What punishment will the 21-year-old U.S. National Guard member face for allegedly leaking classified documents? What other information is worthy of attention? - Cykapu

What punishment will the 21-year-old U.S. National Guard member face for allegedly leaking classified documents? What other information is worthy of attention?

What did this 21-year-old boy say?
According to the "New York Times" report on the 6th, a number of confidential military documents have recently appeared on social media such as Twitter, Telegram, and 4chan, and the number may exceed 100. Related reports caused public outcry.

According to US media reports, these leaked documents are suspected to be copies of confidential documents, and the documents are dated from late February to early March. It outlines Ukraine's military strength, the state of the conflict, casualties and more. Although the document contains many military details, it does not involve specific combat plans.

The contents of the document appear to show concerns about Ukraine's air defense capabilities. Another slide, dated Feb. 23, was marked "Confidential/Do Not Share With Foreign Countries."

The document also shows that Ukraine is forming 12 brigades of combat troops, of which 9 brigades are trained and supplied by the United States and other NATO members. Among the nine brigades, six brigades plan to be in place by March 31, and three brigades plan to complete combat readiness by April 30. The document also lists the ammunition consumption rate of the Ukrainian army, including the "Hippocampus" high-mobility rocket launcher system aided by the United States.

The first thing that surprised me about this incident was: how could there be so many confidential documents for a 21-year-old ordinary guard member, who should not be a high-level figure?

This has to start with its arms:

First of all, you must know that military rank and position are different. A general must have more secrets than a soldier, but a soldier in a special position may master certain secrets faster and longer than a general.

For example, the copyist in your office will always know more than the head of your department!

Teixeira is a private first class in the U.S. Air Force National Guard. First class is a military rank, and rank is the base of a pyramid in the army. However, his position is very important. He used to work in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Air National Guard, and the job of this unit is to use drones to perform intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance missions. The intelligence, on the one hand, is for friendly forces in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Or special forces have special missions, and they all get information from here. It is very important, right? But you can't send a bunch of generals to do it, can you?

Therefore, although Teixeira is just a soldier, his position is very critical and he has access to secrets.

It should be noted here that a single piece of information is confidential, and Teixeira has contacted and brought out a large amount of information. The 1+1 of the information is greater than 2. Among the large amount of information, some of them will be mutually confirmed and have higher value.

So what punishment will this buddy receive next?
One has the potential to be 20 years in prison. The U.S. Espionage Act has been used less frequently since it was enacted in 1917, and has historically mainly applied to Americans who were found to be spying for foreign countries. But at the same time, the law is also used to criminalize "whistleblowers" and people who leak sensitive information, such as WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning, CIA contractor Former employee Edward Snowden.

Under the Espionage Act, each charge against a leaker could carry up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Jail sentences and fines can add up quickly if a leaker is convicted of multiple crimes.

So, what problems did this leak reveal about the US military?
One of the most important points is that the regulations for secret-related posts are not strictly enforced. Secret-related posts must have discipline requirements, such as not being allowed to copy files with private hard drives, not to take pictures, and not to back up. This Teixeira obviously violated these disciplines, and his successful completion also shows that the supervision of the US military is useless.

Therefore, it is not new for a soldier to have access to secrets, but he can copy the secrets or take pictures and do so for a long time. This is a big problem.

Third, why did Teixeira leak the secret? There are several possibilities for leaking secrets. For example, he was coerced by the other party’s intelligence agency. In order to show off and rebel, I analyzed that he is more likely to be a rebellious youth. He is dissatisfied with the US government and the US military. On the contrary, it is not big, because he leaked the secret publicly and posted it on special social media. If it is instigated by foreign intelligence agencies, this approach will soon be exposed.
Whether the leaker is actually him or not requires a technical investigation, and I won’t comment on this point if I haven’t taken a computer class for a day. But I think this is a classic case of guiding public opinion. Have you noticed that when we focus on who leaked the secrets, we have actually shifted our perspective from what the United States has done?

In other words, if it was Russia that leaked the secrets this time, the major media in Western countries headed by the United States will definitely not focus on who leaked the secrets, but accuse Russia overwhelmingly of some specific details. Put all kinds of anti-human hats on it, and assume that all the information that is unfavorable to it in public opinion is true

Speaking of authenticity, I took a brief look at the introduction. In fact, we, the people who eat melons, have no way of judging a lot of similar information. The evaluation of this can only be very realistic. Therefore, there are two possible scenarios for this leak. The first is that it is true and was leaked by internal traitors or external enemies of the United States. The second is to confuse the public and disclose it by the United States itself.

At the strategic level, these macro operations of the United States do not require any leaks, and everyone knows Sima Zhaozhi's intentions. On the tactical level, that is, the specific details reflected in the report do have room for confusion. If it was really leaked by the United States itself, then through continuous hype to make everyone believe it is true, it will make the opponent make a misjudgment
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Author: Steven Ting

Cofounder of www.cykapu.com, father of two children. As a man over 30, only write the thing i am interesting in.