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The suspect behind the leak of confidential Pentagon documents has been sharing information online for longer than previously known, a recent report has revealed.
Jack Teixeira, a member of the Air National Guard, has reportedly leaked confidential material since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a New York Times Report reviewing online posts.
The newspaper reported that a profile matching Teixeira’s posted secret information about the Russian war effort in a Discord chat group in February 2022.
The 21-year-old was arrested in an FBI raid on his Massachusetts home on April 13 after dozens of highly classified documents about the Ukraine war were found online.
The so-called “Pentagon Papers” included photographed file slides that were made public, including detailed battlefield maps of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the alarming suggestion that the US believes Kiev will soon run out of missiles to its air defense systems, plus uncomfortable revelations about the US attitude towards many of its allies around the world, including the UK, South Korea, Egypt, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
It is not known precisely how many documents were leaked, with estimates ranging from 50 to hundreds.
the nyt The story was first revealed on April 6, while Bellingcat has tracked the movement of the documents to a gamer-friendly Discord server known as Thug Shaker Central.
The new report confirms that while the anonymous leaks first appeared on this Discord group in October 2022, the first trace dates back to February 2022.
The authenticity of much of these documents remained in doubt, but the leak left many in Washington red-faced.
Mr. Teixeira, who was an enlisted airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard joining in September 2019, worked as an information technology specialist, earning him top-secret clearance.
