Pentagon reviewing how it vets for security clearances

The Pentagon is looking into how it vets individuals for security clearances after an alleged leaker of hundreds of pages of secret U.S. documents gained authorized access despite past issues. 

“The department is looking not only at our intelligence processes and procedures as it relates to security or sensitive information and who has that information, but also looking at the process by which we clear and vet individuals for security clearances, and that work is ongoing,” Defense Department spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Thursday.  

Ryder noted that the U.S. military has “a continuous vetting process” for individuals that hold a security clearance, a process which includes “automated record checks that pull data from several different data sources including criminal financial and public records throughout an individual’s period of eligibility.”  

He would not comment directly on how Jack Teixeira — the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman accused of leaking secret intelligence documents online — was able to get top secret clearance with a history of issues.  

In 2018 Teixeira was suspended from his high school due to violent comments, and he has also made racist threats in the past, according to court filings from Wednesday.  

Those incidents have drawn fresh scrutiny of the Pentagon and how it checks the backgrounds of individuals given access to classified information. 

Ryder explained that there is a “very prescribed process” that happens before service members are awarded security clearances. If there is any kind of incident or red flag in an individual’s past, officials consider their age and maturity at the time of that conduct, the seriousness of it and any “pertinent behavioral changes” afterward.  

“It’s going to be pretty stringent requirements to get that security clearance,” the Pentagon spokesman said. “First of all, there is going to be a background check. You’re going to take training and you’re going to sign a nondisclosure agreement.” 

He added: “At the end of the day, it is not something that you just get, it’s something that you have to essentially earn and then maintain that.” 

Teixeira appeared before a magistrate judge on Thursday to request a release from jail while he awaits trial for allegedly posting classified documents to a group on Discord, though the judge is still deciding.