(NewsNation) — Leaked classified documents have revealed the presence of four additional Chinese spy balloons that U.S. intelligence was aware of, according to reports from The Washington Post.
The balloons were similar to the one that was shot down over the Carolina coast in February.
According to reports, the balloon that traversed the U.S. carried sensors and antennas that could not be identified by the intelligence community.
Another balloon flew over a U.S. carrier strike group in the Pacific in a previously unreported incident, the report stated.
“A U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence said the government naming convention for such balloons is alphabetical, from A to Z,” the Post said. “It appears that the balloons are named after notorious criminals, including Tony Accardo, James “Whitey” Bulger, and Donald Killeen.”
It was also disclosed that the leaked classified documents had been online in some form since December and were posted to multiple platforms.
The arrest of and charges against 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, who was responsible for leaking the highly sensitive information online, were made under the Espionage Act.
However, it’s possible that other users on the Discord platform may have copied and shared the images to other servers.
The leaked documents eventually ended up on a Discord server dedicated to a YouTube creator with over 243,000 subscribers and were later discovered on websites like 4chan and a pro-Russian Telegram channel.
The New York Times reports that in high school, Teixeira had strong military ties, was seen as somewhat quiet and awkward by some, and “unnervingly obsessed with war and guns.”
Teixeira did not enter a plea in a Boston federal court on Friday when he heard the charges against him. He will be back in court next week for a detention hearing and is currently in jail in the meantime.
In another unrelated case, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman from Tennessee is now facing federal charges after attempting to sign up to be a paid hitman by filling out a hitman profile on a public website called Rent-a-Hitman.
The website is a total parody, and most of its content is jokes and satire.
The man, Josiah Ernesto Garcia, didn’t realize this and sent a resume and application, which caught the attention of site administrators, who turned his case over to the FBI.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tennessee, an undercover FBI agent met with Garcia, who believed he was being hired for $5,000 to kill someone.
The criminal complaint says Garcia claimed he needed the money to support his family. If convicted, the 21-year-old could face up to 10 years behind bars.
