NYT military corr accuses paper of double standard as they ‘worked feverishly’ to find Pentagon leak
The New York Times has been accused of double standards by its own military correspondent, who noted that his colleagues worked “feverishly” to reveal who was behind the Pentagon leaks – but would have worked just as intensely to protect his identity if he had revealed the documents had been leaked to them.
David Philipps, military correspondent for the Gray Lady, tweeted, “The NYT worked feverishly to find the identity of the man who leaked TS documents to Discord. Ironically, if that same man had leaked to the NYT, we’d be working feverishly to cover it up.”
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old National Guard pilot, was named by the newspaper on Thursday as responsible for leaking the secret files he allegedly shared on the social media platform Discord.
Ninety minutes after Teixeira was identified by the newspaper, the FBI arrived at Teixeira’s home in North Dighton, Massachusetts and arrested him.
Teixeira appeared in federal court in Boston on Friday and faces 15 years in prison if convicted of illegally stealing and leaking classified information and military secrets.
Jack Teixeira, 21, was “unmasked” by The New York Times as the source of the leak of classified documents from the Pentagon on Thursday. He was arrested shortly after the newspaper mentioned him
Teixeira will be taken into custody Thursday at his Massachusetts home
His arrest was the culmination of a weeks-long battle by the media and US intelligence agencies to find him. The charge was led by Bellingcat, the investigative journalism group, and saw The New York Times and Washington Post compete to find more details about the leaks and the person behind them.
In July 2005, Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was sent to prison after a federal judge declared she “violated the law” by refusing to reveal the name of a confidential source for her story.
She spent 85 days behind bars for refusing to name undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
David Phillips accused his employer, The New York Times, of double standards
Teixeira posted the trove of top secret files under his online username “Jack the Dripper” for months before the leak was discovered.
He worked as a junior cybersecurity specialist in the intelligence unit at Otis Air National Guard Base in western Cape Cod.
It is believed to have started on a site called Discord, a social media platform popular among people who play online games.
Teixeira allegedly posted about guns, games and top secret US government information.
The court filed Friday in Boston said some of his fellow chat room members had reported his activities to investigators.
It alleged that the 21-year-old used his government computer to search classified intelligence reports for the word “leak” on April 6.
That was the day the stories first circulated about the massive security breach.
Prosecutors allege he searched the term to determine whether U.S. intelligence had information about the identity of the person behind the leaks.
Jack Teixeira was facing two felony counts at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts on April 14, 2023. The 21-year-old, a member of the US Air Force National Guard, was arrested on suspicion of leaking a trove of sensitive US government secrets.
This document appears to reflect the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February and May, when they are expected to be severely depleted
He was identified as the leader of a chat room known as Thug Shaker Central on Discord, an invitation-only platform.
He then allegedly posted images of folded papers because he felt his writings were not being taken seriously, the Associated Press reported.
US Justice Department officials have opened an investigation into the 21-year-old, whose actions have embarrassed US allies around the world.
Washington’s longtime friends, from Britain to South Korea and Israel, called much of the information bogus.
It outlined possible arms deliveries to Ukraine, as well as details of Western-led training for the Ukrainian armed forces.
But in an interview with ABC News, one of the country’s top military officials dismissed the leak’s impact on Kiev’s battlefield plans.
“This will not be able to affect the actual results of the offensive operation,” Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said.
The country’s best spy is considered one of the few Ukrainian officials who correctly predicted the timing of the full-scale Russian invasion of his neighbor.
The 21-year-old’s actions have been roundly criticized by lawmakers from all political parties.
But he received support from far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who falsely referred to him as “Jake Teixeira” on Twitter.
In yet another rampaging social media diatribe, the congressman representing Georgia’s 14th district claimed he was being persecuted because of his skin color.
“Jake Teixeira is white, male, Christian, and anti-war,” Greene said. “That makes him an enemy of the Biden regime.”
The 48-year-old repeatedly repeats Kremlin talking points about Ukraine, including the completely fictional claim that the country is being overrun by Nazis.