Suspected of being at the origin of the leak of a series of confidential American documents on the war in Ukraine, a young soldier was indicted Friday, April 14, by the American federal justice.

Jack Teixeira, 21, was brought before a federal court in Boston on Friday charges of "unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information" and "unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials," according to a court document.

The young soldier has been taken into custody pending a new hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

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In the wake of his "uneventful" arrest at his home Thursday in Dighton, a small rural town in Massachusetts, all eyes were on this member of the Air National Guard, who worked at a base on Cape Cod, on the east coast.

The aerial images of the arrest of the young man in t-shirt and shorts slowly backing up, hands on his head, towards the armed agents, or his photo in uniform, looking a little frail, holding a mobile phone in front of him, loop.

FBI agents arrest Air National Guard employee Jack Teixeira as part of an investigation into a leaked Pentagon classified documents, April 13, 2023. © WBZ-TV via CBS

A private band on Discord

Jack Teixeira is accused of posing a "very serious" risk to US national security, according to the Pentagon, by leaking online confidential documents about the war in Ukraine that also suggest Washington is gathering intelligence on its closest allies, including Israel and South Korea.

The young man, who faces years in prison, is suspected of having shared his information on a private online group of the social network Discord.

The group, in which Jack Teixeira played the role of leader under the pseudonym "OG", consisted of about 24 people, some of whom were from Russia and Ukraine. It was formed as early as 2020 around a mutual passion for guns, military equipment and religion, according to the New York Times and The Washington Post.

The National Guard said Teixeira enlisted in September 2019, worked as an IT and communications specialist and reached the rank of enlisted first class, the third lowest in the hierarchy.

"OG" had asked other members of the Discord group not to release the documents, saying he had no intention of being a whistleblower, according to the Washington Post. He was nevertheless critical of the state – whose "abuse of power" he denounced – the forces of law and order and the intelligence community.

According to the Washington Post, "OG" told other members of the group that he had access to "a secure facility" as part of his job.

>> Read also: Who is Jack Teixeira, the suspect arrested in the case of leaks of secret American documents?

'A very serious risk'

The White House said Thursday that the United States was examining the "implications" of the leak "for national security." A most embarrassing case for the government of President Joe Biden who, from Ireland where he is visiting, said he was "concerned that it happened".

The US executive also said it wanted social networks to "avoid facilitating" the distribution of such confidential documents, saying they had "a responsibility to their users and the country".

The fact that these documents are circulating online represents "a very serious risk to national security and can potentially fuel disinformation," Pentagon spokesman Chris Meagher said Monday.

A Discord spokesperson told AFP that the safety of its users was the platform's priority, saying it was cooperating with law enforcement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he had ordered an "audit of access to our intelligence."

What do the leaked documents contain?

The documents posted online reveal the concerns of the US intelligence services about the viability of a Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces.

A document reviewed by AFP also expressed U.S. concerns about Ukraine's ability to continue defending itself against Russian strikes.

Dozens of photos of these documents have been relayed on Discord, but also Twitter and Telegram, some of which have probably circulated for weeks, if not months, before attracting the attention of the press.

However, US authorities have not publicly confirmed the authenticity of these documents posted online. This has not yet been independently verified.

Many of these documents are no longer available on the sites where they originally appeared.

With AFP

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