What do top-rank military officials’ chats tell us about the National Security Agency hacking hack? A long interview with Kinzinger via X
The breach left military and intelligence experts asking the same questions as the public: Why would top U.S. officials use a free messaging app to discuss classified military plans? How could a journalist be added to their group chat?
“Any one of us that served in the military or serve in the military would be in Leavenworth if we did this,” former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said via X.
“Heads are exploding,” Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who was deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in the Biden administration, told NPR’s Morning Edition as he described conversations with former colleagues about high-ranking Trump officials’ Signal chat.
The Principals Committee chat’s 18 members included Vice President Vance; White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; and “S M,” an apparent reference to Trump adviser Stephen Miller. John Ratcliffe, Director of CIA, and Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, were questioned by the Senate Intelligence committee about the data hack on Tuesday.
The Principals Committee meetings are held in the White House Situation Room, which is probably the most secure location within the US government.
NPR’s Greg Myre reports that the secure rooms are built to discuss classified information. You cannot have a phone in these rooms. You can’t take documents out, and all of these top-ranking national security officials have SCIFs at their offices and at their homes.”
Price said that a national security team accompanies members on trips to protect their communications and that this is a top secret network that beams them into the White House Situation Room.
The defense secretary shared weapons and targets via the signal app hours before the attack, according to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
Goldberg did not share what he said could be damaging elements of the communications sent to him, including what he called “operational details of forthcoming strikes.”
The Pentagon and the Yemen Campaign: Is It Legal? The Senate Intelligence Committee Revised a Pentagon-wide E-Mail exposing a Russian Professional Hacking Group
Signal has a reputation for strong security. But it is not part of the government communications network that’s used when the most sensitive information is being discussed.
But experts say sensitive government communications normally occur via official devices and through elaborate security measures, not by using open-source software offered by a nonprofit.
A Pentagon-wide email went out last week about a bug in the messaging app. Russian professional hacking groups are at risk of compromising communications, according to the notice. After Goldberg said he had been added to the PC group, a notice was sent that said he had left the chat.
In a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill, the nation’s top intelligence officials testified that they did not share classified information in a messaging group chat that discussed the U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen.
The Senate Intelligence committee pushed back against those claims by the directors of the CIA and National intelligence.
The hearing was scheduled prior to the revelation that a top Trump administration official had added the editor of The Atlantic to a group chat about planning to bomb targets in Yemen.
“My communications were legal and lawful in the Signal message group and they did not include classified info,” Ratcliffe testified.
Gabbard refused to say whether she was on the Signal chat group, but added that she has not shared any classified information outside of proper channels.
Goldberg wrote that the 18 people who were involved in the text chain were, among others, Defense Secretary Pete HegSeth and Vice President Larry Vance.
“If there was no classified material, share it with the committee,” Warner said. “You can’t have it both ways. These are important jobs. Our national security is what this is.
Why wasn’t Goldberg a real teller? Senators and lawmakers say Congress should investigate a “responsible” security breach
Goldberg said he initially thought it might be a hoax, but came to believe it was real as he read the texts over the course of several days. He said his inclusion in the group must have been inadvertent. He speculated that Waltz, or an aide handling his account, intended to include someone else with the same initials as Goldberg — “JG.”
At the White House, the National Security Council confirmed the authenticity of the message thread on Monday, saying it was “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
The security breach raises questions about how well the administration handles sensitive information, according to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Democrats in Congress are calling for further investigation after they criticized many of Trump’s picks for their lack of experience during the nomination process.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have publicly called for an investigation into what they respectively called “this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach” and the “damage it created.”
The chairman of the Senate armed Services Committee told reporters on Monday that they would look into the matter directly.
Other Republicans have been more direct with their alarm, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who serves on the Intelligence Committee. Collins said the incident was “inconceivable to me.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, another member of the intel panel, Sen. Mike Rounds,R-S.D.,suggested that the committee would have a deeper discussion behind closed doors.
“I don’t think it was a good thing, but I want to hear an explanation of it from the individuals involved in it in a classified setting so I get the full story before I make a judgement on it,” Rounds told NPR.
Source: Intelligence leaders: We didn’t share classified information in Signal chat group
Reply to the comment by S.J. Johnson on “Paths, Counts, and Fireballs in the House of Representatives”
In the House, Republicans have largely been more muted. The issue did not come up during the House GOP weekly meeting on Tuesday, signaling hopes to downplay the matter.
He said that it was a mistake and a serious one. But Johnson described the participants in the chat as “patriots,” adding, “that was a successful mission.”
There is no reason for classified information to be transmitted via unsecured channels, and certainly not to those without security clearances.