大象传媒

The US authorities have taken into custody the person they believe to have leaked US defence documents, revealing apparent secrets about Ukraine, China, Egypt and other places.

Federal investigators arrested Jack Teixeira who's 21 and a US Air Force National Guardsman - at his family home after investigators found highly sensitive documents on the gaming platform Discord.

So how does a relatively junior, 21 year old guardsman, have access to this type of information, and successfully remove it? 大象传媒 Newsday heard from Professor William Banks of Syracuse University Law School, and editor of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy.

鈥淩ank has nothing to do with access to classified information, it鈥檚 a matter of gaining the clearance鈥� and, once in, top secret clearance gave him access to just about anything that anyone else at a high level of government can see.鈥�

"Twenty years ago after the 9/11 attacks鈥� one of the revelations of that period was we were not good at sharing information. So we went overboard in the other direction and now someone that's 21-years-old and barely out of high school can get a low level job and obtain clearance [for] all the nation's secrets. We need to install far greater controls on access."

(Pic: Jack Teixeira; Credit: Facebook)

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