The Truth About Jack Teixeira-Top Secret

By Letizia Pellegrino

Young, charismatic, patriotic, and good with computers. Jack Teixeira was accused of being the Pentagon leaker. He was an information technology specialist, who loves "weapons, military equipment and God."

Caught after a week-long investigation, Teixeira lived in his small town in Massachusetts. In September 2019, he joined the Air National Guard and last July he was promoted to "Airman First Class."

(Jack Teixeira is taken into custody April 13 in Dighton, Mass)

He is a Cyber Transport Systems specialist, a position the Air Force describes as "assigned to the proper operation of the vast, global communications network." He was part of an online private chat group called: Thug Shaker Central and his nickname was the OG. Around 20 young boys were part of this group, united by a passion for guns, video games, military, and racist memes. Most of the participants were younger than him and probably, he was interested in impressing them by leaking the documents.

These files focus largely on the war in Ukraine but expose information "spied on" by the United States, harming some of its closest allies, such as South Korea and Israel. He started spreading the papers in December 2022 and continued through January 2023. The files didn't stay inside the group chat but got diffused through other socials like Telegram, and eventually reached the biggest headlines of newspapers. Actually, months passed before the discovery.

Recent updates show that next to his bed was found a collection of weapons that amounts to half of his earnings and what is more, it was discovered that in his school years, he got expelled for making explicit comments about conducting a school shooting.

On the 13th of April 2023, he was arrested by the FBI, if he is found guilty he will face 25 years in prison. The reason for his action and how was it possible is still not clear, but this incident is highly questioning the security and the management of highly secretive documents.