suspect arrested in leak of confidential US documents

He may be at the origin of the affair which is shaking American intelligence. A young man was arrested in Massachusetts (northeastern United States), Thursday, April 13, as part of the investigation into the leak of confidential American documents, announced the Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland.

The suspect, Air National Guard employee Jack Teixeira, “was arrested without incident”, according to the minister. His arrest took place in Dighton, a small rural town south of Boston. American television broadcast aerial footage showing the arrest of an individual by security forces agents. We could see a man, hands on his head and wearing a gray t-shirt and red shorts, slowly backing up towards soldiers before being arrested, then escorted to a civilian-looking vehicle.

Leaks from a member of a military base

THE washington post reported on Wednesday that the leak was the work of a young man who allegedly shared his information on a private group on the social network Discord. Under the pseudonym “OG”, the suspect would have published for months documents from the military base where he worked. The man was critical of law enforcement, the intelligence community and the state, which he denounced “power abuse”.

“OG” had asked the other members of the group not to distribute the documents, assuring that he had no intention of being a whistleblower, according to a source from the washington post. The group, made up of around twenty people, was formed in 2020 around their mutual passion for firearms, military equipment and religion.

The US Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation after the documents leaked online, which detail Washington’s views on the war in Ukraine and appear to indicate intelligence gathering on close US allies.