(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Kash Patel, former deputy director of national intelligence and former chief of staff at the Pentagon, questioned the validity of the Pentagon leaks and claimed that a single man doing this on his own was “just not possible.”
According to Breitbart, Patel said he does not believe “for a single second, this guy—a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman—ran this operation alone.”
Patel explained that it is impossible that the suspected leaker, Jack Teixeira—who is currently in FBI custody—could not have accessed the leaked documents unless someone from within the Department of Defense gave him either access or the information itself.
Patel said it is still unlikely he would have had the information, despite Teixeira’s position in the information technology department.
“You can be the biggest IT person in DOD, and you are still compartmented off of the actual information,” he explained. “Almost never does an IT person need to know, as we say, the substance of the intelligence. Their job is to provide the secure informations systems around it to protect any disclosures.”
Continuing, Patel made it clear that there are very few people who do have access to the information given to Teixeira.
“This is crazy sensitive stuff. Ninety-nine percent of people who have a Top Secret/SCI clearance don’t have access to this information,” he said. “And me, as the former deputy DNI and chief of staff of the DOD and publisher of the [Presidential Daily Brief], with the highest security classification, knows that, literally, there is not a lot of people in the U.S. that have access to this kind of intel. It’s done for a reason. So this doesn’t happen.”
The Air Force confirmed that Teixeira was an Airman First Class, the third-lowest rank in the Force. He also worked as an IT technician, or a “cyber transport systems journeyman,” on the Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts.
Patel argued that Teixeira did not act alone.
“Whether he’s in IT or not, is irrelevant. The way it was produced, the way it was put out there — pages, printed photographs taken, published online — that is a methodical way of releasing classified information illegally,” he said.
The former chief of staff also said that the situation smells of a cover up.
“This is an extensive cover-up,” Patel said of Teixeira’s arrest. “It’s going to go on for some time, and they needed a quick victory. This kid should be prosecuted, no questions asked, no questions about it in my mind — he broke the law and needs to be prosecuted.”
“It’s a CYA operation, for sure. Because we haven’t gotten to the worst of it,” he added. “We’re not there yet. There’s more stuff. And you know, there’s probably more stuff floating around in these chat rooms and whatnot, but they want to talk about him, the kid, and not the [verified intelligence].”
