According to the newspaper, the whistleblower arrested in the United States appears to have spread classified information as early as February 2022, just 48 hours after the start of Russia’s war of aggression.
Accused of leaking secret documents in the US Jack Teixeira, 21, leaked sensitive material earlier than thought and to a much wider audience. This is what an American newspaper says The New York Times (you are moving to another service) (NOW).
Publications seen by the newspaper on the messaging service Discord reveal that a profile corresponding to Teixeira’s user profile began sharing classified intelligence information as early as February 2022, less than 48 hours after Russia started its war of aggression. Information was shared in a message group with about 600 members.
Teixeira was arrested on March 13. He is accused of unauthorized transfer, possession and transmission of classified national defense documents. The charges relate to Teixeira’s activities in another, closed Discord group, which had about 50 members. In this group, Teixeira started sharing sensitive information from October 2022, group members tell NYT.
According to NYT, it is not clear whether the US authorities are aware of the spread of secret information in another Discord group found by the newspaper.
Details of Russian and Ukrainian defeats
The now-revealed leaks in the wider Discord group include details of Russian and Ukrainian military casualties, details of Russian intelligence operations, and updates on aid to Ukraine. The person sharing the information says that the information comes from the US National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other intelligence agencies.
Among the published information was, among other things, NSA’s secret information about Russia’s withdrawal from Kiev.
– Big news. The troops may be withdrawn from the western side of Kiev, so all of them, the leaker wrote on March 27, 2022.
Russia announced its withdrawal from the Kiev region two days later.
The newspaper heard about another message group from a Discord user. Unlike the other group, this larger group was publicly listed on a YouTube channel. Thus, access to it was easy.
NYT says it connected the revealed leaks to Teixeira with the help of digital evidence. The publications were made under a username that the newspaper has previously linked to Teixeira. The leaker also says that he works for the intelligence unit of the United States Air Force, like Teixeira.
In addition, NYT connected the pictures and videos of the publications to Teixeira based on, among other things, other social media publications.