.

To sack you, they’d have to know about it.

The government doesn’t sit there and watch everything that’s happening in the internet 24/7. They might eventually find out, but I’m not at all surprised that this guy was divulging stuff in discord for a long time before anyone in a position of authority took notice.

[pipistrelle]

Yabbut I would be sacked if i posted the kind of stuff he did.

To sack you, they’d have to know about it.

The government doesn’t sit there and watch everything that’s happening in the internet 24/7. They might eventually find out, but I’m not at all surprised that this guy was divulging stuff in discord for a long time before anyone in a position of authority took notice.

It's likely different in the private sector, where there is monitoring. And lots of eyes.

[Wendybird]

There was no "crack" that he slipped through. The door was wide open.
Did he mask his personality at work in a way that did not suggest his online behavior? Maybe, but I suspect it is sadly normal for young men in military posts to be tolerant of racist views, an obsession with guns and even antigovernment sentiments. I don't mean just in the military.
But it continues to surprise me that no member of any of these groups tipped off any authority at all, for such a long time.
But my biggest concern is that the supervision was so astonishingly lax at the air base where he worked. Is it not possible to allow IT people a kind of access to fix tech problems while still protecting the content of top secret docs? Or at least be able to trace/track who is viewing them?

[Dave from down under]

Prosecutors say leak suspect Jack Teixeira kept arsenal of weapons, wanted to kill 'ton of people'

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-28/ ... /102279294

The Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified US military documents kept an arsenal of guns and said on social media that he would like to kill a "ton of people," prosecutors said in arguing he should remain jail for his trial.

Key points:
The judge put off making a decision on whether Jack Teixeira should remain in custody before his trial
The judge could also order he be confined at his father's home or be conditionally released
But prosecutors argue he is a threat to national security and a flight risk

But the judge at 21-year-old Jack Teixeira hearing put off an immediate decision on whether he should be kept in custody until his trial or released to home confinement or under other conditions.

etc

[RVInit]

There was no "crack" that he slipped through. The door was wide open.
Did he mask his personality at work in a way that did not suggest his online behavior? Maybe, but I suspect it is sadly normal for young men in military posts to be tolerant of racist views, an obsession with guns and even antigovernment sentiments. I don't mean just in the military.
But it continues to surprise me that no member of any of these groups tipped off any authority at all, for such a long time.
But my biggest concern is that the supervision was so astonishingly lax at the air base where he worked. Is it not possible to allow IT people a kind of access to fix tech problems while still protecting the content of top secret docs? Or at least be able to trace/track who is viewing them?

Yes, yes, yes. I can relate this to general information in private companies. I was a computer programmer in my second profession (until fairly recently). To a certain extent, in order to do work in an IT department, you need to have access to data that most people would never be able to access. In one of my jobs I had access where, had I wanted to, I could have looked up the salary of every person in the organization. I never did that, but I COULD have done that. In so many companies, they really rely on the ethics and character of IT personnel to stop themselves from accessing information. And, when and if something happens where an IT person has a specific task that requires looking at something, they rely again on the character of the person to only look at what they absolutely need to look at to do the work, and then keep that information to themselves. Funny thing, I doubt that in any of the jobs I had that anyone really bothered to follow up on my character. Things turned out OK for every company I ever worked for because I do have something inside of me that knows right from wrong, and I am able to "police" myself and never took advantage of any of those situations. But I imagine some people do take advantage. As far as IT and classified information, I really do believe it is important for the IT to be monitored. But here's the thing - this particular low life was a network administrator. It's kind of hard to limit that particular job title, because they typically are the very ones who are monitoring what is being done on any particular network. He had the perfect job and the low character to do what he did. This is the kind of problem that doesn't have a super easy solution, although I do believe a solution can be found for this situation.

[Dave from down under]

Firing squad solution?

[qbawl]

There was no "crack" that he slipped through. The door was wide open.
Did he mask his personality at work in a way that did not suggest his online behavior? Maybe, but I suspect it is sadly normal for young men in military posts to be tolerant of racist views, an obsession with guns and even antigovernment sentiments. I don't mean just in the military.
But it continues to surprise me that no member of any of these groups tipped off any authority at all, for such a long time.
But my biggest concern is that the supervision was so astonishingly lax at the air base where he worked. Is it not possible to allow IT people a kind of access to fix tech problems while still protecting the content of top secret docs? Or at least be able to trace/track who is viewing them?

Yes, yes, yes. I can relate this to general information in private companies. I was a computer programmer in my second profession (until fairly recently). To a certain extent, in order to do work in an IT department, you need to have access to data that most people would never be able to access. In one of my jobs I had access where, had I wanted to, I could have looked up the salary of every person in the organization. I never did that, but I COULD have done that. In so many companies, they really rely on the ethics and character of IT personnel to stop themselves from accessing information. And, when and if something happens where an IT person has a specific task that requires looking at something, they rely again on the character of the person to only look at what they absolutely need to look at to do the work, and then keep that information to themselves. Funny thing, I doubt that in any of the jobs I had that anyone really bothered to follow up on my character. Things turned out OK for every company I ever worked for because I do have something inside of me that knows right from wrong, and I am able to "police" myself and never took advantage of any of those situations. But I imagine some people do take advantage. As far as IT and classified information, I really do believe it is important for the IT to be monitored. But here's the thing - this particular low life was a network administrator. It's kind of hard to limit that particular job title, because they typically are the very ones who are monitoring what is being done on any particular network. He had the perfect job and the low character to do what he did. This is the kind of problem that doesn't have a super easy solution, although I do believe a solution can be found for this situation.

This triggered a long forgotten memory for me. I spent my entire career working with computers. I had a five year stint as an application programmer and the next 27 years as a systems programmer though the titles were much fancier and sometimes more policy oriented than code oriented, in essence I was a systems programmer. But I started my career in 1967 as a computer operator.
To your point about access to sensitive data, back then we printed the company payroll on IBM 1403 printers so anyone in the computer room so inclined could find out any and all payroll information including SSN for anyone in the company. Of course we were told "Don't do that" and for the most part no one did, but . . .
Much later even though I was a total mainframe dude I was tapped to support a team that was charged with finding certain "material" on the networked PCs (this happened because though we were totally a MSFT shop we had a Graphics Art department that used Macintosh computers on the network and I was a known Mac lover). And once again I had total access to all personnel records and email files for everyone in the company.

[neonzx]

So this kid received a National Security Clearance and was/is only 21yo. Do you know a 21yo can''t even rent a car without paying a premium (under 25)? Insurance companies know a 21yo is not fully mature and responsible. Government? Not so much.

[RTH10260]

They hand out National Security Clearance even before one is legally allowed to drink? How can they even check if you don't leak the Holy Grail while under the influence?

[Frater I*I]

So this kid received a National Security Clearance and was/is only 21yo. Do you know a 21yo can''t even rent a car without paying a premium (under 25)? Insurance companies know a 21yo is not fully mature and responsible. Government? Not so much.

The idea is you have taken an oath of loyalty to your country, and that you wouldn't violate that, having honour and all that...

This shitbag doesn't have any...

[RTH10260]

The FBI Found a Bazooka in Alleged Pentagon Leaker's Home

Nikki Main
Thu, April 27, 2023 at 8:40 PM GMT+2

The Justice Department filed a motion on Thursday to hold Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira without bail, arguing he is a flight risk and presents “an ongoing risk both to the national security of the United States and to the community.” Teixeira, 21, allegedly released sensitive and confidential government information on Discord, an instant messaging site, according to an FBI investigation.

Teixeira signed multiple security and non-disclosure agreements with the Massachusetts Air National Guard that said he would never share government information with unauthorized personnel and acknowledged that sharing unauthorized classified information would constitute a criminal offense.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-found-ba ... 00751.html

(original: Gizmodo)

[Ben-Prime]

There was no "crack" that he slipped through. The door was wide open.

Yes, yes, yes. I can relate this to general information in private companies. I was a computer programmer in my second profession (until fairly recently). To a certain extent, in order to do work in an IT department, you need to have access to data that most people would never be able to access. In one of my jobs I had access where, had I wanted to, I could have looked up the salary of every person in the organization. I never did that, but I COULD have done that. In so many companies, they really rely on the ethics and character of IT personnel to stop themselves from accessing information. And, when and if something happens where an IT person has a specific task that requires looking at something, they rely again on the character of the person to only look at what they absolutely need to look at to do the work, and then keep that information to themselves.

Same. Not in my current role -- the Deparment tends to lock down and compartmentalize administrative access to things, of course -- but in my last two jobs before joining state, I had the keys to the kingdom and was simply trusted to use them wisely. My network admin and I (I was the data analyst) used to joke that between his access to all the network files and mine to all the databases, we could find every buried body. He's lamented since my departure that things have gotten worse without my presence there to imply that some things shouldn't be done because they can be discovered; without a Good Guy With Data to keep people honest, things are not as honest as they should be.

Likewise, in the job before that, which I held from '06 to '08, I was relied on explicitly rather than merely implicitly to be the double-check on other people and that was one reason why the now-convicted felon CFO who was embezzling from us for years didn't want to hire me (I was a one-man IT team reporting to him, salaried & full-time, replacing an earlier part-time consultant who came in on a per-incident basis without any proactive duties and who had on a contractor basis been paid more than I had been) and when he did hire me, kept me busy with crap projects so I couldn't take the time to check on what he was doing. When he was finally ousted after a personality struggle with the CEO, his former deputy and I were the tips-of-the-spear in uncovering decades of malfeasance. He ended up serving time in his 80s and he deserved every day behind bars.

[RTH10260]

Alleged leaker fixated on guns and envisioned ‘race war’
Videos and chat logs reveal Jack Teixeira’s preparations for a violent social conflict, his racist thinking and a deep suspicion of the government he served

By Shane Harris, Samuel Oakford and Chris Dehghanpoor
Updated May 13, 2023 at 9:51 a.m. EDT|Published May 13, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Editor’s note: Videos in this presentation include racist language and gunshots, which may be disturbing to some readers.

Jack Teixeira, dressed in camouflage fatigues, his finger wrapped around the trigger of a semiautomatic rifle, faced the camera and spoke as though reciting an oath.

“Jews scam, n-----s rape, and I mag dump.”

Teixeira raised his weapon, aimed at an unseen target and fired 10 times in rapid succession, emptying the magazine of bullets.

The six-second video, taken at a gun range near Teixeira’s home in Massachusetts, affords a brief but illuminating glimpse into the offline world of the 21-year-old National Guard member, who stands accused of leaking a trove of classified military intelligence on the group-chat platform Discord.

The Discord Leaks

• Dozens of highly classified documents have been leaked online, revealing sensitive information intended for senior military and intelligence leaders. In an exclusive investigation, The Post also reviewed scores of additional secret documents, most of which have not been made public.
  Who leaked the documents? Jack Teixeira, a young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was charged in the investigation into leaks of hundreds of pages of classified military intelligence. The Post reported that the individual who leaked the information shared documents with a small circle of online friends on the Discord chat platform.
• What do the leaked documents reveal about Ukraine? The documents reveal profound concerns about the war’s trajectory and Kyiv’s capacity to wage a successful offensive against Russian forces. According to a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment among the leaked documents, “Negotiations to end the conflict are unlikely during 2023.”
• What else do they show? The files include summaries of human intelligence on high-level conversations between world leaders, as well as information about advanced satellite technology the United States uses to spy. They also include intelligence on both allies and adversaries, including Iran and North Korea, as well as Britain, Canada, South Korea and Israel.
• What happens now? The leak has far-reaching implications for the United States and its allies. In addition to the Justice Department investigation, officials in several countries said they were assessing the damage from the leaks.

Previously unpublished videos and chat logs reviewed by The Washington Post, as well as interviews with several of Teixeira’s close friends, suggest that he was readying for what he imagined would be a violent struggle against a legion of perceived adversaries — including Blacks, political liberals, Jews, gay and transgender people — who would make life intolerable for the kind of person Teixeira professed to be: an Orthodox Christian, politically conservative and ready to defend, if not the government of the United States, a set of ideals on which he imagined it was founded.

Teixeira’s love of guns, which first drew him to an online community of friends, was intertwined with a deep suspicion of the government that he served as an enlisted member of the Air National Guard. But Teixeira did not consider himself a whistleblower, according to friends.

By the time of his arrest, filings by federal prosecutors show that Teixeira had amassed a small arsenal of rifles, shotguns and pistols, as well as a helmet, gas mask and night-vision goggles, all under the roof of the house where he lived with his mother and stepfather. The Post obtained and verified two videos taken at their home in Dighton, Mass., where the FBI arrested Teixeira last month.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... documents/

[Frater I*I]

Interesting, after CPL Frater joined the Corps he never lived in his parent's house again...

[RTH10260]

Pentagon leaks suspect was warned off viewing classified material – prosecutors
Jack Teixeira was admonished repeatedly for accessing and taking notes on intelligence documents, says court filing

Associated Press
Thu 18 May 2023 03.29 BST

Jack Teixeira, the US air national guard member charged with being behind the so-called Pentagon leaks of highly classified military documents, was warned repeatedly over his mishandling of classified material, according to a court filing.

Justice department lawyers made the disclosure in court papers that urged Teixeira be kept behind bars while he awaits trial in the case stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years. The judge is expected to hear more arguments on Friday before issuing a ruling.

Teixeira is accused of sharing highly classified documents about top national security issues in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. He has not yet entered a plea.

Prosecutors allege that Teixeira continued leaking documents even after he was rebuked on two separate occasions last year due to his “concerning actions” related to classified information that were observed by superiors.

A memo from September 2022 states that Teixeira had been seen taking notes on classified intelligence information and putting the notes in his pocket. Teixeira was instructed at the time to no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information, the memo says.

Another memo from late October says that Teixeira was “potentially ignoring the cease-and-desist order on deep diving into intelligence information” given to him the month before. The memo says Teixeira attended a meeting and proceeded to ask “very specific questions”. He was told again to focus on his job, not any “deep dives” into classified intelligence information.

A third memo from February this year says Teixeira was observed viewing information “that was not related to his primary duty and was related to the intelligence field”. Teixeira “had previously been notified to focus on his own career duties and to not seek out intelligence products”, the memo said.

“The Defendant even continued to share information with his online associates, defying these admonishments and taking further efforts to conceal his unlawful conduct,” prosecutors wrote.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... rosecutors