Washington/North Dighton Armored vehicle, guns at the ready, bulletproof vests, helmets: the FBI police officers who arrive in front of Jack T.’s childhood home on Thursday afternoon are prepared for anything. Because they are looking for a man who is responsible for one of the largest secret service data leaks in US history.
But it is not a heavily armed man who comes out of the house, but a lanky young man in a T-shirt and red, short sports pants. He clasped his hands behind his head as a sign that he was unarmed. He looks boyish and harmless, almost a little helpless. T. slowly approaches the emergency services. He surrenders without resistance.
For days, investigators in the US have been feverishly searching for the leak in the data affair – the person responsible for publishing dozens of confidential US intelligence and Pentagon documents on the Internet. They have been circulating online for weeks, some in their original form and some in a manipulated form. They contain highly sensitive information on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including US spying on allies.
The damage is immense, and trust in our partner USA has been damaged. A week after the first media reports on the leak, the US authorities now seem to have made a breakthrough. The suspected mole: a man from their own ranks. On Friday he had to appear in court for the first time and answer, among other things, for unauthorized storage and disclosure of national defense information. The responsible federal judge ordered that T. remain in custody until a further hearing on Wednesday.
The suspect, Jack T., is a 21-year-old IT specialist at a military base in Massachusetts. Only hours before he is arrested, the US media publishes the first details about the alleged perpetrator, digging into T.’s life, which largely takes place on the Internet.
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On the Discord platform, which is popular with video gamers, he leads a chat group that was founded in 2020 during the corona pandemic. It has around two dozen young members with a passion for guns and military equipment. This is where T. publishes the explosive documents.
On Friday, T. had to appear before the court in the state of Massachusetts for the first time.
(Photo: AP)
He tells the group that he obtained the documents at the military base where he works. There he spent parts of the day in a secure facility where cell phones and other electronic devices that could be used to take photos or videos were banned. Therefore, he initially copied the documents. The 21-year-old discontinues his posts for several months. A member of the group told the Washington Post that it was probably about “bragging about to his friends” but also about informing them.
But over time, T. becomes careless. Copying is becoming too tiring for him. He’s frustrated that others in the group aren’t paying enough attention to his revelations. He starts uploading photos of printed documents.
Arguably a mistake: During their research, media discovered that details of the interior of T.’s childhood home, published in family photos on social media, matched details in the margins of some photos of the classified documents that were released.
No indication of a political motive
In mid-March, T. suddenly stops sharing documents with the chat group. According to the research, the reason was that someone from the district posted documents in another group at the end of February and thus broke the internally agreed confidentiality. Shortly before the “New York Times” first reported on the leak in early April, the young man seemed desperate. “He said something happened and he prays to God that this event doesn’t happen,” the Washington Post quoted a minor member of the group as saying.
Several in the chat group are said to have been teenagers, teenagers in the basement. In interviews, some members described their chat mate as fit, fit, armed, a leader type, someone they looked up to. A friend calls T. patriotic, a devout Catholic, someone with an interest in guns and doubts about America’s future.
Unlike the revelations by former secret service agent Edward Snowden, for example, there has been no indication of a political motive so far. Despite somber views, T. was not necessarily hostile to the US government, members of the chat group say. They also consider it unrealistic that he was a Russian or Ukrainian agent.
But how can it be that a very young employee has access to such sensitive and explosive information? According to documents from the competent court. T. had official permission to view top-secret government documents. US media write that he managed computers and communication systems as an IT specialist at the military base in Massachusetts. So he could have had access to internal networks – with secret information that he was supposed to protect.
The young man’s publications caused an uproar in the United States.
(Photo: Reuters)
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder emphasizes that employees in the US military are often given “a great deal of responsibility from an early age”. “Think of a young platoon sergeant and the responsibility and trust we place in those individuals as they lead troops into combat.”
The suspect remains in custody for the time being
Ex-Intelligence Coordinator James Clapper says the US government’s system of handling classified documents is based to some degree on personal trust. Yes, there are security checks to make sure people who get access to classified information are trustworthy and not giving out any information, he told CNN. But the human factor remains. “That’s the weak point here.”
Clapper says that as a reflex after any data leak of this kind, who has access to classified information is first restricted. “And over time, those procedures prove cumbersome and inefficient, and then they’re relaxed.”
In the case of T., the proceedings have only just begun.
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