US airman charged over documents leak
A 21-year-old national guardsman was charged on Friday with orchestrating the most damaging leak of US classified documents for a decade, an embarrassing breach that raises tough questions over the junior official's access to high-level secrets. Jack Teixeira was arrested on Thursday following a week-long probe into the leak of documents unveiling US concern over Ukraine's ability to fend off the Russian assault, and which showed Washington has spied on allies Israel and South Korea. It is the biggest such breach since the 2013 dump of National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden. Teixeira was charged with the "unauthorised retention and transmission of national defense information" at his first court appearance, a short hearing in Boston. He is also accused of the "unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or material." The counts carry prison sentences of ten years and five years respectively. Teixeira wore a beige jumpsuit and looked glum as he appeared before a judge at Massachusetts federal court in Boston at 10:00 am (1400 GMT). At one point his father shouted out, "We love you Jack," to which Teixeira responded: "Love you too Dad." He was not required to enter a plea and was detained pending a detention hearing set for next Wednesday. Teixeira is suspected of posting the documents, some dated as recently as early March, to a private chat group on the social media platform Discord. (AFP)