Air National Guard unit that was suspended after classified documents leak will restart mission

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air National Guard intelligence unit involved in the massive classified documents leak by an airman last year has been recertified and will return to its mission on Saturday after months of investigations, improvements and inspections, the Air Force says.

The 102nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group was suspended in mid-April 2023 after Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was arrested over leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine and other national security secrets.

Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who heads Air Combat Command, approved the recertification of the unit after an inspection team did a final review, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said. A team from the 480th Intelligence Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, spent two weeks watching the unit do its mission as the final step in the review process.

The ISR group is part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing, based at Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As part of the recertification process, the Wing put in a new organizational structure to improve oversight of the group’s operations, made a number of required changes in other security procedures and fixed other problems that were identified in an investigation by the Air Force inspector general, Stefanek said.

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