Since Airman First Class (A1C/E-3) Jack
Teixeira was arrested and identified as the Discord leaker, he has gotten
a Ton of news coverage including in the Washington Post (WaPo).
Teixeira, as an IT systems
administrator with the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd
Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, had almost total
privileges to wander around undetected some of the most sensitive DOD Top
Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) databases.
Fortunately, on 13 April 2023,
Teixeira was arrested by FBI agents and criminally charged for
alleged unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information
in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 and for alleged
unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. These two
criminal charges carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The Old Colonel and his wife are
prolific on-line commenters on the WaPo Web-edition comment section and
normally have two or three comments each week that garner “most replies” out of
thousands of comments posted for an article. Here some of our most popular
comments concerning this Discord leak that has seriously damaged our National
Security.
THE
POST'S VIEW
Opinion The
Discord leaks show our nation’s secrets at risk
By
the Editorial Board April 13, 2023 at 6:43 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/13/discord-suspected-leak-risks-nation-secrets/
“The classification process should be simplified into two tiers,
“secret” and “top secret,” eliminating the lower “confidential” level and
reducing the number of people with access to the highest levels.”
Once again the WaPo displays their ignorance of the IC and how
to control access based on need to know. Intel analysts need access to
information based on their need to know to do their job and not rank or data
classification. Data elements need to be tagged and database access restricted
so an Iran analyst can only see data pertaining to the compartments he is
cleared to see. Systems are capable of monitoring the activity of anyone on the
system and can detect anomalies where an analyst is accessing date not clearly
within their need to know so needs to be investigated.
Yes, it takes some extra work to set up, monitor and follow up
on anomalies on such a system but it’s not “rocket science” and needs to be done
— and people found wandering around the system where they don’t belong need to
be investigated and harshly disciplined. This requires immediate action.
THE DISCORD LEAKS
Suspected
leaker of top-secret Pentagon documents arrested
Officials say Jack
Teixeira, a National Guard technology support staffer, is suspected of
mishandling U.S. military security secrets
By Shane
Harris, Samuel Oakford, Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein
Updated April
13, 2023 at 7:22 p.m. EDT|Published April 13, 2023 at 12:50 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/13/suspect-pentagon-documents-leak/
This is the inevitable outcome when a President sends the
message that leaking classified information is not serious like what the
Obama/Biden Team did in the case of Army SPC/PVT Bradley/Chelsea Manning.
Manning leaked >750,000 highly classified documents this endangering the
lives of Service Members, disclosing sources and methods, making allies
distrust the US so reluctant to share Intel, and causing the death of several
of our sources. Manning was convicted of espionage in 2013 and was sentenced to
35 years in the Fort Leavenworth Military Prison but the Obama/Biden Team
commuted the sentence and RELEASED the traitor Manning in 2017.
After serving less than 20% of his sentence, the Obama/Biden
Team Commuted Manning’s sentence on 16 Jan 2017 and disgracefully released this
traitor, 4 days before they left office.
New York Times headline: Chelsea Manning to Be Released
Early as Obama Commutes Sentence
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html
THE
DISCORD LEAKS
Where
did leaked U.S. secrets appear? On a chat app popular with gamers.
By Ellen Francis
April 12, 2023 at 10:19 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/12/discord-leaked-us-intelligence-documents/
This breach is every bit as damaging to the US as what Hansen,
Manning, Pollard, Snowden or the Walkers did. It not only compromises our
National Security but makes critical Intelligence sharing with our closest
allies far more difficult because if they can’t trust us to keep secrets, they
can’t afford to share classified information with us.
Hence, it is NEVER tolerable for a person cleared for access to
Classified material to take it upon themselves to release it to unauthorized
recipients and when caught they should be punished to the fullest extent of the
law. Regardless if in their warped minds they believe they are serving a
“higher good,” inevitably the end result is always damage to the security of
our Nation. People with Security Clearances take an oath to protect classified
information entrusted to them and there is NEVER an excuse to violate the trust
emplaced in them. Long prison terms without Presidential interference (a la
Bradley/Chelsea Manning) is the only deterrent to this illegal Nation damaging
There are NO exceptions to that rule, Period! If every person
with access to Classified information were free to “declassify” and release it
with impunity, than everything would be released because some ignorant
misinformed people are so paranoid they see “government wrongdoing” in
everything. If a person with access really believes something nefarious is
going on, they have a responsibility to report it up their chain or to an IG,
not just take it on their own to illegally disclose it by posting it on the
Internet. It’s always the misinformed “do gooders” that think they are doing
the “right thing” that do the most damage.
THE
DISCORD LEAKS
Discord
member details how documents leaked from closed chat group
THE DISCORD LEAKS | The online group that
received hundreds of pages of classified material included foreigners, members
tell The Post
By Shane
Harris and Samuel Oakford April 12,
2023 at 9:36 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/12/discord-leaked-documents/
People that reveal Classified information on their own,
regardless how noble they believe their motives, always do damage to every
American. Usually they don’t even realize the unintended consequences of their
illegal conduct and it’s why there is never a justification for a person
entrusted with our Nation’s secrets to taken it upon themselves to “declassify”
and release Classified information. It sometimes causes the murder of sources,
often imperils our troops and ALWAYS makes it more difficult for our allies to
trust us and share their secrets with us. The end result is always damage to
our Nation regardless how these demented “do gooders” justify their actions.
Cleared people that believe something nefarious is going on have
channels to report it. There is always their chain of command and levels of
supervisors, and the entire IG structure where real and/or misconduct can be
reported. There is NEVER a justification for going outside channels and anyone
that does needs to be charged, convicted and punished to the fullest extent of
the law.
This breach is every bit as damaging to the US as what Hansen,
Manning, Pollard, Snowden or the Walkers did. It not only compromises our
National Security but makes critical Intelligence sharing with our closest
allies far more difficult because if they can’t trust us to keep secrets, they
can’t afford to share classified information with us.
