As secured security breaches are going, the epic blunder-cum-fiasco that you would expect if the Keystone Cops had been in charge of the military and intelligence services of the nation.
Not only Did the Trump Administration Convene A Confidential Group Chat On A Commercial Messaging Service (Signal) to Discuss Sensitive National Security Matters, The Group Included, Bar The President, The Highest Officials in the Land: The Vice President (JD Vance), The Secretary of Defense (Roomco), The Secretary of Defense (Roomco), Head of the National Security Agency (Michael Waltz) and Several Other High-Ranking Officials, Including The Head of the Cia (John Ratcliffe) and the director of National Intelligence (Tulsi Gabbard).
Not only did the discussed issues related to the highest national security, they include sharing imminent plans for American military strikes at the Houthis in Yemen. So lives were at stake.
And, most bizarre of all, not only was a journalist inexplicably included in the chat group, it was an avid anti-Trump journalist (Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the left-wing magazine The Atlantic).
Signal is an encrypted platform. But it is not nearly as safe as the government's own advanced channels specially designed for the exchange of highly classified and top secrecy information.
Turn to indicate to discuss upcoming American military action, betrays a decent Cavalier approach to security, born of incompetence and inexperience at the highest levels of the government.
Perhaps that is to be expected when a cast of clowns fulfills too many top management positions. A Fox News bladder for defense (Hegseeth). An anti-vax zealer for health (Robert F Kennedy JR). The co-founder of Fake Wrestling for Education (Linda McMahon). A controversial TV doctor for Medicare and Medicaid (Mehmet Oz). A Pro-Kremlin, the recently expelled dictator of Pro-Syria for National Intelligence (Tulsi Gabbard).
The administration has dealt with the consequences of the signal scandal with its characteristic mixture of arrogance and incompetence.
The administration has dealt with the consequences of the signal scandal with its characteristic mixture of arrogance and incompetence
Turn to signal to discuss that the upcoming American military action is born a pretty arrogant approach to safety, born of incompetence and inexperience at the highest government levels,
The first reaction of Hegseeth was to reject it all as a 'hoax', even when the White House confirmed that the exchanges on signal were 'authentic'.
When untruths did not work, the administration of the President Hun resorted to the old political practice to throw a dead cat on the table to divert attention.
The Atlantic Ocean was a failing magazine, claimed Trump, which is just as untrue as irrelevant. The editor is 'deceptive' and 'brought into discredit', piled up in Hegseeth as soon as he got a second wind. He is also 'sensational' Tjilped Secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt.
I can understand why Team Trump is on their care for Goldberg. He is not a friend of the president. But he is not the one who did something wrong in this scandal. He is just the happy beneficiary of the Bollet of your life on his lap.
He has no idea why he ended up at the Signal Chat group (it seems that his name was wrongly added by Waltz or one of his staff).
In the beginning he even thought it was a hoax. He waited a week after the attacks for the Houthis before he went public. Even then he did not give any details about the military planning where he had been aware.
Hegseeth and the White House deny all 'war plans' in the powerful chat room. But there is no reason not to believe Goldberg.
He says that two hours before the American armed forces were received in the chain in the chain, he came into action from the Minister of Defense who describes 'minute to minute of' for 'upcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about goals, weapons that the US would use and attack.'
There was even a weather forecast about the time of the attack.
If that does not amount to war plans, the world is not round and the night will not follow a day.
Goldberg has not published these texts, which shows that he has a higher respect for national security than others in the signal chain.
But he knows that a conference committee might ask him to make the texts available behind closed doors. It can also insist on others in the chat room to do the same.
Until now, the White House is hardening with typical resistance and blusterer.
It remains determined that no classified material was exchanged, because if it was on a platform as a signal, the consequences for those involved could be terrible. The use of signal for conducting classified discussions about imminent military action would be a serious infringement of safety procedures that arrange the treatment of sensitive defense information.
For a conference committee on Tuesday, a nervous gabbard even refused to confirm that she had participated in the chat. But she still thought it was necessary to insist that no classified material was involved. At least not her. She was a bit vague about Hegseeth. But how would she know if she was not part of the stock markets?
Waltz was praised as the autumn man, but Trump gathered behind him and said that he is a 'good guy' who had learned a lesson ' – hardly a blow to the wrist for one of the large security scandals of our time.
It should help him through the week. But perhaps no further than that would come out more stressful material about how Goldberg ended up in the chat room.
Waltz's reputation as a serious player has taken something of a dent, now we know that he has marked the Houthi strike in the signal chat with emojis of a fist, an American flag and a flame. Not entirely adult America requires national security.
Hegseeth's work is also at stake. He has categorically said that “no one is a war plans.” If that turns out to be less than the truth, his position would also become untenable.
Whatever his displays of public support, Trump is private furious, furious in colorful language with the 'stupidity' of Waltz and others. I called a narrow assistant from the president for a heads -up of the situation.
“The president is on the disaster,” I was told. “It's not safe to talk. I keep my head down. “He hung up then.
It will also not have escaped Trump's attention that his vice -president, for all his public impressions of loyalty, is developing his own policy. The signal texts without a doubt show that Vance was skeptical about the need to hit the Houthis.
Yes, they have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year on their way to the Suez Canal. But, Vance argued, very little American trade goes through the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea, while '40 percent of European trade does.
So attacking the Houthis would benefit Europe much more than America.
“I'm not sure if the president is aware of how inconsistent this is with his message about Europe,” said Vance, adding that although he would support the consensus of the other top officials in the chat, “I just hate to save Europe again.”
In the end Vance was placed by a suggestion that Europe could be sent the bill for the military action (good luck with that) and the insistence of Stephen Miller, a senior assistant of the White House, that the attack was the will of the president.
JD Vance was eventually placed by a suggestion that Europe could be sent the bill for the military action
For a conference committee on Tuesday, a nervous tulsi gabbard even refused to confirm that she had participated in the chat.
Trump will be fine with Vance's visceral anti-European, which we have seen before, but never in such rough and grim terms.
But he will be suspicious of Vance's freelancing about foreign policy, especially because the reason to attack the Houthis is not to do Europeans a favor, but to illuminate one Iranian proxy group in the region (after the demise of Hamas and Hezbollah) that is still a military threat to the interests of America.
Vance's trips to foreign policy often reveal that he is from his depth in complicated matters. But in his aversion to Europe, he is very synchronized with the rest of the Trump government.
Even Hegseeth came up with the action and Vancce told about signal that he “completely” shared his disgust of European free tax. It is pathetic. '
Long after the row dies about safety fractures, what we have learned about the unimportant attitude of the Trump administration compared to Europe can very well be the most important characteristic of the signal scandal. It went from merely hostility to outright hostility.
If the European leaders still do not realize, they are now alone – after the revelations of the Signal Chatroom, they cannot be a doubt.
