NOS News••Amended
The FBI has arrested a suspect in the state of Massachusetts in its investigation into the leak of classified US government documents. The identity of the suspect has not yet been officially announced by the Pentagon.
The American newspaper The New York Times published the name of the suspected person behind the leak earlier tonight. The daily writes about a 21-year-old man who is attached to the Massachusetts Air National Guard, the air division of the National Guard, which consists of reservists. He would work for the intelligence division.
The man would be called Jack Teixeira, according to NBC News, the authorities have been on his trail for a long time. A search is underway at his home, according to American media.
The Pentagon did not want to confirm in a press conference tonight that it is Teixeira, because the investigation into the leak is still ongoing. A spokesman for Defense spoke of a deliberately committed criminal offense.
Chat group manager
Teixeira is also said to be the administrator of an online group on Discord, which is popular among gamers, with about 20 to 30 members. The members would be mainly young men who spoke in the chat group about guns and video games, and racist memes exchanged, writes the American newspaper The New York Times.
The New York Times also spoke with four members of the chat group. They described Teixeira as the leader of the group who had access to the classified information through his work in the intelligence services. The members are said to come from many different countries, including Russia, Ukraine and other countries in Europe, Asia and South America.
Information about Ukraine
In recent weeks it became clear that secret documents from both the US military and the US intelligence services were circulating on the internet. It involved hundreds of pages of documents, which are classified as ‘secret’ and ‘top secret’.
Initially, the pieces only appeared in a private chat group on Discord. Later they also appeared on Telegram, especially in pro-Russian chat groups.
The documents contain, among other things, sensitive information about the war in Ukraine and about allies of the United States. It is one of the largest government leaks in the US in years.
