Explained | A guide to the latest leak of U.S. intel documents Premium

We take a look at the leak of classified documents and reports of the US military on Discord and other social media platforms

The story so far: Over the past week, the U.S. government has been scrambling to undo the damage after scores of classified military documents and intelligence reports surfaced on social media sites, where the information stayed for around a month.

The security breach, described by the Pentagon as a “very serious” risk to national security, involves documents that seemingly provide details about a range of sensitive issues, includingAmerican and NATO aid to Ukraine amid its war with Russia, and an assessment of Ukrainian defence capabilities, while some papers suggest apparent surveillance of American allies. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has since opened a criminal investigation into the leak. Federal authorities arrested the prime suspect in the case on Thursday.

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old man employed with the U.S. Air Force National Guard was the first arrest made in the probe. As to how the suspect got access to secretive information, a defence official told The Associated Press that he had a higher level of security clearance because of his role at the facility.

Jack was detailed to an intelligence unit with the Massachusetts Air National Guard as a cyber transport systems specialist, responsible for securing military communications networks.

As per the preliminary probe, the leaks started on social media application Discord, where Jack was active for years.

He reportedly formed a group called Thug Shaker Central in 2020, with 20-30 people, and group conversations ranged from games to guns and memes. As ‘the O.G,’ Jack started sharing classified information as members discussed wars including the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially, he typed information but later switched to posting photographs of briefing papers and hard copies of slides when he felt he wasn’t being taken seriously. One of the members of the online group told The Washington Post that he wanted to keep them “in the loop.” Another said that Jack often ranted about the U.S. government and spoke about its “overreach”.