I think I'm being punked…

Feels fake af Anyone can generate images like this.

GarlandAg2012 said:

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Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded two hours later, confirming the veracity of the Signal group. "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," Hughes wrote. "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."

William Martin, a spokesperson for Vance, said that despite the impression created by the texts, the vice president is fully aligned with the president. "The Vice President's first priority is always making sure that the President's advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations," he said. "Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration's foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement."

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Please notice that even when confronted with the leak, the agencies involved do not respond with "omg how dare you", they spin it as "thoughtful" and make sure that everyone knows Vance agrees with everything Trump says.

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Thoughtful, huh?

Quote:

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After the initial wave of strikes, national security adviser Mike Waltz, who appeared to have been pivotal in organizing the Signal chat on the Houthi strikes, texted the emoji of a punch, an American flag and a flame.

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So you believe in consequences for security violations? Is using an unapproved app to communicate classified information a violation?

If so, should those involved be punished? Would it be more honorable to admit fault or deflect blame? Should they have reported as soon as they realized it occurred? If they did not, does that not make it worse?

It is nowhere near secure. Information like this should've only been transmitted through appropriate channels. No sort of impending attacks/battle plans should ever be transmitted over any open source applications. It should 100% be sent high side only.

I believe this is what they call a nothingburger. I've heard the liberals use that term in the past.

AtticusMatlock said:

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I'm starting to lean this way. Either that or Vance is incredibly consistent with his views on Europe and the public statements aren't just political fodder.

Re: the Signal chat and The Atlantic article.

The minute I read the chat my very first thought was that Goldberg was specifically and deliberately included so that he would leak what he saw to the public. The idea was to let Europe know just how unhappy American leadership is… pic.twitter.com/Ex2aQOhXS2

— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) March 24, 2025

That being said, there's no reason to leak anything to Europe through a journalist in this manner especially in a way that would embarrass or potentially embarrass the administration. Europe has already been plainly told what the position of the Trump Administration is.

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Yeah, but maybe a variant? Which would make Goldberg's restraint ironic -- we don't know what the information actually was. Maybe it was an *intended* leak to the enemy that failed because it wasn't leaked at the time. A longshot, but just another thing to put in the mix. As more than one has posted, its careless to the point of looking possibly intentional.

In other words, not about Europe, but about the enemy, but it didn't get out when planned.

Rockdoc said:

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I believe this is what they call a nothingburger. I've heard the liberals use that term in the past.

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TOUCHDOWN! said:

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STAFF EDIT: will remove the name calling and keep rest of post - you have been warned.

So this is all the fault of The Atlantic? We shouldn't hold our leaders accountable for failing to implement and abide by controls to ensure highly classified military information isn't sent to random phone numbers? The press doesn't have an obligation to report on the incompetence of our government?

Wild. The right would be turning this into Benghazi 2.0 if it happened under Obama or Biden.

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Can we not blame them both?

Equinox said:

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rgag12 said:

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Have yall seen the leaked chat? To me it reads like the Atlantic guy was let in on purpose so he'd share this and have Europe be put on blast again

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I've thought this myself. Why would a reporter even be available as a chat option for any conversation?

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That's why wondered if this might be a carry-over from prior admin, and they had made the mistake of just going with initials and position titles.

But Hegseth's response indeed looks ill-advised --- denying to no point when all it was was a blockhead mistake.

More serious are the allegations that overall procedure in even communicating this way was a violation -- but we don't know if this has been going on for a while, whether it seems unwise or not. Hence the wondering if some kind of carry-over. That would explain a reporter being in on it from the start.

CampSkunk said:

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I communicate over Signal, encryption and all. But why would government officials be communicating over a group chat, whatever the mechanism? Don't they all live in the same three-square mile area in the seat of government?

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To avoid federal record laws, FOIA requests, etc.

3rdGenAg06 said:

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So you believe in consequences for security violations? Is using an unapproved app to communicate classified information a violation?

If so, should those involved be punished? Would it be more honorable to admit fault or deflect blame? Should they have reported as soon as they realized it occurred? If they did not, does that not make it worse?

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Yes they should all be punished.

The real question/issue to me is why is Mike Waltz apparently talking to that Atlantic guy regularly in the first place? Oh, wait, I think I know the answer. Cherchez la femme as usual…

https://t.co/2npPMX6aEi

— Jude (@surfthespectrum) March 24, 2025

🔥🔥🔥Meet the EXTREMELY leftist wife of Mike Waltz, who was involved in the embarrassing Trump admin phone call business. Dr. Julia Nesheiwat worked with the Atlantic Council, Aspen Institute, United Nations, and World Economic Forum. She was also a Biden Admin staffer and… https://t.co/LjCuvDlFYZ

— Bad Kitty Unleashed 🦁💪🏻 (@pepesgrandma) March 25, 2025

Supposedly, Trump is considering letting Waltz go. I'd be fine with that, though I think overall he's been good in his job so far. There have been fewer leaks in this GOP administration than any other I can recall, which is good, and somewhat that might be related to their use of secure encrypted apps like Signal, but I always distrust people who are married to truly horrible folks.

Mistakes get made but how is anyone from the Atlantic even on the channel or signal (or however the hell this works)?

I've never used Signal, so question about how this works.

When someone is added, is that notes for all to see like on iMessage?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-said-poised-to-fire-nsa-mike-waltz-for-including-journalist-in-top-secret-war-chat/

Trump to fire Waltz.

For those defending Waltz you need to take a long look in the mirror why. Trump is doing the right thing.

HossAg said:

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The mental gymnastics here to try to blame this on a reporter instead of the idiots who added the reporter to the chat are hilarious.

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Tribalism combined with being fed up over the MSM double standard.

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Not a single person here would be defending Biden if it happened to him.

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Very fake news. Your team defended much worse from Biden over the past 4 years.


All that said, this was a compete screw up and at a minimum Waltz needs to be shown the door. (Maybe more, but waiting on an answer to my previous post question)

Whoever allowed this to happen needs to go. And yes, I know damned well that if this had happened under Biden that this would have all been swept under the rug - they couldn't even find their SecDef for a week, and no heads rolled, much less for the Afghanistan F-up.

That's probably all it is (tribalism). The outrage double standard mainly is…as usual on the left though.

Reminder: The same people freaking out about Signal today were silent when Biden’s FBI gave the spy in the U.S. Navy a $5,500 fine for transmitting state secrets directly to China.

Yes—five grand for espionage. But sure, let’s panic over encrypted group chats.

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) March 25, 2025

Not to mention Hillary Clinton (working with Russian spies/her unsecure bathroom server), and Joe Biden (hoarding classified docs in his garage from when he was a senator) themselves.

I've never used signal either. I assume it's easy to accidentally add a contact you've used before to a group chat, but not sure why that would be ignored by others.

My sense is that nobody outside of Washington DC and the MSM gives a crap about this.

The policy to open the shipping lanes is very popular. No one really cares how the sausage is made to get it done.

If the "reporter " had integrity he would have notified that he was in the chat instead of trying to get attention.

Hegseth could have responded better and probably will have some questions to answer to congress but I don't see any reason to back down.

I'm moving on.

BMX Bandit said:

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HossAg said:

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The mental gymnastics here to try to blame this on a reporter instead of the idiots who added the reporter to the chat are hilarious.

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Tribalism combined with being fed up over the MSM double standard.

Quote:

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Not a single person here would be defending Biden if it happened to him.

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Very fake news. Your team defended much worse from Biden over the past 4 years.


All that said, this was a compete screw up and at a minimum Waltz needs to be shown the door. (Maybe more, but waiting on an answer to my previous post question)

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To answer your question and after doing some quick searching, yes, everyone would be notified. In this case, it appears Waltz may have had Goldberg's contact info saved as "J G," or something similar. That would explain why no one sounded the alarm when he was added; they all thought it was someone within the administration.

And no one asked "who is JG that just joined?"

Maybe. It's possible Waltz thought he added the correct person, and if anyone asked, Waltz gave them the name of the person he thought he was adding.

The layers of ****ed-upness to this is pretty astounding.

GAC06 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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GAC06 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Calling Elon! Pick up the white courtesy phone, please! Or Erik Prince?

This day and age no secure communications? Really?

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There are secure communications but not if top level politicians are discussing classified national security info on their personal devices

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What are "personal devices" now? Not being sarcastic. I don't know. Government issued is better? Didn't we go over this with Hillary and Blackberries?

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Personal devices like their own phones that they use to do everything a normal person uses their phone to do. They are not secure. It's beyond stupid and completely unacceptable if that's what is happening, and adding some editor is just icing on the cake.

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I work for a software company and use my person mobile phone for work. However, by doing so I agreed to have an MDM (mobile device manger) installed. It limits the use of certain apps and sharing of company data.

They, the idiots in the story, did this to skirt whatever controls the feds have in place. Unethical..

Keep in mind how horrible Goldberg and the Atlantic are. It's asinine he was in anyone's contact list even, let alone a frequently used one to where he was prone to be 'accidentally' added to a call.

The Atlantic. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/bDO7YI4uzY

— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 25, 2025

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg is claiming that detailed war plans and targets were sent to him but that he's not sharing for the sake of national security.

Goldberg also is the guy who pushed two BS hoaxes right before the past two elections.pic.twitter.com/KCfy9VvUyj

— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 25, 2025

Goldberg, his wife, this guy has strong ties to things that are problematic

army01 said:

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It is nowhere near secure. Information like this should've only been transmitted through appropriate channels. No sort of impending attacks/battle plans should ever be transmitted over any open source applications. It should 100% be sent high side only.

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The software is absolutely secure. The reason it's open source is to allow any and all security experts on the planet to audit it for vulnerabilities and backdoors.

The issue here was the human error, adding a person to the group that should not have been added.

I'm not particularly surprised the group was talking in a group chat - private sector has encouraged this kind of collaboration over the last 5 years. I also think most administrations will have technology security issues because technology moves faster than the government vetting & adopting new programs. If the government doesn't have a secure way for colleagues to chat, this is always going to be a problem.

However, whoever added Goldberg to the group chat should be reprimanded or fired if that's appropriate.

Goldberg should also be required to hand over any hard copies and fully delete everything he's seen, as well as sign an NDA that says he won't discuss it publicly. The fool has already put a target on his back from enemies of the USA that may want to know what he knows. He was in such a rush to break the story he didn't consider what it might mean for him.