Signalgate type screwups, are a trend, not a standalone event
TAT readers,
This offering is the first of two TAT essays today. My apologies for a handful of days off. Like all of you, my life can get overwhelmingly busy and demanding at times. Still, it beats the alternative. Now… back to my pen. Thank you for your collective patience.
Today is a relatively short essay regarding “Signal-gate.” Last week’s near unbelievable revelation, that our nation’s top national security team had committed the most egregious and willful violation of classified doctrine, law and policy I have ever seen, outside of Trump’s theft of classified materials after the 2020 election is earth-shattering, to say the least. There is not a great deal to add to the mountains of fine reporting about this event, but I want to offer you a couple of personal insights, as well as some background that I had written on the topic of classified information abuse and sharing by Trump and his cronies.
Both of the previous essays will be helpful background for you regarding putting the recent event into context, with previous Trump actions fully in disregard for anything classified. In my former career in CT/ Counterterrorism, highly sensitive airstrikes are a near daily occurrence, that I know all too well, first-hand.
The bottom-line is that the entire national security team knew better and gratuitously endangered the mission, aircrews and the risk of expanding the ongoing conflict in Yemen. In predictable form for a Trump Cabinet, all of them lied about what occurred. How foolish for them since the Editor of the Atlantic, Jeffery Goldberg, actually had the texts, Hegseth and Waltz sent out. This was made painfully clear to all in attendance, when The Atlantic, published the entire text archive in a follow-up article, a day later. Sure, many of the MAGA crowd will believe the BS from the administration, but they are already too far gone from reality to recover.
My friends, national security is serious business, not a TV reality show. The rules, policies and laws, are all there for a purpose and it is to keep you and I safe, along with our family and friends. Throughout my career with a very high clearance, security chiefs would have a steady mantra when it came to those rules and laws, “screw up and go to jail.” I have witnessed an occasional issue but never anything serious. In highly classified environments we are careful, and we help our colleagues to be careful as well. I have seen clearances downgraded, revoked or suspended, but never for anything remotely close to what these alleged high-level professionals did.
Tulsi Gabbard is a military officer which requires at a minimum, a Secret clearance. Congressmen require clearances. Kash Patel, Mike Waltz, Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Marco Rubio have highest level clearances. We are tested regularly and take yearly tests to maintain our knowledge of the seemingly endless rules and regulations. Still, not one of them batted an eye at what Waltz and Hegseth were coordinating. Every one of them, wittingly cooperated in the breaking of the laws pertaining to their actions that eventful day.
This issue is now made even more dangerous due to the Trump administration’s deep affinity for Putin and Russia. Just a week or so prior to the strike against the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen, a special warning had gone out to the national security community, warning of Russian tactics that were exploiting the security protocols of Signal. Now that Trump has ordered all cyber ops against Russia to stop, the threats have grown exponentially. Russia is not our friend and probably, the most dangerous of our adversaries. Trump may love Putin, but the world despises him and for excellent reasons.
Finally in this introduction, I will leave you with a couple of links to previous essays regarding Trump, his un-American administration and his supporters. These folks don’t give a damn about the law, unless it affects them adversely. They all are willing to support dangerous illegal activities actively or via silence or, they are part and parcel of committing them. After last week and taking a look back at former Trump classified information failures, maybe we should all protest to remove these clowns from the clown car.
No American of any political persuasion can consider themselves a patriot, if they support this administration’s lawlessness and willingness to overtly compromise our national security. If you, your friends, family, work colleagues or neighbors do, it may be painful, but I would never trust them with any serious information, ever again. If an American cannot support our laws, grounded in and supported by our Constitution, they are not patriots, nor trust-worthy. Time and Karma will deal with the likes of Trump, Musk, Putin, the GOP etc. but sadly, it will also deal with those close to us as well.
The Trump Musk, Putin, Oligarchy and GOP coup attempt, will destroy the lives and reputations of all that support it actively with a vote, or by their silence. We have tragically reached the stage in our national history, where silence in the face of oppression, is tantamount to supporting it. This harsh wisdom is not mine, but that of famed Holocaust survivor and author, Elie Wiesel.
Please consider these thoughts and following essays,
Paul
I exhibit more care when pranking friends than Trump's national security team. Kakistocracy is indeed the watchword for 47.