“Lucy Tulsi… (and Pete and Mike too) – You got some splainin to do!”
The individuals mentioned in the title can’t seem to get a break. They don’t deserve one. If they had any honor and love of country they’d have handed in their resignations already. But no, they are trying to justify that what they did was no big deal. Various types of spin have been attempted by Team Trump. One is that the attacks on the Houthis were successful and that no aircraft or troops were damaged or lost. So, their argument goes “We communicated securely after all.” (Except of course for ignoring the “JG” person who never once spoke up – and turned out to be a freaking reporter. Anyway the claim is that all is well and their communications are secure. Except they aren’t. Among others, the three people I’ve cited have had their info. hacked and their passwords can be found online!
Instead of dying down this mess is getting bigger. Try as they might Team Trump hasn’t managed to stuff the proverbial sh*t back into the SignalGate Goose. They had a brief chance to minimize it and of course blew it. If on Monday Trump had called in Waltz to do a mea culpa, to say “It was a screwup. We shouldn’t have done things that way and won’t do it again” even though we know that would have been a lie this might not have blown up the way it has. However, after a hearing in the House yesterday and one in the Senate today it’s clear this isn’t going away absent MAJOR action from Trump. And soon.
For all the dodging and outright lies told to Congress the past two days it’s gotten worse. Attempts to downplay using a civilian created app you or I can (and many have done so) download and use haven’t worked. Elon Musk trying to claim government equipment and established procedures are antiquated hasn’t worked either. Now, TODAY we learn that some of these folks including the three noted in the title. A venerable German outlet, Der Spiegel has published an article that shows just how vulnerable we are. They report their journalists obtained passwords and private information on Trump officials including the three in question:
In a stunning report published on Wednesday, the paper said its journalists “used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web.” Those whose information was compromised include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
“Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet,” the outlet wrote. “DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.”
To say that’s very bad is like saying the Pacific Ocean is very big and very deep. It’s been decades since I had a security clearance, but I can’t help but think of my new phone. That little yellow dot at the top during certain type of usage is unnerving because a) it means the phone is recording and using the face-time feature and b) so far I can’t turn that function off during calls. So imagine one of these folks we’re talking about having their phones, their personal ones using that Signal app with this feature running! Or, since some journalists could look up the information noted above online it’s for certain Russian, Chinese and lord knows who else’s intelligence types have wormed their way into these personal devices which are being used for government business?
Der Spiegel states many of these phone numbers and email addresses are still in use. Some are even linked to profiles on various social media platforms. So again, this means that foreign agents have had the ability to hack into their accounts and more importantly devices and download spyware onto them. I for one wonder how long exactly that has been going on. I also wonder if we got away with no losses in the Houthi strike was because it wasn’t a big enough attack for adversaries to ‘tip their hand’ and warn the Houthis what was coming. Basically, wait for something MUCH bigger.
This all speaks to a staggering level of both incompetence and ARROGANCE. Not to mention a craven desire not to offend their boss Trumpty by doing things by the book which would leave records. However I think it was mostly just arrogance that they were “special” and didn’t want to be inconvenienced by following the rules. Rules, procedures and communications methods which despite what Elon Musk says have served us well. It might be ‘old stuff’ but there are people who know government and more specifically military and intelligence sh*t AND have extraordinary technical expertise that are constantly updating software and hardware. Musk and his DOGErs have ZERO experience with all this. And one other point – whether Signal or some other civilian app what if China or Russia offered say a hundred million to someone for their encryption key? Basically a back door into anything anyone (including govt. bigwigs) using those CIVILIAN apps says or does while using them?
Gabbard, Hegseth and Waltz are WAY the hell out of their league. None have anywhere near the relevant experience or credentials for the positions they hold. Yet while it’s possible Trumpy might grudgingly toss one of them under the bus in the days ahead he SHOULD toss all three of them under it. Others on that call too. People who damn well knew better than to have those discussions the way they did, and didn’t even pay attention to that member of the group who never once spoke up and said ‘Hey, who is this/are you JG?” I alleged yesterday that its possible they knew a journalist was there in the group and simply assumed it was a FOX senior National Security reporter all of them knew well. So they did the wink wink, nod nod and ignored “JG” because they thought it was Fox’s Jennifer Griffen? Well, that’s a different topic and what I want to focus on here is that the communications of top Trump Officials are even more compromised than we knew. It could be another interesting and not at all fun for Team Trump day tomorrow!
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Good point about the possibility of hackers not warning the Houthis in order to keep secret their infiltration. Exactly what the British did in WW2 when they broke the Nazi Enigma codes; they used the illicit info only when potential disclosure of their knowledge was militarily justified. That discretion cost lives but, arguably, saved far more.
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight have to be among the stupidest people in D.C. This is what happens when you appoint people with no knowledge of proper security protocols.
Hmm, how horrible am I to hope that they are equally careless with their online banking passwords and someone cleans out their accounst and donates to.a worthy cause?