At this point Jack Teixeira is alleged to have posted classified intelligence documents to the web, but there is no direct evidence that he actually was the one who placed those documents in a chat room. That remains to be seen if the allegation, which comes from one of the members of the chat room, can be proven in court. If that cannot be proven, he still faces potential charges on mishandling classified information.
Well, what has been the U.S. Government’s policy towards those who “mishandle classified information?” I have two names for you — Sandy Berger and General David Petraeus.
Let’s start with Sandy Berger:
Sandy Berger, who was President Clinton’s top national security aide, pleaded guilty Friday to taking classified documents from the National Archives and cutting them up with scissors.
Rather than the “honest mistake” he described last summer, Berger acknowledged to U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson that he intentionally took and deliberately destroyed three copies of the same document dealing with terror threats during the 2000 millennium celebration.
“Guilty, your honor,” Berger responded when asked how he pleaded.
The charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.
However, under a plea agreement that Robinson must accept, Berger would serve no jail time but instead pay a $10,000 fine, surrender his security clearance for three years and cooperate with investigators. Security clearance allows access to classified government materials.
Mr. Berger, now deceased, was no 21 year old kid. A college graduate, a lawyer and a longtime government political appointee, with stints at the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council, Berger had both the legal and work experience to understand the implications of mishandling classified intelligence. He was guilty, by reason of his confession, and only had to pay a $10,000 fine. Nothing like having friends in high places to give you a pass for breaking the law.
Then we have General David Petraeus. During his tenure as CIA Director, Petraeus shared classified intelligence documents with his mistress:
David Petraeus, the retired US army general and former CIA director responsible for the development of the hugely influential “counter-insurgency” strategy used in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced on Thursday to two years’ probation and ordered to pay a fine of $100,000 for sharing highly classified information with his lover and biographer, Paula Broadwell. . . .
The affair was discovered after Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite, was sent threatening messages from an anonymous email account in May. She notified a friend who worked at the FBI, who traced the emails to Broadwell.
The affair did not become public until after the presidential election in November, when Petraeus tendered his resignation to the White House. Obama later accepted his offer of resignation.
But the saga wasn’t over. After Petraeus resigned, it emerged that Broadwell had been given a set of eight notebooks which contained classified information – including codewords and military strategy – by the general.
Initially Petraeus lied to investigators, saying that following his resignation from the CIA he had no classified documents in his possession. However, an FBI search of the general’s house in April 2013 found the notebooks in an unlocked drawer in his study. . . .
Petraeus pleaded guilty in March in a federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information. Under the terms of his plea deal, he escaped possible jail time and an embarrassing public trial.
So, let’s recap — Petraeus gave classified information to someone not cleared to possess it, he lied to the FBI and he kept the classified information in an unlocked, non-secure location. That should have been a felony but, once again, if you are part of the right club you get a slap on the hand, a misdemeanor and, best of all, some sweet corporate jobs:
General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) (New York) is a Partner at KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, which he established in May 2013. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Optiv and OneStream, a Strategic Advisor for Sempra and Advanced Navigation, a personal venture investor, an academic, and the co-author (with British historian Andrew Roberts) of “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine” (October, 2023).
Maybe, just maybe, Jack Teixeira has followed the careers of Berger and Petraeus and decided that mishandling classified documents could be his ticket to fame and fortune. My point is that the U.S. Government has no problem beating up little guys who go astray while giving “players” a get out of jail free pass. So much for Justice being blind, i.e., treating everyone the same regardless of their social position, friends and wealth. The U.S. justice system increasingly resembles a third world clown show.
Remains to be seen how Jack Teixeira will be treated.
The USSA doesn’t have a justice system.
justice | ˈjəstəs |
noun
1 just behavior or treatment: a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people.
Interesting how fast you’re backtracking.
From “Texeira couldn’t have possibly had access to the documents” to “he couldn’t have access to CIA documents” to “let’s see if it can be proved in court that he was the one who posted the documents.”
I predict the same thing will happen about your insistence that Evan Gershkovich was not a spy.
Why are you here? You contribute nothing. You do nothing but criticise.
Everyone has a right to speak freely. And we all change our opinions as the information we get changes.
I think you’re missing the point. That Teixeira may have been a middleman in posting the documents, not having direct access to them but access nonetheless via a party that did have direct access and posted them with full knowledge of the ‘party’ or simply was given the opportunity to discover a ‘billfold on the ground’, owner unknown.
Did you NOT read the first two sentences in the article?
There is nothing wrong with being wrong. The problem is 1) the desire to want to be right all the time, and 2) the refusal to correct oneself when new evidence emerges.
I generally like your comments but (if I may say so) you come across peevish sometimes – like someone drinking alone and unhappy with the world.
Think of yourself as among friends on this site, all trying to figure things out together.
Not exactly. You can post documents to which you don’t have access if they are given to you by a 3rd party. Teixeira could have got the documents without logging in himself, printing them and taking them out. Curiosity killed the cat, it is hard to resist looking when someone puts something top secret under your nose and leaves the room for a moment to say, take a leak (pun intended), and give you time to take snaps of the stuff on the table with your smartphone.
It’s not a good sign Teixeira doesn’t seem to have a lawyer and absolutely nobody out giving his side of the story. That recitation of talking points by the blacked-out random guy and corporate news characterizations are all there is. If ActBlue collaborated with the FBI to write a script of who the perp was, it would be the same.
In short, I think they’re going to throw the book at him and try to put him in jail for decades. Can’t have facts slipping out.
Short answer? No.
Long answer? No way Jose.
This is America we are talking about, justice is for the rich and connected, the rest get made into an example for TV.
And is that way in all 3rd world nations.
The USA is a third world nation in many respects; slums, low quality health care and education, coups, stolen elections, political dissidents locked up or assassinated, zero justice for the lower classes, crumbling infrastructure, poisoned water and land, ostentatious promotion of the political and military class in all mediums, and on and on.
There was a Spanish criminal law professor (Manuel de Rivacoba), who was incarcerated by Franco, fled to Argentina, and died in Chile.
He liked to talk after classes in the college cafeteria. During these informal talks he would break away from formality. One of my relatives was in the group that gathered to hear him. On one of those occasions he said: “When you analyze criminal law, you have to remember the most important guiding principle of criminal law in the entire human history: the main crime is being stupid, and the main aggravating condition is being poor”
Texeira, sadly, is guilty of both.
The kid will do a long long time in prison. He checks zero boxes demographically (only reason Bradley manning was let out was that he became trans), he isn’t well connected, and Russian fever is so high that he would have a better chance at a good plea deal as a muslim in Mississippi in 2002.
Senhor Teixeira should accept nothing less than a cable news pundit spot
Having friends in high places can help, eh.
Yankee soldier
He wanna shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia
But now he can’t afford a bag
Yankee dollar talk
To the dictators of the world
In fact it’s giving orders
An’ they can’t afford to miss a word
I’m so bored with the U…S…A…
But what can I do?
Yankee detectives
Are always on the TV
‘Cos killers in America
Work seven days a week
Never mind the stars and stripes
Let’s print the Watergate Tapes
I’ll salute the New Wave
And I hope nobody escapes
I’m so bored with the U…S…A…
But what can I do?
Move up Starsky
For the C.I.A.
Suck on Kojak
For the USA
Patreaous I call Betrayous. He and his honeypot exchanged hot emails by putting them in the draft folder of a third account they knew the password for. They thought this would keep them safe as they were never transmitted. Teenagers do this a lot. The FBI was not fooled. One of the emails detailed phone sex instructions.
One of his gamer friends thoughtfully shared a video with the FBI where he shouts the N word and supposedly anti semetic slurs at a shooting range. Which one the K word? Young people wouldn’t know that one so who knows. With friends like that who needs murderous enemies.
The US has a very dual legal system for committing that crime. I worry for him.
.
Your question on Patreus, yesterday. My vote is “dumb”.
Col McGregor made a comment recently that wars are won 20 years in advance of when they are actually fought. Patreus’ photo should go up beside that comment.
*won or lost.
The backdrop of the photo should be of the plane fleeing Kabul with people hanging from it.
He’s been named and shamed. Has he been formally charged? Either way, I reckon that kid can kiss the street good-by. No way this can will get kicked down the road. This can will get kicked into the can. Bubba’s going to love him.
Proving he’s the one who posted the documents will be straightforward.
Discord groups are message boards not unlike this comment section, except all users are registered before being able to see the board.
Simple to look at which user posted a message with classified content, trace that through the server logs to the IP, and from there via the service provider back to the house it came from.
Well, this is called “rule-based order”.