The chairmen of the House Armed Services and House Intelligence committees are demanding answers from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after a major leak of top secret military documents.
“The world has watched as classified national security secrets leaked widely and precipitously across the internet. The unauthorized disclosures appear extensive,” House Armed Service Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) wrote in an April 18 letter addressed to Austin obtained by the Epoch Times.
In recent weeks, it was discovered that many Pentagon documents, including some requiring the highest security clearance to access, had leaked across the Internet.
The source of the leak was later discovered to be Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who had access to the documents and shared them with an online community. Members of the community later leaked the documents, which quickly spread to other parts of the Internet.
However, the documents were reportedly online for weeks before U.S. intelligence officials knew the leak had taken place.
“The period over which they occurred unnoticed by government authorities is lengthy,” they continued. “Americans and our allies are asking how such a serious leak was able to occur with such ease and breadth.”
Following discovery of the leak, the DOJ was quick to open an investigation into the matter.
Rogers and Turner said that while they were “mindful” that the matter was the subject of an ongoing legal investigation, “it is imperative that the Committees responsible for congressional oversight have immediate access to all relevant and pertinent information necessary to inform the Committees’ determination of whether this incident might be corrected or prevented in the future through legislation or other policy-related adjustments.”
“We must ensure national security is not further endangered or harmed by similar crimes happening in the future,” they added.
Rogers and Turner then demanded a laundry list of documents from Austin, including Pentagon protocols and information about permissions to access classified materials.
Several of the requests centered on Otis Air National Guard Base, where Teixeira was employed. They asked Austin to provide information on the procedures for protecting classified material at Otis, and information on any other “security incidents” that took place at the base.
They also asked Austin to provide them with any internal analysis to date on the leak by the Department of Defense, as well as analyses of the potential security ramifications of the leak.
