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On 13 April, a helicopter hovered over an ordinary house in the tiny town of Dighton, MassachusettsA state in the northeast USA. . The world was on tenterhooks as it waited for its first sight of the man accused of one of the biggest leaks of classifiedInformation that is labelled as top secret, only to be shared with certain people. documents in recent history.

Who would come out? A spy? A hacker? A whistleblowerSomeone who exposes secretive behaviour by a group or organisation; once used to describe police who blew whistles to signal the scene of a crime.? None of the above. The person the FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigates crimes on a national level in the USA. led out of the house was a scrawny 21-year-old gamer.

Jack Teixeira, an airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard¹, is now awaiting trial for one of the strangest cases of espionageSpying. in history. What is unusual about the new leak is that it allegedly took place on one of the world's most popular chat sites, Discord.

Discord started as a space for online gamers to discuss strategy. To make sure others cannot eavesdrop on these discussions, the site is organised into separate servers that cannot interact with each other.

Teixeria is thought to have posted more than 300 documents in a small server that he ran as early as January this year. They stayed there for months until another user shared some of them to a larger server.

It was only when they started emerging on Twitter that the US government finally realised what had happened.

There has been a great deal of speculation about Teixeira's possible motives. Some think he was hoping to embarrass Joe BidenThe president of the USA, elected in 2020. and other US leaders. Others believe he was just trying to impress his friends.

Whatever his motives might have been, some are convinced Teixeira has done the US public a service.

They say leaks like these are the only way the people can find out what is going on in the heart of government. We now know NatoThe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was founded in 1949 to unite Western democracies in Europe and North America against the perceived growing threat of the USSR. It now has 31 members. special forcesElite units within a military that often take part in counterterrorism or other specialised operations. are operating in UkraineA country in Eastern Europe. It was invaded by Russia in February 2022. . We know the USA is spying on Volodymyr ZelenskyZelensky won more than 73% of the vote to become Ukrainian President in April 2019. Incredibly, he once starred in a satirical drama in which his character accidentally wins the Ukrainian presidency.'s phone calls. The people, they insist, have the right to know about these things.

Others are less certain. They fear the most recent leak might have damaged Ukraine's military position, possibly giving Russia the upper hand in the war.

Many experts, however, say the real problem is that too much information is classified. The US government classifies around 50 million documents every year.² They warn too much information is being kept secret just because it would embarrass officials.

Yes: There are good reasons to keep some information secret. This leak might set back the Ukrainian war effort and strengthen the Russians. Governments should be held to account, but through the proper channels.

No: All governments hate scrutiny. If they are given the chance, they will always choose secrecy over transparency. Leaks are the only way of holding them to account.

Or... Some files really should be kept classified, but the USA is seeking to keep as much information secret as possible. This damages public trust in government and makes leaks more likely.