How Pentagon leak suspect’s violent words escaped notice

There are 2.8 million people with U.S. security clearances. Some of them exhibit online behavior that should disqualify them from access to secrets – and intelligence agencies are studying better ways of identifying those people.

In March 2018, a high school junior in North Dighton, Massachusetts, was suspended after a classmate allegedly heard him discussing guns, Molotov cocktails, and racist threats. 

To those who knew him online, this wouldn’t have been a surprise. The student – Jack Teixeira – was a gun-loving, edgy teenage gamer. The servers he frequented in the years...