Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued the following statement in response to the arrest of Jack Teixeira, 21, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, for allegedly leaking classified national defense information online:
I want to commend the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their swift arrest in connection with this investigation. I pledge the full support and cooperation of the Department of Defense to the DOJ’s investigation.
The Department of Defense, in close partnership with the Intelligence Community and our interagency partners, will continue to review the national security implications of this unauthorized disclosure. I want to thank the men and women of the Department’s Disclosures Task Force who have been working around the clock to assess and mitigate any damage done by these disclosures.
As Secretary of Defense, I will also not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets. Accordingly, I am directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.
Finally, I want to underscore that every U.S. service member, DoD civilian and contractor with access to classified information has a solemn legal and moral obligation to safeguard it and to report any suspicious activity or behavior.
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