Authorities arrested Teixeira on Thursday, following a series of reports identifying him as the leader of a group on gamer site Discord, where documents with significant intelligence on adversaries as well as allies were posted in recent months before spilling over onto other social media sites.
Teixeira, who served in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was a technology support staffer, a relatively low-ranking position, but one that still came with access to the Pentagon's Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS), a clearinghouse for intelligence information.
Dozens of pieces of information that appear to come from the database were shared with 20 to 30 members of an online group.
The Pentagon has begun culling their distribution lists, but the episode has renewed discussions over how the intelligence community shares information and doles out clearances.
"There are systems that provide people access, based on the level of classifications that they've been provided. And so they can see stuff that they maybe don't need to know, and I don't know how you cordon that stuff off. But, we rely on people to honor their clearances. And there's a lot of people that don't take it very seriously," said David Schenker, a former senior State Department and Pentagon official under the Trump and George W. Bush administrations.
Nearly 3 million Americans have a security clearance, while about 1.2 million have access to information that is considered top secret.
In Teixeira's case, what started as summarizing intelligence reports for his friends on the internet escalated to printing and taking photographs of classified intelligence, including some labeled "NOFORN," indicating it should not be shared with foreigners.
While printing, photographing and sharing classified information is a crime — Teixeira was arraigned Friday on charges that include violating the Espionage Act — many were surprised by the ease of doing so and that it went undetected for so long.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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