00:01In the summer of 2020, Jack graduates high school.
00:05That's of course the first year of the pandemic.
00:09He actually skips high school graduation because he's off to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base.
00:16He goes on to start taking the coursework that he needs to become a cyber transport specialist.
00:24It was a low-level IT job, but it required a security clearance.
00:29And a background check.
00:32He was a little bit worried they were gonna, in their interview, bring up,
00:36Hey, we found this Discord account or we found this Discord server.
00:39At that time, he did become less active in Discord.
00:43And he was very worried about keeping the things he was doing private and safe.
00:48What was he specifically worried that the background investigation might turn up with regards to Discord?
00:53Um, there was a lot of like racist talk on that server.
00:59There was a lot of talk of killing ATF agents, killing different government officials, committing acts of terrorism.
01:08Things that are probably not great for someone in the military to be saying.
01:12So I think that's probably what he was worried about.
01:19But Deshera was investigated and ultimately approved for security clearance by the Department of Defense.
01:26One big question we have right now is, how did Jack Deshera get a security clearance?
01:32I mean, if we're looking at Jack Deshera and all the things that he posted online, the racist, violent comments,
01:39the memes, the imagery, and the fact that he ultimately is accused of leaking hundreds of classified documents.
01:43It's like, okay, well, wait a minute, there should have been red flags along the way.
01:49The Department of Defense declined to give an interview or answer questions about Jack Deshera.
01:55A Pentagon review found that there wasn't a single point of failure in the leaks, but said improvements were needed
02:02to the security clearance process and how classified information is safeguarded.
02:08Shane Harris spoke to retired General Scott Rice, former director of the Air National Guard.
02:14All the checks and balances of the system and the bureaucracy looked into Jack Deshera's background, and he was vetted
02:21and approved for that type of clearance.
02:23Jack, we were told from friends, was very obsessed with violent videos, violent content.
02:29I mean, it's a picture of a really, you know, dark, violence-prone, racist, you know, gun lover, basically.
02:38Should the military vetting process have caught all of these aspects of his personality?
02:44Yes and no. The military vetting system is pretty robust and it catches a lot of stuff.
02:50He was a, you know, young high school kid, took a test, did very, very well on it.
02:55And so, yes, the system vets and finds a lot of the system, but again, it's not perfect and some
03:02things come through.
03:13We're going to start all of this series.
03:13I'm going to do a little bit more with something new here, and we'll be able to do a little
03:13more on it.
03:13If you're ready to catch it, you know, you can use security.
03:14I'm going to go back towards it, and try.
03:14You can only set the infrastructure and put it on it.
03:14You can use security for security, too.
03:14You can use security to have security.
03:15You can use security security over there, so you can use security.
