A member of the US Airforce National Guard has been arrested in connection with the disclosure of highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other top national security issues.
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The guardsman, an IT specialist identified as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, was taken into custody without incident after FBI officers converged on his Massachusetts home.
He is to be charged under an Espionage Act provision that makes it a crime to remove or transmit classified national defence information, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
While Thursday's arrest was a pivotal moment in an investigation into the highest-profile intelligence leak in years, the military and Justice Department were still scrutinising how sensitive government secrets shared in a chat room ended up circulating around the world.
The emergence of Teixeira as a primary suspect is bound to raise questions about how a breach that the Pentagon termed a "very serious risk to national security," could have been caused by such a young, low-ranking service member.
Teixeira was a "cyber transport systems specialist," essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, including their cabling and hubs. In that role Teixeira would have had a higher level of security clearance because he would have also been tasked with responsibility for ensuring protection for the networks, a defence official told the Associated Press.
Hours after the arrest, Republican Mike Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement pledging to "examine why this happened, why it went unnoticed for weeks, and how to prevent future leaks."
Teixeira, who was wearing a T-shirt and shorts at the time heavily armed tactical agents took him into custody, is due to have his initial court appearance in Massachusetts on Friday.
The Biden administration has scrambled to contain the potential diplomatic and military fallout from the leaks since they were first reported last week, moving to assure allies and assess the scope of damage. President Joe Biden downplayed the lasting impact of the revelations, telling reporters in Ireland earlier Thursday that "there's nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of that is of great consequence."
The classified documents - which have not been individually authenticated by US officials - range from briefing slides mapping out Ukrainian military positions to assessments of international support for Ukraine and other sensitive topics, including under what circumstances Russian President Vladimir Putin might use nuclear weapons.
The leak is believed to have started on a site called Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games and where Teixeira is believed to have posted for years about guns, games and his favourite memes - and, according to some chatting with him, closely guarded US secrets.
The investigative website Bellingcat and The New York Times first publicly identified Teixeira, minutes before federal officials confirmed he was a subject of interest in the investigation. They reported tracking profiles on other more obscure sites linked to Teixeira.
One of them, a chat group called Thug Shaker Central, drew roughly two dozen enthusiasts who talked about their favourite types of guns and also shared memes and jokes, some of them racist. The group also held a running discussion on wars that included talk of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In that discussion, Teixera, identified as the "O.G." would post material that he said was classified - originally typing it out with his own notations, then a few months ago switching to posting images of folded-up papers.
Discord has said it was cooperating with law enforcement.
with AP
Australian Associated Press
