BBC: Five takeaways from leaked US top military chat group
- Vance questions Trump’s thinking
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance said. “There’s a further risk that we see moderate to severe spike in oil prices.” - Blame for ‘free-loading’ Europe
He said to the defence secretary, “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
Hegseth reciprocated: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.” - After the strike: Emojis and prayers
- Controlling the message: Blame Biden
- Waltz in the spotlight
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 24, 2025
… The decision to steer around government systems was possibly an attempt to hide conversations, since the app was set to erase some messages after a week and others after four weeks. By law, government communications must be archived.
According to Goldberg, the use of Signal may also have violated the Espionage Act, which establishes how officials must handle information about the national defense. The app is not approved for national security use, and officials are supposed either to discuss military activity in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, or to use approved government equipment.
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Many observers have noted that all of these national security officials knew that using Signal in this way was against the law, and their comfort with jumping onto the commercial app to plan a military strike suggests they are using Signal more generally.
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When they were accusing then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton of such a breach, they called for firings, accountability, and perhaps criminal charges. Indeed, Trump rose to power in 2016 with the charge that Clinton should be sent to prison for using a private email server. “Lock her up!” became the chant at his rallies.
USA Today: But her e-mails? Here is how Trump’s team reacted to a Hillary Clinton security breach
Atlantic: But His Emails!
Vox: How is there always a tweet?
Is Donald Trump a time traveler?
WSJ: What the Trump War-Plan Chat Reveals
Waltz and Hegseth backed the boss and U.S. leadership. Not so Vance.
TNR: Transcript: Trump’s Angry Rant over Hegseth Fiasco Makes Scandal Worse
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There’s two legal concerns that a lot of us have right now. There is the more benign and more simplistic one from an archival standpoint—that is, these are all senior officials who are all subject to the Federal Records Act and, to a lesser extent, the Presidential Records Act, who have to document everything that happens for historical purposes, for the government archives and documents, for future historians, for accountability, for oversight purposes. So that’s one issue. That’s the civil archival issue.
The separate one, the more concerning one, is potential criminal liability. These discussions—we don’t know the full extent of what was in these texts because even Jeffrey Goldberg, who is under no obligation to redact classified information, withheld those details because it concerned him as an American to think of that type of detail being put out in the public venue. If those details are in fact classified, if we assume for the sake of argument that Goldberg didn’t totally misinterpret it, that is a significant and serious breach of classified protocols, of criminal law, and it exposed all this information to being stolen by other entities.
And it raises questions. This is just the one chat we know about. What other chats are there? What other threads are there that the director of national intelligence, the attorney general are on, where they’re discussing plans to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua? What other types of sensitive U.S. government details are on Signal, and what, if anything, is being done to ensure these officials keep that in approved classified channels?
yahoo!: Atlantic journalist says top Trump officials inadvertently included him in Signal group chat discussing war plans. The messaging app, explained.
Free Press: Trump’s Advisers Are Divided on Iran. Which Way Is the President Leaning?
Bulwark: The Scandal Will Also Be in How They Brush It Aside
There should be consequences for top government officials convening on Signal to discuss war plans. We fear there won’t be.
If a scandal comes to light and no one does anything about it—is it a real scandal?
I suppose we’ll find out.
Don’t get me wrong: The fact that the most senior national security officials in the United States government hopped on to a commercially available messaging app to discuss details of a forthcoming U.S. military operation is a scandal.
Adam Kinzinger: The Signal Betrayal: A National Security Breach That Demands Accountability
FPWellman: It’s a thousand times worse than you think
Their little group chat is the tip of a truly historic intelligence breach
Whiskeyleaks seems appropriate
The punchlines are too many too count but one of my favorites is the very last paragraph of the story when our completely unqualified Secretary of Defense offered this gem:
All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group—which, at the time, included me—“We are currently clean on OPSEC.”
Wired: Trump Officials in Signal Fiasco Attended Secret Mar-a-Lago Dinner Shortly After Celebrating Bombing
Trump officials accidentally invited the editor in chief of The Atlantic to their Signal group chat. Hours after bombs dropped on Yemen, they partied at a $1-million-per-seat Mar-a-Lago dinner.
Thom Hartmann: Dictatorship for Dummies: A Masterclass by the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
When your regime is part mafia spoof, part constitutional crisis, things stop being funny real fast…
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Over a period of several years, I did consulting work for one of the three-letter federal agencies that keeps our nation secure. It was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and I was the CEO of an Atlanta advertising agency; this work involved how that federal department
⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️.
The first day of my work with them I’d been in DC teaching a seminar and still had in my briefcase the wireless microphone and receiver to plug into the hotel sound system that I’d used the day before. I entered the outer area of the building, went through the obligatory fingerprint, facial recognition, and examination of my passport, then was taken to the secure entrance to run my briefcase through an X-ray machine as I walked through a magnetometer.
When I arrived on the other side of the magnetometer to pick up my briefcase, the young Marine guard had a rifle pointed at my chest. I stopped, not sure what was going on, when the X-ray machine operator said, “You have a wireless transmitter in your briefcase. Was this authorized?”
I tried to laugh it off, that I’d forgotten it was there (the truth), but the young Marine was having none of it, saying:
“You’re trying to tell me that you brought a transmitting device into the fuckin’ [three-letter-agency] by accident? Are you really that stupid?”
It took a few minutes, and a conference with the guy who’d hired me, to determine that I was, in fact, that stupid, and didn’t mean to try to spy on the spies. “Unnerving” is a good description of the experience of being threatened with being shot or imprisoned for attempted espionage, but I learned a lot from my work there about what it means to protect government secrets.
Apparently, I’m way ahead of our Defense Secretary, Director of National Intelligence, Vice President, Secretary of State, CIA Director, Middle East Negotiator, Treasury Secretary, and White House Chief of Staff.
CBS: As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia
President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal, a CBS News analysis of open-source flight information and Russian media reporting has revealed.
MTN: Trump Admin Signal Group Chat Included Member Still Waiting for Senate Confirmation
Unconfirmed nominee Joe Kent texted on behalf of Tulsi Gabbard during the war plans leak
NY Times: Inside Pete Hegseth’s Rocky First Months at the Pentagon
The disclosure of battle plans on a chat app created a new predicament for the defense secretary.
Times of London: White House scrambles to explain text leaks in contradictory blame game
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President Trump and his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, gave competing explanations on Tuesday night for how a journalist was added to a high-level security discussion on US war plans.
Waltz told Fox News that he took “full responsibility” for accidentally adding Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the secret group chat on the Signal app but was still trying to “figure out” exactly how it happened.
Moments later Trump appeared on Newsmax and blamed a “lower level” member of Waltz’s staff for the security breach — a claim that Waltz himself denied.
Trump’s interview was pre-recorded before Waltz’s live interview but was broadcast later on a rival cable network, giving the impression of a White House struggling to get its story straight.
Boing Boing: Watch as Tulsi Gabbard paints herself into a corner (video)
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After the massive demonstration that the Trump Administration is unfit to protect the United States, DNI Tulsi Gabbard attempted to dodge Senator Mark Warner’s (D-VA) questions. With her answer that no classified documents were leaked, Warner quickly put Gabbard on the spot and asked her to share the non-classified materials. Watch her uncomfortable squirm and smirk.
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News Nation: US goes international for eggs amid bird flu outbreak
- US has nearly doubled its egg imports from Brazil
- The eggs won’t hit shelves but will instead be used in processed foods
- Administration is exploring regulation changes to ease egg strain
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NBC: Trump’s tariff ‘Liberation Day’ is a little over a week away, but the details are still a mystery
Markets remain locked into the slightest developments in President Donald Trump’s tariffs strategy — the result of a vacuum of uncertainty that’s forced investors to try to fill in the blanks.
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Robert Reich: The Big Chill
Trump’s attacks on the four pillars of civil society will succeed unless the pillars demonstrate courage and take collective action against the attacks.
I was talking yesterday to a friend who’s a professor at Columbia University about what’s been happening there. He had a lot to say. When he needed to run off to an appointment, I asked him if he’d text or email me the rest of his thoughts. His response floored me. “No,” he said. “I better not. They may be reviewing it.”“Who’s ‘they’?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“They! The university! The government! Gotta go!” He was off.
My friend has never before shown signs of paranoia.
I relate this to you because the Trump regime is starting to have a chilling effect on what and how Americans communicate with each other. It is beginning to create mass paranoia, which is exactly what Trump intends.
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Every tyrant in history has sought to stifle criticism of himself and his regime.But America was founded on criticism. American democracy was built on dissent. We conducted a revolution against tyranny.
This moment calls for courage and collective action — not capitulation — by universities, scientists, journalists, the legal community, and the arts.
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Every institution, group, firm, or individual that surrenders to Trump’s wanton tyranny invites more of it.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Trump’s Attack on Judges is “Doomsday Scenario” & KY GOP Protects Conversion Therapy “Torture”
- Kareem’s Daily Quote: The Buddha had some simple advice that changed my day.
- Donald Trump Ignoring Court Order Is ‘Doomsday Scenario’: When the President of the United States wants to eliminate any judges that disagree with him, that’s not a democracy. That’s not even America.
- Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm: Who’s going to keep Americans safe from pollutants when Trump’s cronies profit from polluting?
- Memo Reveals Plans to Sabotage Social Security: Yeah, yeah, Trump and the GOP promised they would never cut Social Security. Think again.
- Kentucky GOP lawmakers vote to protect conversion therapy: This blatant disregard of overwhelming evidence for political gain at the expense of children shocked me.
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Public Notice: Why the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is a big deal
The resistance needs a morale boost. But its importance goes beyond that.
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One downballot race, though, is finally getting national attention. Wisconsin has an election for an open Supreme Court seat which will determine the balance of power on the court and decide whether Republicans can once again gerrymander the state to ensure one-party rule.
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Popular Information: Texas lawmakers advance bill that makes it a crime for teachers to assign “Catcher in the Rye”
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Wired: Using Starlink Wi-Fi in the White House Is a Slippery Slope for US Federal IT
The ad hoc addition to the otherwise tightly controlled White House information environment could create blind spots and security exposures while setting potentially dangerous precedent.
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Wired: ‘Over 1 Million’ People Wanted a Cybertruck. Where Are They?
“Demand is off the charts!” Elon Musk crowed at the end of 2023, citing more than a million reservations for Tesla’s polarizing polygonic pickup—so why has it still sold less than 50,000?
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Jennifer Rubin: Words & Phrases We Could do Without
“Academic Freedom,” under this administration, becomes an anachronism
Twenty years ago, the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, propounded on the concept of “academic freedom.” He explained, “Academic freedom goes to the heart of the university, to the rights and responsibilities of faculty and students, to the nature of teaching and scholarship.” He spoke to the necessity of the “atmosphere which is most conducive to speculation, experiment and creation”:
“It is an atmosphere in which there prevail ‘the four essential freedoms’ of a university—to determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study.”
Universities decide these things.
“Not outside actors. Not politicians, not pressure groups, not the media.” Well, so much for that. On Friday, the Columbia University administration surrendered to the bullying of the Trump regime, giving a reactionary, racist, and authoritarian junta unprecedented control over its university.
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Conversation: The solution to workplace isolation might be in the gap − the generation gap
Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States finds itself in the midst of another public health crisis. This particular pandemic is a psychological one: widespread loneliness and isolation.
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As a business school professor who studies intergenerational relationships, I believe that our workplaces hold untapped potential for alleviating isolation. When colleagues do form friendships at work, they often gravitate toward people their own age. But fostering meaningful connections across generational lines can benefit not just organizations, but workers’ own sense of purpose and mental health.
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EEAGLI: BYD leaves Tesla in the dust in 2025
The unthinkable has happened: BYD has charged ahead of Tesla in 2025 – on stock performance, sales volume, global expansion, and market confidence. The once-invincible Tesla is grappling with faltering demand, price cuts that squeeze margins, and an Elon Musk brand crisis that’s driving customers into BYD’s arms.CNN: Tesla’s No.1 rival is practically taunting Elon Musk now
Big Picture: The Nonviolent Movement That’s Hitting Elon Musk Where It Hurts Most
Here’s how to get involved with #TeslaTakedown events around the country
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Jess Piper: The Rural Whisperer
Red state “empty seat” townhalls and rallies
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USA Today: Fired federal workers targeted by secretive Chinese network
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Allison Gill: Trump Invokes the State Secrets Privilege in the Alien Enemies Act Case
Judge Boasberg gave the Trump administration until March 25th to prove to the court that it didn’t defy his orders by providing flight details OR invoke the state secrets privilege.
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emptywheel: Kristi Noem Invokes State Secrets to Cover-Up Her Inability to ID Women as Women
One of the transphobic right wing’s most annoying taunts is that Democrats can’t decide whether women are women. It is central to the long-running campaign to demonize trans people to claim that birth sex, which transphobes claim is a person’s true and immutable sex, is always immediately apparent.
Yet yesterday, Kristi Noem invoked State Secrets to cover-up the fact that she — and the agencies she runs — were unable to identify women as women. DOJ included Noem’s declaration as part of package invoking State Secrets in the Alien Enemies Act lawsuit yesterday.
