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They didn't pass National Security 101- the Houthi PC small group chat [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-25

The OPSEC (Operational Security) Bulletin was put out after the Signal chat observed by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic. Too late for the most embarrassing security breach in memory.

Jeffery released one screenshot, but is considering releasing the whole chat, with operatives names redacted, and whatever details might stillbhave an effect. He says that even though the group members were irresponsible, he doesn't want to act irresponsibly as well.

Houthi chat screenshot.

This shot is one he released. It's hard to figure out the time frame. SM is Stephen Miller.

The chat participants were :

Mike Waltz - National Security Advisor. Pete Hegseth JD Vance Marco Rubio Joe Kent - nominee for Director National Counterterrorism Center Tulsa Gabbard John Ratcliff - CIA Director Susie Wiles - WH Chief of Staff Stephen Miller - Deputy WH Chief of Staff Steve Witkoff - Special Envoy for the Middle East and Ukraine. Brian McCormack - National Security Council official Dan Caldwell - Department of Defense liaison Mike Needham - Counselor to the State Department Andy Baker - representative from the vice president's office Dan Katz - Treasury Department liaison Jeffrey Goldberg - (accidental) Editor in Chief of the Atlantic magazine

This bulletin was put out after the chat. It's just a little too late:

Put out after the chat. Screenshot of email.

But they were warned not to use Signal way before, because the Russians were working on cracking it. It's open source software, so anyone can work on vulnerabilities.

NPR reports that a Pentagon email went out in 2023 warning of using Signal for any non-public information after the Atlantic reveal another one went out:

"A vulnerability has been identified in the signal messaging application. Russian professional hacking groups are employing the 'linked devices' features to spy on encrypted conversations."

It also notes that Google found that "Russian hacking groups are targeting the Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest."

A Signal spokesperson said that the Pentagon memo was about phishing attacks, not it's level of security.

Still, the March 18th memo said, "Please note: third party messaging apps (e.g. Signal) are permitted by policy for unclassified accountability / recall exercises but are not approved to process or store non-public unclassified information."

​​​​​​John Bolton, who has had his security clearance revoked and his Secret Service protection removed, weighed in on the incident. "These are things that are absolutely basic. Yet these are cabinet level people in our government, and yet not one of them ever said, "Why are we on Signal?"

President Trump had a different take on the event today. "It's just something that can happen, it can happen. You can even prepare for it, it can happen. Sometimes people are hooked in and you don't know they're hooked in ... it's not a perfect technology, there is no perfect technology. We always want to use the best technology for the moment. Again, it wasn't classified so they probably viewed it as being something that wasn't that important."

If discussing attack plans on the Houthis hours before it was going to happen isn't classified information, invite me in the next time.

Trump's spent a good amount of time defending Mike Waltz in what appears to have been a Oval Office question and answer session with the media.

Goldberg wrote that it was on March 11th when he connected with Mike Waltz and it was on March 15th when he was invited into the chat called the "Houthi PC small group." Hegseth sent the group details about weapons to be used, targets and timing 2 hours before the attacks that began on March 15th.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said during a hearing, that both Waltz and Hegseth should resign. Only two out of the sixteen? I'm looking at that list of sixteen people and wondering why they were included in the first place. Knowing about the Houthi attack has nothing to do with their position in the administration.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, whose job it is to lie as convincingly as possible, tried to defend what happened very poorly:

The first job is to delegitimize Jeffrey Goldberg, then deny, deny, deny everything that was done. War plans were discussed, classified material was on the chat. And how would she know about what was actually discussed? She's just spitting out what she's been told or just making it up as she goes, which she does.

"The White House has provided guidance on a number of platforms for President Trump's officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible."

There are no "platforms" that are supposed to be used. There's only one place you discuss information like this. It's called a SCIF, sensitive compartmentalized information facility. In the Pentagon they call theirs the "Tank." When you go into one of these, every single device you've got you have to leave behind. That includes phones, smartwatches, thumb drives, and anything that can transmit information. You have to be verified that you are who you are, even before you go into the SCIF.

So, why were they using Signal in the first place? Since 2023, there's been a law regarding records keeping that all official texts, emails, chats and voice messages have to be retained for between 15 and 30 years or after declassification review, whichever is later. Maybe they were just trying to hide what they were doing. And planning to do it more often this way. We have no idea what other uses they've made of Signal for national security intelligence before this incident. They've only been on the job for 2 months, but they seem to be fouling things up on a regular basis.

Even though he gave his Oval Office conference, Trump hasn't put anything up on Truth Social about any of this over the past days after the Atlantic magazine reveal. He was quite ready to defend Elon Musk going to the Pentagon and denying that Musk was going to get the Chinese War plans. I guess he's using his spokespeople to do his job for him this time.

Donald Trump said that it was "the only glitch in 2 months." That's going to make me sleep a lot better at night.

This is what they thought about secrecy in WWII;

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