In the aftermath of the embarrassingly detailed Pentagon leaks, the Air Force pulled the plug on the Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing. That’s the one based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira was stationed. The critical documents he casually posted online have everyone wondering how the system could break down so completely.
Massive leaks from small fish
Everyone in the whole intelligence committee is wondering who was stupid enough to let the leaks happen in the first place. One thing’s certain, the debacle raised a whole bunch of questions about “how a single airman could have removed so many documents without being detected.”
The Air Force, meanwhile, “has taken away the intelligence mission” from the totally compromised unit.
The news was announced on Tuesday, April 18 that another unit will be picking up the work that used to be covered by the 102nd.
As the White House scrambles to explain to our allies how a 21-year-old E-3 had access to their most sensitive secrets it has ordered the U.S. Air Force's 102nd Intelligence Wing, where the leaked information originated to halt its intel mission.https://t.co/zNd6WPTQrF
— @amuse (@amuse) April 19, 2023
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall informed congressional leaders that he’s “directed the Air Force inspector general to go look at” the 102nd Intelligence Wing for “anything associated with this leak that could have gone wrong.” Plugging leaks like that once and for all is a top Pentagon priority.
Jack Teixeira was charged in Boston’s U.S. District Court on Friday in connection with the leaks. He’s formally facing allegations of “unauthorized removal and retention of classified and national defense information.”
The revelation of such cripplingly sensitive intelligence has all the spooks totally spooked. This shouldn’t be able to happen in the first place. Aren’t there supposed to be “safety checks in place?” Nobody can figure out how “the documents could have lingered online undetected for months.”
Nobody knew about it
Montana Senator Jon Tester wondered aloud what’s on the minds of most Americans. “How could this guardsman take this information and distribute it electronically for weeks, if not months, and nobody knew about it?”
The leaks were live long enough for the Russians to find them and capitalize on fudging the casualty numbers for propaganda purposes. The Kremlin sat back and laughed while allowing the secret documents to continue doing all the damage they could.
When Tester pondered that point, he happened to be staring squarely at a group of Air Force leaders testifying before his Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, begging for money. They told him that those “are questions the Air Force is asking, too.”
.@MalcolmNance .@BadBradRSR .@CheriJacobus .@PamKeithFL Airman Jack Teixeira’s Unit the 102nd Intelligence wing has had its mission suspended after what could only be called a colossal leadership failure in SCIF operations and protocols. pic.twitter.com/uRhwqVOmih
— ChattJazz 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 ☮️ 🌻 (@ChattJazz) April 19, 2023
Leaks of this magnitude aren’t even supposed to be possible. Finding out we were breached hard by a low level officer, who is more interested in his gamer status, hurts even worse.
All the top secret information that ended up online and eventually all the way to Twitter is supposed to have limited access. They have “accountable control officers who are responsible for recording active top secret documents and ensuring they have been either properly secured or disposed of.”
It’s clear to the brass that all the leaks prove the “102nd Intelligence Wing is not currently performing its assigned intelligence mission.” So, they took it away and gave it to someone else. “The mission has been temporarily reassigned to other organizations within the Air Force.“
