There is an old saying when something gets stolen where we all wonder “Who was minding the store” when the theft took place.
It came to mind again for me after hearing how a 21-year-old IT U.S. Air National Guardsman named Jack Teixeira copied a bunch of top secret documents from the Pentagon and placed them online for his chat room buddies to read in an effort to impress them.
The documents contained top secret information about the war in the Ukraine, our allies, along with what they gave us on other countries and other information what most likely should have only been seen by people with top secret clearance levels at the Pentagon.
What Teixeira may have gained in impressing his friends will most likely give him plenty of time ponder if it was worth it if he gets sentenced to a long jail term. The even bigger question that should be bouncing around in his brain is will losing all those years of freedom be worth it for such a stupid reason?
That is what makes this particular story so incredible because taking top level security items is nothing new. In 99.99% of the cases it’s done for money or because the one doing it has an axe to grind with the government.
But this James Bond 003.5 did it simply to impress his chat room friends and didn’t receive any money for it. Geez, you think he could have at least bet one of friends a pizza that he could do it to get something out of his devious deed.
We like to believe that people must undergo a fingerprint or eye retina clearance to gain access to those type files like we see in the movies. However, it’s not the case in real life as this super guy just walked in, turned on a computer and entered his access codes to be able to look at everything.
Even more amazing is he didn’t load the documents on a thumb drive or any high tech device to take them out. What he did instead was something circa 2005 by making copies and then carrying them out in his pockets. I’m surprised he didn’t make a run to Kinko’s to make some extra copies and then bring back the originals the next day.
And this guy was someone they hired to provide IT? Wow, that is a scary thought and once again the question of “Who is minding the store?” comes into play.
Especially from a government who requires us to use a password, username, answer a security question and then emails us a security code just to get into our own online Social Security account. You would think they would have some more stringent security in place when it comes to highly classified material of this nature.
When I still worked at the News Advocate we had more security measures in place apparently than the government, as we had to enter codes to access our computers and the copy machines so there was the ability to trace who was doing what. We even had a four digit security code to enter the building, and when I retired all of my information was shut down less than five minutes after my last hour on the job.
Toss on top of it all some of these documents Teixeira took were online for weeks before someone at the Pentagon figured it out, which is pretty scary as well.
ABC television interviewed a 16-year-old kid who was in that chat room and said he realized instantly after he saw the documents that this guy could get in big trouble. Maybe the Pentagon should give the 16-year-old a job in security because he seems sharper then what they got right now.
The action certainly wasn’t America’s bright and shiniest moment, to say the least, from a security standpoint. As a result, there is going to be a major need for some major fence mending with our allies around the world by our top U.S. officials.
Odds are also good many difficult questions will be asked at the Pentagon and heads will roll on how and why a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman had those security privileges in the first place. It sounds about 25,000 steps above his pay grade level to have those type of security privileges.
It’s kind of like the manager at a bank giving the janitor the combination to the vault so he can sweep in there after business hours, but telling him to just remember to lock up when he’s done. In other words it just doesn’t make any sense at all.
More importantly, it makes you wonder how all these covert spy agencies spend years trying to turn someone on the other side to gain access to those types of documents.
Maybe this proves to them instead of trying to do it with someone at the top they should have started at the bottom instead. It might be better to start with the summer intern from one of the military service academies instead of a three star general.
Also when you consider all the top secret documents recently found in the homes of two presidents and one vice president, you really wonder how many others in on those meetings have confidential files in their garage or attic. One thing that seems certain today at high levels of government is anything marked top secret or confidential isn’t anymore.
So like I said at the beginning of this column, the big question is “Who is minding the store?” I hope the government figures it out before I see you again on Thursday.
Ken Grabowski is a former journalist who spent more than 36 years in the newspaper business.
