21-year-old leaves US red-faced in biggest intel leak in a decade

The Biden administration is going to have a hard time explaining how the biggest US intelligence leak in a decade may have been committed by a 21-year-old airman whose role "cyber transport systems journeyman" required a high-school degree, a driver's license and up to 18 months of on-the-job-training.

The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, of Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday, with the promise of a swift arraignment on Friday. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was being held in connection with the "unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information."

As Pentagon jobs go, Teixeira's was pretty junior. An Air Force job description says workers like him "keep our communications systems up and running and play an integral role in our continuing success." He joined the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record.

That will raise the inevitable question: If a low-level Defense Department employee has access to such sensitive information, who doesn't?

"It's outrageous that these kinds of documents would be shared with an insignificant national guard unit," said Dennis Wilder, former senior editor of the President's Daily Brief. "This is a real Pentagon problem."

While President Joe Biden sought to downplay the severity of the leak, experts and former officials said it was a massive exposure that highlighted not only up-to-the-minute assessments of the Ukraine war, but also how the US collects intelligence around the world.