I have a simple suggestion.
Department of Defense Shares Classified War Plan Details With Journalist
Yesterday I noted Department of Defense Shares Classified War Plan Details With Journalist
The most striking aspect is the MAGA denial and hypocrisy.
See link for details of what happened. It’s very damning, and inexcusable.
Yet, today, we have denials, lies, and excuses.
Lie of the Day
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Administration Denies Signal Chat Shared Classified Details With Journalist
The White House and two top intelligence officials denied on Tuesday that classified materials about military strikes in Yemen were shared by officials on a group chat on a nongovernment service, while Democrats denounced the security breach as reckless and dangerous.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told Congress Tuesday that the chat among senior officials over a pending military strike against Houthi militants earlier this month didn’t include classified information. The Atlantic reported that the chat included details of an imminent operation against the Houthis.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe’s claim, which was made in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, was challenged by several senators who said it wasn’t plausible that the chat could be unclassified.
“If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who serves as the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly toward classified information.”
Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, declined to say if his agency would investigate whether the Signal chat violated security procedures, adding that he was briefed on the app discussion on Monday night and had no updates to provide.
The disclosure that top administration officials had conducted several days of discussion about the military operation over Signal, which was revealed in The Atlantic’s report, has also put a spotlight on national security adviser Mike Waltz, who organized the group thread about U.S. plans to launch airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi militants and included the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump signaled his support for Waltz, who had privately come under criticism from some administration officials after the incident. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News.
Ratcliffe confirmed that he had participated but then said he didn’t remember any discussion of “weapon packages” or other operational details that the Atlantic reported had been mentioned. [I suggest we refresh his piss poor memory].
As for information shared by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Ratcliffe said that shouldn’t be considered to be secret because Hegseth has the authority to determine whether Defense Department information is classified and has insisted it wasn’t.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that officials in the thread didn’t discuss “war plans.” She also said the White House Counsel’s Office “has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.”
Goldberg said in a statement: “The information I received on this Signal chat included the full name of an active CIA officer; human targeting information that could affect an adversary’s understanding of U.S. intelligence sources and methods; the sequencing of upcoming attacks; the weapons used in forthcoming attacks; the exact times attacks were supposed to start (information I received before attacks were launched); and real-time damage assessments that, again, could compromise sources and methods.”
The statement continued: “Any responsible national security expert would consider the information contained in this Signal chat to be of the greatest sensitivity, and would agree that this information should never be shared on non-government messaging apps.”
Hegseth, who was among 18 users in the Signal group, on Monday criticized Goldberg and said that “nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that.”
Since It’s Not Classified
Since none of this is classified, my simple suggestion is: The Atlantic should release 100 percent of it, with one name redacted.
Then we will see who said what, whether Hegseth is a liar, and whether Ratcliffe is either a liar (or has a bad memory or was sleeping during the meeting).
To protect the one CIA agent mentioned by name, redact that name.