My eyes immediately rolled backward as the Jeffrey Goldberg piece from The Atlantic on the National Security Council Signal chat reached my desk ( or phone rather ). Goldberg’s monitoring is untrue, and it must be taken with caution. He is the creator of the rumored” suckers and losers” part from 2020. His say that President Trump referred to World War I heroes in disparaging conditions was refuted by a slew of scathing 27 sources. So when this tale first appeared, I had to look at it with both an objective and skepticism.
I knew this would be a nothing-burger after reading the article, the headline, and the first few statements. As a former intelligence official, I was soon aware that no labeled information could have been made available and that coordination efforts would be the only way to share it. When I read the full story, Goldberg’s viewpoint on the conversation was proven to be true. The part came to an end with the fact that this group chat’s content was actually real and authentic. In my opinion, this group chat was largely innocent and pales in comparison to the severe acts Washington has witnessed from elected leaders, despite the fact that it should have never had included a journalist.
The absurd resignation and arrest requests are absurd. When it was discovered that Hillary Clinton discussed and transmitted real classified data on her own private, personal equipment and machines, today’s most important voices did not display for social posturing and protest. Where were the retaliations from Rep. Eric Swalwell when he no just hired a well-known Chinese spy, but also had a romantic marriage with her? When 13 National troops died at Abbey Gate during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, in the majority of cases, where is the Biden administration accountable? ( News flash: no one has yet claimed responsibility for those deeds. )
At most, this Signal conversation was a minor error in the course of an otherwise perfect mission. Mike Waltz, the national security advisor, shouldn’t step down or been fired. Waltz said he takes total responsibility for the conversation, but he needs to look into it and explain why Goldberg was added to the chain. Giving complete accountability entails providing that information with accuracy.
Some Americans are unsure of Signal. It is still a staple in the Washington, D.C. bubbles, though. In fact, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ) of the Biden administration encouraged high-level government officials to use the Signal app because of its end-to-end encryption and protections against potential adversarial hackers.
The Trump administration’s national security administration used Signal to demonstrate that this qualified group of individuals had carefully considered policy options in order to fulfill their mission. As a former official in the Trump administration, I am convinced that some of the team members worked together to plan the Houthi weapon affect using standard authorities email and “high side” classified systems, which refer to a computer system that houses sensitive information. Career and human help are involved in that kind of work, but it’s not like those people have access to conversations like the one in the Signal chat.
In fact, the conversation was exactly the type we may hope these leaders may have. It was a thoughtful, intelligent word that didn’t contain any classified information. Remember that there is a significant difference between reported intellect and plan.
In the end, the president’s orders were carried out with objective success in the text chain, which we saw as a solid policy discussion. There is no way that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could have copied and pasted classified data onto Signal. A Signal app would not have been able to access a SCIF because defined networks from the Department of Defense are extremely secure. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard confirmed that no confidential information was exchanged during the conversation at her Senate Intelligence Committee hearing earlier this year.
As the investigation into the Signal chat progresses, I think we may discover that a journalist was intentionally put on the word chain, and that is unlikely to happen again. Interestingly, the legacy media may come to terms with the fact that the Biden administration’s failure to address the significant threat to America and its allies was undone in the wake of this policy debate in the previous four years.
When the 9 / 11 Commission released its conclusions, it found that there was little interaction and cooperation between the intelligence community and organizations. Shouldn’t we be relieved that our officials are conversing with one another and in agreement with the leader?
