UPDATE, APRIL 14:
I joined Times Radio’s Ruth Davidson on Friday afternoon to analyze the latest developments in the leak of US intelligence documents, including the arrest of a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
I consider the position and background of Jack Teixeira, 21, who circulated the documents to a small group of followers on a Discord channel. Then I get to the important questions.
- How did a relatively low-level National Guardsman get access to secret and top-secret documents?
- What is known and not known about the Government’s pursuit of the leaked material?
- How significant are the documents?
- What is the long-term effect, both on individual cases like the Ukraine War and generally on US intelligence?
The individual cases won’t be important 2 to 3 months from now because events move on.
What is more significant is the reliability of the system. When you’re in Government, you cannot have people within your agencies and your allies thinking you cannot protect information.
ORIGINAL ENTRY, APRIL 13: I joined Times Radio’s Anna Cunningham on Thursday morning to analyze the leak of US intelligence documents, getting behind the attention-grabbing headlines on topics from Ukraine to Russia to American allies.
I start by noting that the documents were circulating on social media more than a months before mainstream outlets noticed them.Now many reports are posting dramatic claims without carrying out due diligence.
Be very careful. While US officials acknowledge that there was a leak of material, some of these documents, perhaps many of them, have been altered to spread disinformation.
It’s in certain people’s interests to spread discord so you verify. You see if the claimed documents have any corroborating evidence, and you do so on a case-by-case basis.
