New low
Let’s zoom in on that 37 second chat with former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, now the Secretary of Defense in the Trump regime. The reporter asks him about the grotesque security breach (or rather annihilation) and he reacts with a smirk and a chuckle and
You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called “journalist” who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the, I don’t know, the hoaxes of Russia Russia Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax, or the suckers and losers hoax – this is a guy that peddles in garbage [sic], it’s what he does.
What. a. scumbag.
He’s asked about a massive security breach in his department and instead of answering he spits out a pack of lies about the guy who reported the security breach.
What a specimen.
But give credit where it’s due; no perhaps about it. He was obviously doing his PR best to whitewash the Trumpian Regime.
Should have perhaps dumped it all in the ‘Too Hard’ bin.
Hegseth isn’t entirely wrong when he calls Goldberg a so-called journalist who peddles hoaxes. Goldberg is after all the author of Liberal Fascism, which argues that fascist movements are left-wing, you know, it’s right there on the tin – National Socialist. Goldberg’s real sin was refusing to kiss Trump’s, er, ring. That said, props to Goldberg for releasing this story now, instead of keeping it for a book to be published long after it was relevant.
That’s Jonah Goldberg. Different fella. National Review fella.
Whoops! My mistake. How embarrassing.
Not nearly as embarrassing as planning wars on social media!
Anyway, we now have it on the highest Trumpian authority that it was just a “glitch.”
Stand by for a fresh, de-glitchifying app; I guess coming right up. (Can’t be too careful. Especially these days.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/25/donald-trump-military-intelligence-breach-signal-failure-blunder-journalist-atlantic-live-news
Yes it was a glitch in the sense that hiring these buffoons and voting for the chief buffoon was a massive nation-wide glitch.
I’m fearful that this may in fact be our best hope…
https://farcornercafe.blogspot.com/2025/03/4-horses.html
If Hegseth holds this journalist in such contempt, how did he end up on the list of people to whom this message was sent? That seems odd to me. I wouldn’t keep someone I hold in contempt on speed-dial, or on my list of people to CC in my private, top secret communications. A mistake like this would take effort. Drunken effort perhaps, but effort nonetheless. This isn’t just one fat finger slipping. Adding Goldberg’s name to whatever list would have require a few keystrokes at list. This wasn’t any butt-dial.
I wonder how many others got tagged on this message? I wonder how many other messages ended up being forwarded to unauthorized recipients? Is this a habit of his?
not Bruce, he was once on Fox News. I assume he might have had quite a few journalists, even ones he holds in contempt, on his phone.
I thought it was Mike Waltz (Waltz?) who set up the chain (he may also have been a Fox News guy, I dunno.
My estimation of the likelihood of a major terrorist attack, ship blowing up, etc as a result of negligence just went way up.
From the estimable Josh Marshall on the Talking Points Memo website:
“Note that no one in the chat is saying, “Hey, we sure it’s cool to be talking about this on Signal?” Or, “Should we be worried this is an insecure channel?” That and the simple logic of the matter tells us this is commonplace in the new administration. You think Mike Waltz got fat fingers and accidentally added Goldberg on the first time out? Not likely.
“Especially in the national security domain, many things the government does have to remain secret. Sometimes those things remain secret for years or decades. But they’re not secrets from the U.S. government. The U.S. government owns all those communications, all those facts of its own history. Using a Signal app like this is hiding what’s happening from the government itself. And that is almost certainly not an unintended byproduct but the very reason for the use. These are disappearing communications. They won’t be in the National Archives. Future administrations won’t know what happened. There also won’t be any records to determine whether crimes were committed.”
Also, it seems that only one week before this meeting the Pentagon issued a warning about security vulnerabilities in Signal and said that it should not be used.
Here is a link to an interview with the former National Security Adviser, Susan Rice. What she says is spot-on:
https://youtu.be/C1IZa2oIqmE?si=ij-yEsCXwIxpuwGf
We might remember that Trump has already closed down US defences against Russian hacking & eavesdropping.
If the Pentagon warned against using this platform, whose idea was it to use it anyhow? As Tim Harris points out, why did no one bring up that very warning and suggest a more secure channel? The circle of vulnerability is potentially wider than just the direct participants. Who else knew of this meeting? Whose aides, secretaries, assistants were aware that this was happening, on this channel? How many of them have been vetted and have security clearances? All an adversary would need would be a tip-off (or an “accidental” invite) and they have a seat at the table or an ear to the door.
When it comes to security matters, I don’t think any organization can assume that breaches like this can be accepted as instances of Hanlon’s Razor (“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”). And willful stupidity is malicious. I know there’s a vast surplus of stupid to go around in this junta, but when so many of its manifestations point in one direction (giving aid, comfort, and advantage to America’s rivals and opponents), it’s hard not to see some kind of pattern or guidance behind it.
@BKiSA,
Walz was the one who invited Goldberg; not sure if he set up the chain. From what I’ve read (I’ve never used Signal, and hadn’t even heard of it before this broke), anyone who is already in a group can invite contacts, but when they do all members of the group get notified (i.e., “Mike Walz has invited JG to join the group.”). I don’t think you can access the chat if you’re not invited, but your device can–if you talk about cats in the chat, you can expect to see cat food ads start popping up.
Also, at least one member of the group joined from Moscow. Not a good idea, tovarich.
Yesterday’s Senate hearing was darkly comical. CIA dude couldn’t remember anything that was talked about, though none of it was confidential. And Gabbard wouldn’t even say if she was using her own phone (that’s being investigated, apparently).
The Atlantic published the full transcript today. I haven’t had time to read it, but it should be interesting. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/
*Waltz (the Governor of Minnesota apparently wasn’t involved).