(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . This Isn't The Story Of One Lone Numbnut... Teixeira's Chain Of Command Bears As Much Responsibility [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-14 Right now the story of 21 year old Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira’s leak of classified information is split between stories about the idiot himself and how our National Security apparatus is trying to mitigate the fallout. Neither of those are the story I’m interested in. I just read Mark Sumner’s latest latest post in which he stated... “He was a member of the U.S. military who betrayed the trust of his superiors and fellow servicemembers.” On the surface, that may appear to be true, but it ignores the fact that Teixeira’s superiors had a responsibility to properly train and supervise him. In my mind they bear as much culpability as he does for this violation of National Security. The compartmentalization of information is crucial to maintaining military secrecy. If no one knows all the secrets, then no one can spill them. All military secrets are subject to a chain of custody. Those without need to know are not given access. The chain of command has a duty to police the peons on the bottom. With a breach of this size and magnitude it’s evidence of mishandling on an institutional level. Every member of Teixeira’s chain of command is likely being investigated thoroughly right now. That base, that unit, that team; were supposed to have safeguards in place so something like this couldn’t happen. We all know that there is a high turnover rate in America’s Armed Forces… Recruiters are daily trolling every high school in this country hoping to sign up as many suckers as possible. Entrance to the military is an eye opening experience for almost every one of those kids. Nothing is as it seems in the movies. Most of them are given remedial tasks. From the clerks to the cooks to those that fight, the majority of them regret their decision eventually if not immediately. It surprises me not at all that a young man like Teixeira was recruited and trained to work with classified information. He’s just the kind of guy the recruiters are looking for, somebody that knows how to operate a computer, is relatively intelligent, has an aptitude for puzzle solving, and demonstrates blind fealty to the U.S. Military. On paper and in every test they gave him he ticked off all the right boxes. Military Times The New York Times first reported on Thursday that Teixeira is assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing. Teixeira is a cyber transport systems journeyman, a sort of information technology specialist, according to service details released by the Air Force on Thursday, based at Otis Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts. He has served in the Air National Guard since September 2019 and earned the Air Force Achievement Medal. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Teixeira was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the time of the leaks, which occurred earlier this year but were first acknowledged by the Pentagon on April 7. As a reservist he only served one weekend a month and two weeks a year… h/t to alamancedem in the comments for the correction: VOA While the National Guard is primarily made up of reserve troops who can be called to assist with domestic emergencies, some members of the Guard can be classified as full time or active duty. Teixeira was under Title 10 authority of the Air National Guard, according to Reuters, a designation that means he was on active duty and was essentially a full-time member of the unit. In the chat room he could feed his gung ho fantasies and be somebody. On base Teixeira was a nobody, just a cog in the machine, and not even a full fledged cog… He was a part time cog . How this young man not only got his hands on these secrets, but how he copied them and removed them from base is the big question. A quick Google search revealed that Major General Gary W. Keefe is the Adjutant General (Commanding Officer) of the Massachusetts Air National Guard based at Hanscom Air Force Base. The Commander of the 102nd Intelligence Wing is Colonel Sean D. Riley. Vice Commander is Colonel James P. Hoye, and Command Chief is Chief Master Sergeant John G. Dubuc. These men bear at least some responsibility for the leaking of secrets they were entrusted to protect and they’re likely supervising this investigation within their own organization. They’re going to be doing everything in their power to absolve themselves and lay all blame on the heads of one or more of the young people they command. Somewhere the chain of command broke down and chain of custody was undermined making Teixeira’s actions possible. Teixeira is not the only person who should be held accountable for the failures within his unit that allowed this to happen. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/14/2163656/-This-Isn-t-The-Story-Of-One-Lone-Numbnut-Teixeira-s-Chain-Of-Command-Bears-As-Much-Responsibility Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/