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Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard airman, was arrested Thursday on charges of unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified documents (Pentagon Leak Suspect Jack Teixeira Charged With Unauthorized Retention, Transmission of Defense Information). Texeira was arrested in connection with the massive leak of classified documents that hit social media about a week ago, but that was initially posted on a Minecraft-focused Discord server (see Secret Pentagon Documents Emerge on a Minecraft Players Forum, WTF?).

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The documents had varying degrees of security classification, some very high level. Most of them pertained to US support of military operations in Ukraine.

Many stories are floating around about Teixeira’s motive, but it does not seem related to politics.

I thought, in my naivete, that nearly everyone could agree that someone stealing documents from inside a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), posting them online, and making them available to people who were a) not cleared to see them, b) not in the military, and c) not necessarily US citizens was wrong. But, boy, was I stupid.

I have no intention of picking on Marjorie Taylor Greene because, despite the rough edges, I think she has a much firmer grip on what is happening in macro terms than the GOP establishment that insists on singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” as our rights and freedoms are trashed. That said, endorsing the theft of top secret documents because you perceive they make a political point you agree with…this time around…is just dumb.

I don’t think there is any evidence that shows Teixeira is “anti-war” in any meaningful sense. Literally, nothing in the documents he posted to the internet had anything to do with war vs. peace decisions. I won’t argue, however, that being White and Christian does make him the enemy of the Biden White House and its minions.

The troops “on the ground” in Ukraine are 14 US Special Operations troops that, according to previous public declarations by the Defense Department, are verifying the receipt and use of US weapons and munitions transferred to Ukraine. The document in which they are mentioned has one of the lowest possible security classifications: SECRET. There is no “codeword” access required. Their numbers are reflected in a panel on a slide showing the staffing level of the US embassy in Kiev. I covered this in my Ukraine Update from yesterday, Putin’s War, Week 59. Russia Goes ISIS and Waiting for General Mud to Take a Break. While our guys are very, very good, no one is going to use 14 of them for anything significant. A Mobile Training Team to bring Ukraine SOF up to standards will be larger. Nothing involving combat operations or undeclared military activities will be listed on a routine, low-classified slide.

Teixeira didn’t tell any “truth” about US troops on the ground. The fact is that even the Russians have declared the documents to be a US provocation. Only their “conservative” minions on social media see this as a huge revelation. What Teixeira did was violate his enlistment oath. It is really that simple. His way of leaking the documents shows there was no anti-deep-state or even political motivation. It took a month for the documents he posted to migrate onto social media. In the meantime, many slides were altered: see Secret Pentagon Documents Emerge on a Minecraft Players Forum, WTF? for more details.

The sad thing is that a young man has squandered a good chunk of his life for no greater reason than to show off to his friends. We can feel sorry for Jack Teixeira, but he’s no hero and no martyr. People pushing that line need to take a deep breath and think before continuing to make claims that just aren’t true.

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