The Pentagon’s security and surveillance measures have not kept pace with the proliferation of military facilities that process classified information and the personnel who work there, but the Department of Defense has no systematic problem keeping its secrets secret, a new review concludes .
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered a 45-day review of Pentagon policies and procedures in April after a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman was accused of leaking top secret documents.
Jack Teixeira, the aviator, was accused of posting a trove of classified documents to an online chat group. He pleaded not guilty to six counts of federal criminal charges last month.
Prior to that, however, Mr. Austin instructed top aides to determine the magnitude of the Pentagon’s security problem. Was Airman Teixeira an outlier who violated his oath not to divulge military secrets? Or was he symptomatic of a much larger problem within the military ranks that had gone unnoticed for years?
The review, which the Pentagon is expected to release Wednesday afternoon and describe to reporters, concluded that there was no “single point of failure” to explain Airman Teixeira’s revelations, nor widespread failure in military procedures for handling and monitoring confidential information. two senior military officials inquired about the assessment’s findings.
Instead, the review found that the spectacular growth of military facilities and people handling classified information, particularly since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, greatly outweighed the military’s ability to keep that information safe. of the military to keep that information safe, said the officials, who were on the condition of anonymity to discuss the report’s key findings.
The review recommended that the department spend more money, take additional steps and allocate more people to tighten security around its handling of classified information, the officials said. Additional safeguards should include stricter measures to prevent the use of electronic devices in classified workplaces where confidential information or images may be photographed or recorded.
In addition to the federal criminal investigation, Frank Kendall, the Secretary of the Air Force, instructed the agency’s inspector general to look into the Air National Guard 102nd Intelligence Wing, where Airman Teixeira served, and how the pilot was filing hundreds of national security documents into a chat room for gamers. From there, they eventually drifted to Twitter and the messaging platform Telegram.
New questions about the command surfaced in May, when a Justice Department file showed Air Force officials caught aviator Teixeira taking notes and searching classified materials months before he was charged with leaking a massive treasure trove of government secrets, but did not remove him from office. function.
On two occasions, in September and October 2022, Airman Teixeira’s superiors in the Massachusetts Air National Guard admonished him after reports that he had taken “concerning actions” while processing classified information. Those included stuffing a note into his pocket after reviewing classified information within his unit, according to the court.
That information raised troubling questions about whether the military missed opportunities to stop or contain one of the most damaging intelligence leaks in recent memory.
Airman Teixeira appears to have retained his top secret security clearance after being admonished and subsequently received the second of two certificates after completing training designed to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
