Tag: Federal

My apologies for some incorrect information on the previous post. I had said that Gabbard and others would have had to have been using a private phone rather than government issued because Signal couldn’t be loaded onto their phones. That was the policy of the previous admin (though the military has been using Signal on their phones plenty). The current admin pre-loads Signal on their official phones. I have corrected this in the previous post.

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When questioned by the Senate, Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe said there was no classified information in the chats. When addressing the Senate, they agreed with Secretary of Defense Hegseth (who had not addressed the Senate) and said there was no discussion of military operations, descriptions of targets, specifics of military platforms or ordnance to be used. Trump himself said the chat contained no classified information. Hegseth accused Goldberg of making the whole thing up. They essentially said, “Pshaw, can’t trust this guy, he’s a big fucking liar.”

So Goldberg and The Atlantic released the full transcript of the Signal chat.

In summation, there was specific information about what targets were to be struck, what aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles were to be used and when, and against whom.

Ratcliffe and Gabbard perjured themselves in front of the Senate, and it was shown to be provably so less than 24 hours later.

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I didn’t expect anything else from this admin. They will blatantly lie to our faces and the faces of Congress because they have seen there are no repercussions for doing so. They did not expect The Atlantic to call their bluff. I have no doubt they will somehow try to punish both Goldberg and The Atlantic for backing them into a corner over their mistakes. What’s more, none of them as yet has admitted wrongdoing, owned up to anything, or even suggested they could do things differently and/or better in the future. They are seemingly incapable of it.

Mike Waltz is even suggesting that Goldberg “hacked” his way into the Signal group. You sure about that, chief?

Cuz that sure looks like one Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor, directly added Goldberg to the group.

Even if that’s not true, and Goldberg – the editor of a goddamn newspaper, not a superhacker – hacked his way into a meeting attended by the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the CIA, and the National Security Advisor…

Gabbard, for her part, is claiming total amnesia about the entire affair, despite the fact that it only happened on March 15. Hasn’t even bothered to address the perjury. Evidently she may need to start tattooing her own body as in Memento to remember her day to day tasks in the office.

Hegseth has opted to double down:

“So, let’s [sic] me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.”

No names – except easily identifiable information based on someone’s position within the Houthis and the time at which he entered his girlfriend’s apartment. No locations – except the aforementioned apartment, easily identifiable via deductive reasoning. No units – except for the specific types of aircraft and drones to be used, whose initial positions can be pretty well inferred from their known prior locations. No routes – except those that could be inferred via the times and types of aircraft by anyone with a basic understanding of the US disposition of forces in the region. No methods – except obviously being fucking airstrikes. Even aside from all of that, the Secretary of Defense acting like a petulant, alcoholic child rather than owning his own stupidity is remarkably on brand.

To quote Jim Himes, Democratic Congressman: “It’s by the awesome grace of God that we’re not mourning dead pilots right now.”

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Some icing on the top of all of this: the federal judge who drew the straw to investigate this whole Signal affair is Judge James Boasberg, who recently issued the injunction against ICE kidnapping and removing people to El Salvador without due process. The same Judge Boasberg who has been targeted for impeachment by Speaker Mike Johnson for having the temerity to do his job, and who also lead Speaker Johnson to suggest congress can just eliminate any federal court they like, so that the Executive Branch can do whatever the hell it wants without pesky shit like the law getting in the way.

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On a personal note, I was reminded of my reasons for starting this blog. I accidentally got into a discussion about this with a relative with whom I do not see eye to eye with, re: politics. Despite not meaning to, she attempted quite solidly to convince me the things I have seen unfold over the last three days were not, in fact, what I had seen. That this wasn’t a big deal. That this happens all the time. That Goldberg probably was a hacker. That he did release the full transcripts before today. And that nothing specific was discussed in the Signal chat.

All this despite her not having read either transcript, or knowing standard military protocol, or how OPSEC works, or even the contents of the Senate testimony yesterday. Because the tiktoks and instagram reels and youtube shorts she’d seen told her what to think. Certain things that she knows about, she’s capable of calling bullshit on. But things she doesn’t? She takes these influencers words on, from start to finish. And she even told me (in essence) that no news organizations can really be trusted, because they want views and clicks… as if the influencers don’t.

Don’t let them gaslight you or fog your memory. Don’t let them minimize what you see happening.

Keep your ability to analyze sharp – and know when to admit you’re wrong or fucked up.

In a stunning breach of protocol, law, and good sense, a plethora of high ranking individuals from the White House, National Security, and Department of Defense conducted a conversation about the upcoming bombing of Yemen over an unauthorized and non-secure Signal group chat…

…And apparently invited the chief editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the group. Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor, is the one who invited Goldberg to the Signal chat.

Before I go further, let’s be clear on a few things. First, this whole shitshow should have taken place in a SCIF. Signal is not secure, and is known to have been compromised by GRU hackers in the past. All of these idiots were using private non-secured phones for this conversation, because government-secured phones cannot have Signal loaded onto them – due to the aforementioned security vulnerabilities. (Edit: I was incorrect about this. This was true in the previous admin, though they did reccommend Signal for non-classified commuinications. Tulsi Gabbard admitted that under Trump, government phones come pre-loaded with Signal.) One of these idiots, Tulsi Gabbard, refused to answer congress if her phone was private or government issued because “it’s under review”. Motherfucker, how is it under review if it is your own phone or a phone issued to you?

On to the meat, here.

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The chat included:

• JD Vance, Vice President of the United States of America
• Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense
• Stephen Miller, Senior Advisor to the President, seditionist, and white nationalist
• Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor
• Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
• John Ratcliffe, Director of the CIA
• Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence
• Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East
• Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury
• Brian McCormack, Chief of Staff for the National Security Council
• Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff
• Joe Kent, Acting Chief of Staff for Tulsi Gabbard
• Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic – invited by accident, possibly because they assumed “JG” in Signal was Jamieson Greer, a trade representative.

The conversation between these individuals (and others unnamed because they’re not in a decision making capacity) revolved around how and when to strike Houthi targets in Yemen, the disposition of forces and targets to be hit, courtesy of Hegseth, and further planning for operations in and around Yemen.

As of the time of this posting Goldberg has not revealed much of the content of the meeting, because he did not wish to put American security or lives at risk. He did share certain choice statements by the Vice President, Hegseth, and others, concerning if Europe was pulling its weight with regards to securing the Suez Canal against the Houthis, and breaking with Trump over certain matters of policy. The main thrust of what he has revealed is that the meeting would involve planning strikes. Goldberg has said the texts he captured while in the meeting provided plenty of sensitive information, though the volume of those texts is deliberately unclear at the moment.

What is absolutely clear from this Signal meeting, especially since at least one member (Steve Witkoff) was in Russia when he was added to the chat and the discussion took place, is that none of these buffoons has any business being in the positions they are. I’ve seen World of Warcraft and EVE Online guilds practice better security than them. I know college students that understand security risks better.

We already knew they were selected for loyalty and not competence, but this drives the point home: these people are completely incompetent. It’s only by absolute blind luck that no American forces have been killed, and it’s only by that same dint of luck that (as far as we know) no other information has been captured by Russia or others who have exploited Signal’s known vulnerabilities.

Had this group been anyone else but a pack of MAGA loyalists – anyone – they would already be thrown in jail, under threat of all manner of heinous shit. Hillary Clinton was hounded for years over her private email server, and all we learned from that is that she shared recipes on her unsecured devices. This is infinitely worse.

This is a carnival of absolute idiocy.

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When questioned about Goldberg’s article, the NSC revealed that yes, it was indeed true, and verified the information contained therein. Trump, when asked, called The Atlantic a failing paper with no readers – a typical deflection by the asshole in chief. Hegseth was questioned about it just after he had landed in Hawaii – he was in transit when the story broke. He said Goldberg was a liar, no meeting took place, and Goldberg certainly wouldn’t have been part of it.

A little embarrassing given that the NSC had confirmed everything hours earlier.

Gabbard, as of around two hours ago, doubled down on that confirmation, suggesting it’s not that bad because nothing classified was discussed. We must take them at their word, apparently.

In response, Goldberg has said he’d be happy to release all of the texts from the conversation to the public, if there’s nothing classified in there.

We shall see where it goes from here.