Top Trump officials accidentally shared war plans with media

[NxNW]

Used illegal servers with a direct link to the Kremlin.

Nothing illegal about it, since it was more secure than the government-provided server. There was no link to the Kremlin, and no evidence anything was ever hacked. Unlike the Signal chat, which was undoubtedly copied by China and Russia, along with the entire contents of the cell phone.

Jeepers, what podcasts do you get you facts from?

I don't listen to podcasts, but I note that you made two false claims above.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

Nothing illegal about it, since it was more secure than the government-provided server. There was no link to the Kremlin, and no evidence anything was ever hacked. Unlike the Signal chat, which was undoubtedly copied by China and Russia, along with the entire contents of the cell phone.

I don't listen to podcasts, but I note that you made two false claims above.

Just FYI in case you're unfamiliar with Aryeh Jay's schtick - just imagine a huge /S after just about everything he posts, lol

 

[Merrill]

Nothing illegal about it, since it was more secure than the government-provided server. There was no link to the Kremlin, and no evidence anything was ever hacked. Unlike the Signal chat, which was undoubtedly copied by China and Russia, along with the entire contents of the cell phone.

I don't listen to podcasts, but I note that you made two false claims above.

"since it was more secure than the government-provided server"

no it wasn't. You have absolutely zero proof or technical expertise to even make that statement

 

[Merrill]

Somebody's lying, and my money is on the Republicans.

"Jibes" is the word you're looking for.

We don't know this, because we don't have all the info.

Never underestimate stupidity.

That, and much more. We also need Congressional hearings and indictments once we know who shared classified info.

A number of people are lying

I have been following this very closely, and Goldberg, the reporter has said at different times that he knew Walz from "years ago", and that he didn't know Walz, didn't have his contact info, etc. So which is it?

When Goldberg was added to the chat, a name appears ("Jeffrey Goldberg has joined the chat" and "Jeffrey Goldberg has left the chat"). We see the initials "JG" in the screen shot, but Walz is saying it was a different name. So here is the issue:

1. The presented name in Signal comes from the client-side. So if we assume JG was Jeffrey Goldberg (display name), and that is what was presented, Wong would have immediately seen the name didn't match the person he "thought" he added. If I go add James Garvy, and I see Jeffrey Goldberg join the chat--I know I have a big problem. Anyone of the 19 people in the chat who checked the users would have seen his name and would have been like "who is this guy"?

2. If Jeffrey Goldberg was using a fictitious name with the same initials in order to mislead the other participants, that is bad.

3. Walz says he had no contact with Goldberg (there is some bogus picture being floated around showing Walz and Goldberg at the same event in a crowd, and it means nothing)--but did Alex Wong? Was he was in Wong's contacts? But Wong didn't create the group using his own Signal--he was using Walz's. Lots of questions here ...

4. Apparently, Goldberg didn't go to his editor about being added to the group. He went to the Democratic Party intelligence, and then proceeded to stay in the chat room for weeks, screenshotting the chats. Goldberg wasn't acting like a journalist--he was acting like a political operative.

5. If the chats were indeed classified, Goldberg was then illegally holding classified documents on an unmonitored, non-government phone. He better hope that a determination isn't made that this was classified information, because then both Walz and him are going down.

This narrative about how this was simply a bunch of dumb people, and some bizarre coincidence and alignment of planets, is complete nonsense. There is a lot more going on here.

 

[wing2000]

Sources? Or we just take your word for it?


4. Apparently, Goldberg didn't go to his editor about being added to the group. He went to the Democratic Party intelligence, and then proceeded to stay in the chat room for weeks, screenshotting the chats. Goldberg wasn't acting like a journalist--he was acting like a political operative.

Whatever you imagine, the information was not published in the public domain until this past Monday.

 

[Merrill]

Sources? Or we just take your word for it?


4. Apparently, Goldberg didn't go to his editor about being added to the group. He went to the Democratic Party intelligence, and then proceeded to stay in the chat room for weeks, screenshotting the chats. Goldberg wasn't acting like a journalist--he was acting like a political operative.

Whatever you imagine, the information was not published in the public domain until this past Monday.

I say "apparently" because I do not have firm confirmation on that yet. It is being discussed in various locations of the Internet

do you have proof he went to his editor first?

If you do, please provide it

 

[wing2000]

I say "apparently" because I do not have firm confirmation on that yet. It is being discussed in various locations of the Internet

do you have proof he went to his editor first?

If you do, please provide it

Noted.
I was not making a claim.

 

[Merrill]

Noted.
I was not making a claim.

I am not taking side in this

If I were Trump I would probably fire Walz, and Wong certainly needs to go (I hope he isn't spy for China)

but we really need to figure out what is going on here, and how this happened.

 

[wing2000]

NYT has published an annotated chat log [as released by The Atlantic] from the SIGNAL conversations over multiple days:

Unlocked link:

Annotated Text From Leaked Signal Group Chat With Top Trump Officials

The chat’s contents, which were obtained by The Atlantic after its editor in chief was added to the Signal group, provide a revealing look at private conversations between top Trump administration officials.

www.nytimes.com

Thursday, March 13

Michael Waltz

Team – establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.
Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.


Friday, March 14
Michael Waltz
Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance this morning in your high side inboxes.
State and DOD, we developed suggested notification lists for regional Allies and partners.
Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days and we will work w DOD to ensure COS, OVP and POTUS are briefed.

[Waltz is establishing the channel for the purposes of coordination and setting expectations. If participants had stuck to that scope, there would have been no issue. Eleven minutes after the Friday morning Waltz pose, VP Vance instigates a policy discussion....]


JD Vance
Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.
3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.
I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.
I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.

 

[Merrill]

NYT has published an annotated chat log [as released by The Atlantic] from the SIGNAL conversations over multiple days:

Unlocked link:

Annotated Text From Leaked Signal Group Chat With Top Trump Officials

The chat’s contents, which were obtained by The Atlantic after its editor in chief was added to the Signal group, provide a revealing look at private conversations between top Trump administration officials.

www.nytimes.com

Thursday, March 13

Michael Waltz

Team – establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.
Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.


Friday, March 14
Michael Waltz
Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance this morning in your high side inboxes.
State and DOD, we developed suggested notification lists for regional Allies and partners.
Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days and we will work w DOD to ensure COS, OVP and POTUS are briefed.

[Waltz is establishing the channel for the purposes of coordination and setting expectations. If participants had stuck to that scope, there would have been no issue. Eleven minutes after the Friday morning Waltz pose, VP Vance instigates a policy discussion....]


JD Vance
Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.
3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.
I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.
I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.

There is another school of thought which says the whole thing was deliberate

and that JD Vance was the "target" as he was the only one in the chat who objected to the entire operation (as we see above), and has been countersigning the military-industrial complex for a while now (non-interventionism)

that Goldberg secretly works for "others" in addition to the Atlantic, and that Wong was instructed to add him to the chat

Goldberg has been very nervous and evasive in recent interviews regarding all of this. Walz sounds like he shouldn't be believed at all, and is hiding something

I stand by my assessment that this as not an "accident" of any kind

 

[wing2000]

"We are currently clean on OPSEC".​

Pete Hegseth
TEAM UPDATE:
TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.
1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)
1345: “Trigger Based” F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier “Trigger Based” targets)
1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.
MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)
We are currently clean on OPSEC.
Godspeed to our Warriors.
11:44 a.m.

 

[essentialsaltes]

taking photos of Royal palaces is really frowned on.

When the spouse and I were in Tunisia, visiting the ruins of Carthage, our guide warned us not to take photos of the adjoining presidential palace. A couple years later, Ben Ali was deposed.

 

[DaisyDay]

Country Joe and the Fish, Vietnam.

Gosh, I remember the Christmas my sister got that album. I still know most the words to that one.

 

[Pommer]

I really hate seeing smart, good people having to defend the incompetent.

 

[DaisyDay]

I say "apparently" because I do not have firm confirmation on that yet. It is being discussed in various locations of the Internet

do you have proof he went to his editor first?

If you do, please provide it

Do editors-in-chiefs have editors above them or are they at the top of the editor chain?

If you don't recognize a user on a Signal chat, just tap on the icon then choose "Contact Details" from the list and there it is: the contact info.

Waltz's name is spelled W A L T Z with a "t" before the "z".

that Goldberg secretly works for "others" in addition to the Atlantic, and that Wong was instructed to add him to the chat

Goldberg is a big time Zionist so it is very unlikely that he would side with the Yemenis.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Gosh, I remember the Christmas my sister got that album. I still know most the words to that one.

Were old.

 

[DaisyDay]

Were old.

The old gray mare she ain't what she used to be...

 

[Merrill]

Do editors-in-chiefs have editors above them or are they at the top of the editor chain?

If you don't recognize a user on a Signal chat, just tap on the icon then choose "Contact Details" from the list and there it is: the contact info.

Waltz's name is spelled W A L T Z with a "t" before the "z".


Goldberg is a big time Zionist so it is very unlikely that he would side with the Yemenis.

well he may not have to report to anyone at the Atlantic

but the issue here is: was it ethical or even legal for him to stay in a Signal chat room to which he was "accidentally" invited (if that is indeed what happened) and then to screen cap sensitive, or even classified, information, and store it on an unmonitored, unregulated device--for a month?

he basically went full-cowboy on this to get a scoop --which he did.

and made a national security problem a much bigger problem, or potentially a disaster, had his phone been compromised, left in an airport, or the screen caps viewed by a malicious party

and these are just some of the issues regarding this whole thing. Now people are speculating that this goes much deeper:

 

[GoldenBoy89]

but we really need to figure out what is going on here, and how this happened.

My take is terribly inept and irresponsible people with questionable morals and ethics have been given positions way too high in the government with zero vetting beforehand from the GOP that just wants to rubber stamp everything the president does.

 

[Merrill]

My take is terribly inept and irresponsible people with questionable morals and ethics have been given positions way too high in the government with zero vetting beforehand from the GOP that just wants to rubber stamp everything the president does.

I don't buy it

Alex Wong is a Harvard grad and not some dope. Waltz and all the others are trained and briefed in national security and have to follow protocols (although some may have been broken here)

the whole "well everyone is just stupid, nothing to see here, let's move on" position amounts to putting your head in the sand.