Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking online of top secret military documents, including those related to the Russian war in Ukraine, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
22-year-old Teixeira was sentenced by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston after pleading guilty to what US prosecutors called "one of the most significant Espionage Act violations in American history”.
Teixeira, who has remained in custody since his April 2023 arrest, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of knowingly acquiring and transmitting classified information related to national defense over the leak last year of a trove of classified records to a group of gamers on the messaging app "Discord" (Discord).
Prior to his arrest, Teixeira was an Airman 1st Class at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he worked as a cyber defense operations intern, or information technology support specialist.
Despite being a low-level aviator, Teixeira has access to top-secret information, and beginning in January 2022, began gaining access to hundreds of classified documents related to topics including Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Teixeira shares classified information on chat app "Discord" and boasts that he has access to "stuff about Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China".
A US grand jury has awarded $42 million to three former inmates of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, finding a Virginia-based defense contractor responsible for contributing to their mistreatment two decades ago, reported the BBC, quoted by BTA.
The verdict against CACI Premier Technology was handed down during the second trial in this case. The first trial ended in the spring after the jury failed to reach a decision.
The court heard directly from plaintiffs Suhail al-Shimari, Salah al-Ejaili and Asad al-Zubaie, who brought the case in 2008.
They describe beatings, sexual abuse, forced undressing and other forms of cruel treatment by their guards.
CACI provides the US military with interrogators at a prison west of Baghdad. In court, the company's lawyers said that the employees were not directly involved in the violence, which was carried out by military police, reports the BBC.
The jury, however, supported the plaintiffs and their claims that CACI was still liable because the interrogators they provided had instructed the military police on how to make the detainees "softer".
In a statement, CACI said the company had been made a scapegoat.
"To be clear: no CACI employee has been charged - criminally, civilly or administratively - in this matter,” the company said.
This sentence is reported to be the first time a civilian contractor has been held legally responsible for the degrading treatment of detainees at "Abu Ghraib".
The jury awarded the plaintiffs $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages.
"I have been waiting for this day for a long time," Al-Ejaili said in a statement after the sentencing. "This victory is a shining light to all who have been oppressed, and a strong warning to any company or contractor practicing various forms of torture and abuse."
Hundreds of men were arrested and held in "Abu Gharib" by American forces after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the BBC recalls.
In 2004, disturbing pictures from the prison were leaked, including one showing a soldier dragging a naked inmate on a dog leash. The photos have sparked widespread condemnation.
Eleven American soldiers were convicted of violating the laws of war, but many received sentences of only a few years. The last remaining jailed soldier convicted in the case was released in August 2011.
A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms in the state, Reuters reported, cited by BTA.
The decision by U.S. District Judge John DeGravels, who called the law "discriminatory and coercive," is a temporary setback for conservative groups trying to force more public expression of faith.
Public schools are already often a battleground in the US, where the exercise of religious rights and the desire to prevent state and local governments from favoring one religion over another often come into conflict.
President-elect Donald Trump, who is a Republican, has endorsed "bringing prayer back to our schools".
Louisiana schools would have had until Jan. 1 to comply with the state law. DeGravels was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, Reuters recalls.
Liz Murrell, the state's Republican attorney general, said in a statement: "We strongly disagree with the court's decision and will immediately appeal."
The appeal will go to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts.