US must rethink intelligence apparatus after Pentagon leak

The arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira for leaking intelligence materials has led many to question the accessibility of top-secret U.S. government papers. Teixeira, an airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was part of a support system for military drone operations. But revelations about past racist and violent remarks he made online have raised concerns about how someone with a questionable past gained access to sensitive documents.

Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan says after the Pentagon leak, the U.S. must rethink its intelligence apparatus and how it protects our secrets.

Excerpted from Peter’s May 3 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter.

What happens when you give a 21-year-old access to TOP SECRET documents? They end up leaking those documents on a gaming chat platform…shocking.

Most of the information that was leaked pertains to the Ukraine War and how the U.S. has low confidence in the reports coming out of Ukraine. Nothing too far-fetched, but that doesn’t mean we should take everything in the public domain at face value. Let’s remember who is blasting this info around and how easy it is to tamper with.

Russia once boasted the largest human intelligence arm, but we haven’t seen much Russian interference since Snowden. This means they’ve gotten really good, or that capability has lapsed, and I lean toward the latter.

As the U.S. faces another leak, the real question that must be asked is whether people like Snowden, Manning, and Teixeira should even have access to this stuff.