IF THESE ARE ‘THE BEST PEOPLE’ WE’RE SCREWED

Did Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Signal chat planning an attack on Yemen go against a Pentagon warning from last week? And Department of Defense regulations? According to NPR, a department-wide email went out last week warning everyone in the DOD that a vulnerability was detected in the Signal messaging app. The very app Hegseth, and other top administration officials, including VP Vance, used to discuss bombing Houthi targets in Yemen. Specifically, the email stated that “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations,” and noted that Google identified Russian hacking groups “targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.” As head of the DOD, Hegseth would have surely received that email. Surely he should have known that using Signal for government business is an explicit violation of DOD regulations? Were Hegseth and the other officials, who too should have known better, using Signal to avoid leaving records of their communications? Best not invite a reporter to join the chat if so. A 2023 department memo states: “Unmanaged ‘messaging apps,’ including any app with a chat feature, regardless of the primary function, are not authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information. This includes but is not limited to messaging, gaming, and social media apps. (i.e., iMessage, WhatsApps, Signal).” Will Hegseth, or any of the other senior government officials in the chat group, who include Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and national security adviser Mike Waltz, people charged with protecting America, face any accountability for using Signal to conduct national security operations, let alone ANY government business? Aside from violating DOD regulations, was the chat even legal? We the people want to know how such a serious breach occurred. Who allowed it to occur. And who will face consequences for violating the trust, and safety, of Americans. There is way too much of this kind of easily avoided malfeasance going on. But this may be the most serious yet. And we’re only a couple of months in. These are not the best people. Can’t we do better?