As the Guardian notes in an email this morning:
A catastrophic security leak has triggered outrage in US politics after senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along. The stunning breach implicates key figures in the Trump administration including the vice-president, JD Vance.
This is, of course, utterly incompetent, but what it also shows is that the incompetence is deep-seated within the Trump administration.
The only appropriate response is 'lock them up' for breaching the Espionage Act, but I know that is not going to happen.
The age of one law for them and another for the rest has most definitely arrived.
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I’m going to write a thank you letter to them.
Expressing my gratitude at the candid expression of such clear sentiments wrt Europe.
Thank you Mangoists for letting us know where you stand.
Oh & you might find that any bill that you do send gets “return to sender, address unknown” etc.
There are the inevitable calls to ‘Lock em up’
But nobody seems to consider the impact it might have on those who might have to share a cell with them.
What puzzles me is their evident contempt for Europe and unwillingness to aid our defence is despite the fact that as a relatively affluent population of around half a billion we presumably buy an awful lot of American goods and services. Meanwhile their unstinting military support of Israel (population 8m) continues despite what must be a comparative financial pittance in return trade. Add to this Trump’s insistence that aiding Ukraine’s defence is contingent on getting hold of mining rights in that country and it paints a completely incoherent and chaotic picture.
Their contempt for Europe is that we -potentially at least- offer an alternative.
Europe as the EU tries to regulate on matters like tax shifting, on environmental protections and production standards. We generally have a fairer and more representative voting systems and tighter control of political donations. We give trade unions a place. We have a more comprehensive welfare and health system and tax to make it possible. We don’t allow ‘religious’ bigotry to have as much influence on our politics.
The UK has moved closer to the US model but present events may reverse that.
The billionaire class are now in plain sight as the drivers of Project 2025 and these European values are a threat to their success. People like Bernie Sanders and AOC are drawing large crowds in the US. I hope they or someone can build on this, for all our sakes.
One could add these things are probably a reason Russia tried so hard to prise Ukraine from opting to be part of Europe and not a territory, like Belarus, run by Russia.
Funnily enough I did a GDPR course yesterday at work and all I could think was how bad this REALLY was.
It reminds you that the class of person we have in the U.S government now is very low – these people do not know how to conduct themselves at all. They are thugs.
I suppose that what is refreshing about it is that at least there is no pretence any more – we know who we are dealing with.
I mean, look at the pretence Labour(ed) work under over here. It’s hard to stomach that.
Pete Hegseth was asked by a reporter to explain how his plans were shared with a journalist. He couldn’t justify it so went off on a rant without answering the question.
He looked and sounded like a whiny thug attacking the journalist who was included in their ‘TOP SECRET’ plans.
It will be interesting to see if anyone is sacked due to this breach of security. That is doubtful, since Trump said he didn’t know about it !, totally ignored the security breach and instead went off on his own rant about the Atlantic being a terrible magazine which should shut down.
The US public, and the world, are in the hands of a bunch of muppets.
This 2020 but the EU deployed a naval force to the area
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eu-navfor-somalia/european-union-naval-force-somalia-military-operation-atalanta_und_en#:~:text=EU%20NAVFOR%20operates%20in%20an,Operational%20Headquarters%20and%20Force%20Headquarters.
Most people are missing the most important feature of this incident. They are focusing on the incredibly sensitive information that was shared, and the fact that a senior Trump person (Walz) added the journalist and the rest of the group didn’t even spot they were in the ‘chat’.
But to me that’s not the most fundamental issue. It’s that they are using Signal. This is a commercially available encrypted app but one which it is know the Russians and Chinese have tried (and maybe did) hack. It’s not government approved as a secure app either in the US or anywhere else.
So two questions – at least – arise: why were ALL of the senior military and intelligence people in the Trump cabinet using a Signal group to communicate and NOT a US approved system? And, how often and for what purpose is Signal being used for conducting US government business?
I think we can be fairly sure that the answer to the first question is that it was being done to evade scrutiny: the scrutiny that would have been possible by, for example, an oversight committee. And the answer to the second question will be that the use of apps like Signal is probably already commonplace across the Trump administration, largely because they know that careers security and intelligence personnel would find themselves unable not to speak up about much of what they are hearing/seeing. For example, that members of Trumps team obviously have a hatred for Europeans. And they are happy to ‘shake down’ any government they think owes them something (as they are doing with Ukraine).
Interesting isn’t it, that when Johnson was in power here in the UK much the same approach to evading scrutiny was employed – though not using Signal.
Anyway, worth hearing what Prof Tim Snyder has to say on this issue:
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/timothy-snyder-trump-making-ethical-and-strategic-mistake-with-putin-235261509769
So many questions.
But they consider themselves beyond rules.
And that is probably why they did it.
Signal was set up and funded by US intelligence. It has not been hacked.
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/signal-facing-collapse-after-cia-cuts-funding
They are simply using Signal for its intended purpose. The invitation was not accidental. It is shocking that people seem unaware of this.
Sometimes you offer quite sensible comment Sean, but always appear like a troll. When you write this sort of thing I know why I delete you so often.
You all know Musk is involved in Signal, right?
Obviously when twitter took over Signal in 2011 it was long before Musk. But the 2 key players behind the technology – including a crypto nutjob calling himself Moxy Marlinspike – launched the Signal foundation in 2018 and left twitter.
Musk is an investor in this foundation.
Thank you, Richard.
Apart from the security breach, something else caught my attention: Hegseth kept talking about getting Europe to pay*. It’s so transactional.
That transactional attitude does not surprise me. I have seen the City evolve that way since the late 1990s, especially as US firms began to dominate certain activities.
It’s not just Trump. George Bush I(‘s administration) boasted how the US made money from the 1990 – 1 Gulf War. Biden boasted how Europe would be forced to buy US LNG before and after Nordstream was blown up**. **Please have a look at Radek Sikorski’s tweet, “Thank you, USA!” (Heck, even my trade body employer said the British government would make money from the bank bail outs. Sic. As if 2008 was a business opportunity.)
*That emphasis made me wonder if that leak was deliberate.
I wondered if there was a deliberate leak too but it was Michael Waltz, Trump’s National Security Adviser, who personally invited Jeffrey Goldstein into the chat group. Perhaps he believed he was inviting someone else with the same initials but got the wrong “JG”?
I think they are just of bunch of brainless idiots who shouldn’t be tasked with running a bath never mind the government of a country with 330 million poor souls who are no doubt looking on askance at the antics of the bampots in charge.
This is all Trump’s doing – an unhinged President installed unfit and unqualified people into the most important offices of state. We shouldn’t be surprised at the chaos this President has given rise to.
I’m afraid “one law for them, and another for the rest of us”, has always existed, although now it’s in plain sight. I say this as a former law officer. But since Trump and his cohorts are a law unto themselves, making them up as they go along, the only person likely to suffer, judging by Hegseth’s rant, are the magazine, and its editor.
This is evidence that DEI recruitment is still in place for white males with severe lack empathy syndrome at least.
The ‘accidental’ recipient is Israel connected. What value and who benefits from the ‘leak’ being publicised?
Why is all the focus on the security breach and not a scintilla of concern for the innocent men women and children of Yemen who continue to be slaughtered by American bombs?