Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Air Force Chief-of-Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown were called before the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. The first question asked wasn’t regarding funding but rather about Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira who is accused of leaking classified documents.
At Senate Approps Committee for Department of the Air Force, first question is about the airman who allegedly leaked classified info to Discord. Not something Kendall/Brown expected to be dealing with a week ago….
— Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) April 18, 2023
Chair Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) asked:
How could this guard take this information, and distribute it electronically, for weeks if not even months, and no one knew about it?
Since the first report of the leak, this question has been raised and the topic is now much more discussed since Teixeira was arrested and the public became aware of his age and occupation.
The Associated Press:
There are supposed to be control officers responsible for top-secret information in the military. They record active top secret documents and ensure they’ve been properly disposed of or secured, like through a shredder.
According to an Air Force statement, the intelligence unit that Teixeira had been assigned to “is currently not performing its assigned mission” in terms of intelligence.
In the meantime, “the 102nd Intelligence Wing” is not performing its assigned mission. The Air Force said that the mission had been temporarily reassigned.
Air Force Chief Of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown informed members of the subcommittee.
Brown appeared to minimize the idea that there was an overall systemic problem or even an issue within a single unit, saying:
He had access to certain aspects because of his position as a Cyber Administrator. He took advantage.”
Kendall, however, told Congress he had directed the Air Force inspector general to examine “anything related to this leak which could have gone wrong”, at the 102nd intelligence wing. This is in addition to the military-wide review that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered, as well as an investigation by the House Armed Services Committee.
