Fort Bragg finds no link to airman at center of leak investigation
An official at Fort Bragg late Thursday issued a statement saying a Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking classified documents does not appear to have served at Fort Bragg.
"After exhausting efforts across the organizations on our installation, we are unable to confirm that Jack Teixeira had any service history or has been affiliated with any unit on Fort Bragg," Maj. Matt Visser, spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg said.
Teixeira, 21, was arrested Thursday near his home in North Dighton, Massachusettes and taken to Boston Federal Court on allegations he was responsible for the leak of classified documents about the war in Ukraine.
Early reports from The Wall Street Journal reported unnamed U.S. officials said Teixeira was based at Fort Bragg when the leaks occurred, but by late afternoon, any reference to Fort Bragg was no longer in its stories.
Teixeira is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard at Otis Air National Guard Base. His job title is cyber transport systems journeyman.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing documents and U.S. officials, said Teixeira shared the documents on a private online group named Thug Shaker Central that he oversaw. The group was made up of mostly young men and teenagers who "shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games," the Times reports.
Members of the group told the Times that the airman was not a whistleblower, and the secret documents were never meant to go beyond their group.
The documents, which have appeared on social media, seem to show printouts of battlefield updates and assessments. Some are labeled top secret, and not to be shared with even allies.
The secrets exposed in the leak appear to include the shortage of critically needed artillery shells for Ukrainian forces ahead of an expected spring offensive, U.S. spy planes in the region and information revealing the extent of U.S. spying on its adversaries and allies.
Asked by earlier Thursday by USA TODAY if he was concerned about the leak, President Joe Biden said he was not.
"I'm concerned that it happened. But there's nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of that’s of great consequence," he said.
The documents that were leaked appear to have been used to update senior officials, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the war in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Leader of group reportedly behind leak was Air Guard at Fort Bragg
