Biden Administration's Response to Pentagon Leak: More Social Media Monitoring

The Biden administration is reportedly looking at expanding how it “monitors” social media sites and chatrooms going forward in response to recently leaked classified Pentagon documents that have rocked the national security community.

NBC News cited a senior administration official and a congressional official in a report indicating the administration was “dismayed” that the documents had been leaked online perhaps over a month ago and somehow escaped scrutiny by the intelligence community.

The documents, which were posted to Discord, an online chat app, apparently reveal spying techniques by the United States on both allies and enemies alike, along with intelligence on the war in Ukraine that paints a very different picture of what the public has been told.

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, has been arrested as a suspect in the case. He is set to appear in a federal courtroom this morning.

BREAKING

Footage of Jack Teixeira being arrested.

Teixeira is 21 Years Old

A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard

He’s accused Of releasing Top Secret Documents on The Ukraine War In A Discord Group. pic.twitter.com/kpwWIxMoib

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) April 13, 2023

Pentagon Leak May Lead to More Spying on Americans

One senior administration official told NBC that “nobody is happy about” the leak having circulated for weeks on end before being detected by federal agents.

“The administration is now looking at expanding the universe of online sites that intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities track,” the report contends.

“The intelligence community is now grappling with how it can scrub platforms like Discord in search of relevant material to avoid a similar leak in the future,” another official claimed.

Does any of this sound legal?

.@TheLastRefuge2 Here’s the reason for them leaking
So they can expand their powers
U.S. intel agencies may change how they monitor social media, chatrooms after missing leaked U.S. documents for weeks https://t.co/3Q2tCFE1u9

— David ShoelessJoe?? (@yohiobaseball) April 14, 2023

Expanding spying on social media websites and chat apps is the exact response you’d expect from a government hell-bent on pervading every aspect of American life.

It doesn’t address how a 21-year-old had access to Pentagon papers at the highest classification levels.

Nor does it address the revelations in those leaked documents – That despite being told Ukraine is winning the war against Russia, their air defenses are in peril.

And, that despite government indications to the contrary, there are actually American boots on the ground in Ukraine.

The Daily Mail is reporting that over a dozen American special forces are on the ground in Ukraine, operating in a warzone against Russian forces, according to some of the papers.

The government has been lying to you, the documents show, but the real problem is how they were made public.

American and British special forces are inside Ukraine. The leaked documents claim more than 60 elite troops from both countries are operating in warzone against Putin’s forces. A total of 14 US, with as many as 50 from Britain – the largest of the listed contingents. pic.twitter.com/6OKQ0GqzVU

— CJ4America (@GrammyC4Zone) April 12, 2023

Maybe It’s the Intel Community’s Incompetence That is the Problem

Sure there were fundamental flaws in the handling of classified documents and the chain of command that led a 21-year-old to get access to highly sensitive, world affair-altering Pentagon documents.

But that’s not the problem. It’s gamers chatting it up in their Discord channels that must be spied on.

And sure they don’t seem interested in finding out who the person who dropped pipe bombs off on January 6th might be. Or the Supreme Court abortion ruling leaker. Or anybody on the Epstein client list.

But the average American – Bet your ass they’re going to use this incident to come after you.

NEW: It’s not about the lies exposed by the leak, it’s about the social media. It’s not even about how easy it is for a 21-year old to gain access to highly classified documents, it’s about the social media! @NBCNews reporting that “The Biden administration is looking at… pic.twitter.com/CAJXpxh7uy

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 14, 2023

The Pentagon document leak itself revealed that the United States is spying on just about everybody.

So it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to start foaming at the mouth in anticipation of expanding their spying powers to social media.

The government, after all, has used other overblown threats as a springboard for such action in the past.

Politico reported in a striking column in 2021 that the United States Postal Inspection Service’s Internet Covert Operations Program – or iCOP – sprang into action just five days after the events at the Capitol.

It was a ‘covert operations program’ that monitored Americans’ social media activity following the January 6 Capitol riot. The Post Office.

So the postal service now spies on their customers..

A Covert U.S. Postal Service Unit Spied On Social Media Users Following January 6 Capitol Protests via @nationalfile https://t.co/ikogimDT7t

— Peter Boykin For 2024 (@Boykin4Congress) September 27, 2021

They had the US Postal Service spying on social media platforms. They had the Patriot Act, something the ACLU describes as “the first of many changes to surveillance laws that made it easier for the government to spy on ordinary Americans.”

And yet Teixeira was able to post leaked Pentagon documents online for months without anybody stumbling onto them. Additinally, he was tracked down first by online sleuths and reporters before authorities showed up at his home.

Maybe, and hear me out, maybe it’s incompetence – perpetual incompetence – in the intelligence community that is the problem here, and not some young kids on gaming apps.