| TRUMP: 'IT’S A WITCH HUNT. I WASN’T INVOLVED': At a news conference yesterday, President Donald Trump seemed confused about the basic facts surrounding the improper use of the unclassified messaging Signal to discuss sensitive pre-decisional and real-time details of the March 15 attack on Houthi targets in Yemen. In the three days since the story broke in The Atlantic, Trump has apparently not been briefed on the debate that has consumed Washington and instead is reflexively dismissing the raging controversy as just another "witch hunt." "I don’t know about downplaying. The press up plays, and I think it’s all a witch hunt. That’s all. I think it’s a witch hunt. I wasn’t involved with it. I don’t — I wasn’t there," Trump told reporters. "There was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night." Asked if anything classified was disclosed by the accidental inclusion of Atlantic editor Jeffery Goldberg on the chat, Trump pleaded ignorance. "Well, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know. I’m not sure. You ought to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know." Stunningly, Trump seemed to think that his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who posted the always classified timeline of the attack sequence to the unsecured group chat — was not involved in the debacle. "Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. Hegseth. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it." Trump — who apparently just recently learned about the commercial encrypted messaging app Signal — still doesn't seem to understand how it works, suggesting that somehow it was to blame for the breach. "There may be a problem with the platform. And if the platform has a problem, nobody should use it," Trump said. "I want to find if there’s any mistake or if a Signal doesn’t work. It could be that Signal’s not very good. You know, it’s a company. Maybe it’s not very good." Further evidence came that Trump was not being fully informed by the Pentagon when a reporter asked about four U.S. soldiers who were missing and feared dead in Lithuania, and Trump said he knew nothing about it. "Have you been briefed about the soldiers in Lithuania who are missing?" the reporter asked. "No, I haven’t," Trump replied. ATLANTIC REPORTER PUBLISHES OPERATIONS DETAILS FROM SIGNAL GROUP CHAT. WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK ON 'WAR PLANS' CLAIMS HEGSETH: 'I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M DOING. ‘ National security adviser Mike Waltz made the boneheaded decision to start a confidential group chat about a top-secret plan to bomb the Houthis on the commercial messaging app Signal, which left him vulnerable to making the fat-fingered mistake of inadvertently inviting a journalist to join in. That was bad enough. But then enter Pete Hegseth, the inexperienced but supremely confident defense secretary who shared on the unclassified platform highly sensitive pre-and-post-strike details that might well have cost the lives of U.S. pilots and may yet kill U.S. intelligence sources on the ground in Yemen, who was asked if he had leaked information to the wrong party. Hegseth is nothing if not bold, brash, and defiant. His initial response was to deny what now seems obvious in the wake of the Atlantic releasing the full text of the internal messages, which, if not a full war plan, was the kind of classified detail that would normally be provided to the president and his Cabinet in a secure manner. "No one is texting war plans," Hegseth told reporters in Hawaii Monday and Tuesday. "I know exactly what I'm doing, exactly what I'm directing." Yesterday, he doubled down in posts on X and remarked to reporters that he did nothing wrong and disclosed no classified information. "My job … is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep everybody informed. That’s what I did. That’s my job," he said. "There’s no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information." Hegseth turned and began ascending the stairs to this military aircraft as an intrepid reporter shouted questions he refused to answer: "Mr. Secretary how do you square what you said with what your messages show? Mr. Secretary, did you share classified information? Mr. Secretary, did you declassify that information before you put in the chat? Are you using Signal for sensitive operations? Why? Sir?" RUBIO ADMITS SIGNAL GROUP CHAT DEBACLE WAS A 'BIG MISTAKE' NOT SO FAST: The details that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, initially withheld because he — correctly — concluded the release could potentially harm U.S. interests included the exact time the first F-18 fighter jets would launch from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (12:15 EDT), and the exact time they would arrive over their targets (1:45 p.m.). A retired F-18 pilot posted on X that "launch times on a strike mission ARE ABSOLUTELY CLASSIFIED." An F-16 pilot posted, "If I had been leading that strike package and knew those details had been released two hours prior … to a reporter from the Atlantic, I would have scrubbed the mission." While Waltz, Hegseth, the White House, and other top administration officials insist no "sources or methods" were revealed, Hegseth's Tik-Tok noted a prime target, a known Houthi "terrorist" was expected to be "on time" as his "known location." Waltz confirmed a week later on Face the Nation that the strike took out "key Houthi leadership, including their head missileer." While the Houthis may wonder how the U.S. knew which building in the western part of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, to strike, the Hegseth text clearly raised the possibility of HUMINT, human intelligence, i.e., a source on the ground. At 2 p.m., Waltz added to the chat, "The first target — their top missile guy — we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed." That very specific detail, likely from one of the MQ-9 Reaper drones, could put the life of a confidential U.S. asset — assuming there is one — in Yemen at risk. We don't know. Hegseth's text of the real-time play-by-play included both advance notice of the planned attack and after-action "BDA," or battle damage assessment. The first becomes irrelevant after the attack is successfully completed. The second is usually carefully scrubbed by military intelligence experts before being made public to avoid releasing just the seemingly trivial detail that could have unintended blowback. All of this is routinely classified at the Top Secret level until formally declassified. "The information about the weapons systems. That gets to the Houthi military commanders. Doesn’t it make you think they’re at least going to say duck?" Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) at yesterday's House Intelligence Committee hearing. "Or he’s going to take some action, or he’s going to try to shoot our planes down, right?" OPINION: THERE IS NO QUESTION HOUTHI SIGNAL CHAT INCLUDED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION 'THOSE ARE SOME REALLY SH*TTY WAR PLANS': Hegseth has been harping on the idea that when Goldberg initially referred to "war plans," it showed he didn't know what he was talking about. "Those are some really sh*tty war plans," Hegseth posted. "This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an 'attack plan' (as he now calls it)." Hegseth said he would meet with commanders who make "REAL war plans" and talk to troops. "We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes," he said. The White House is "playing at some sort of weird semantic game," Goldberg said in an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "Is what they are arguing is that an attack is different than a war They put operational details of a forthcoming attack on a terrorist organization into a Signal chat that included phone numbers that they didn’t recognize … They’re talking about attacking and killing terrorists using various weapon systems." The talking point that the text exchanges didn't contain the essential elements of a "war plan" was one repeated often during DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday and picked up and parroted by various Republicans on the committee to drive home the argument that group chat was innocuous and contained no classified intelligence. In her opening statement, Gabbard copped to only one small "mistake," namely Mike Waltz accidentally inviting Goldberg to join the chat. "The national security adviser has taken full responsibility for this. And the National Security Council is conducting an in-depth review along with technical experts working to determine how this reporter was inadvertently added to this chat." Other than that hiccup, everything was peachy. "No classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans that were shared," Gabbard said. "This was a standard update to the National Security Cabinet." Again, the Signal messages contain several examples of "actionable intelligence" that in Houthi hands could have been disastrous, including the exact time U.S. planes would arrive over Sanna, and the fact that an assassination attempt of a "Target Terrorist" was to be conducted at a location where he was expected to be at 1:45 p.m. EDT. "Everyone here knows that the Russians or the Chinese could have gotten all of that information and they could have passed it on to the Houthis who easily could have re-positioned weapons and altered their plans to knock down planes or sink ships," said Rep. Jim Himes (D-CN), ranking Democrat on the committee. "I think that it’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now." MIXED SIGNAL: HEGSETH, TRUMP OFFICIALS PERFORM 'RHETORICAL GYMNASTICS' OVER 'WAR PLANS' VERSUS 'ATTACK PLANS' Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre's Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn't work, shoot us an email and we'll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP OR READ BACK ISSUES OF DAILY ON DEFENSE HAPPENING TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee considers the nominations of Troy Meink to be secretary of the Air Force; Michael Duffy to be undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment; Emil Michael to be defense undersecretary for research and engineering; and Keith Bass to be assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. And mark your calendars. Next Tuesday, the same committee will hear from Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine, who Trump has called back from retirement and nominated for a fourth star to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing the fired Air Force Gen. Charles C.Q. Brown Jr., who was viewed by Hegseth and Trump as "too woke." WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT SIGNAL? In her House testimony, Gabbard, who is the country's chief intelligence officer, said the Signal message app "comes preinstalled on government devices" and that CISA, the Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure Security Agency, urges "the consistent use of end-to-end encryption," to "protect mobile communications," and, she added, "they name Signal as an app." What she failed to mention is that an Oct. 6, 2023 directive to senior Pentagon leaders warned mobile apps like Signal pose "a cybersecurity and operations security (OPSEC) risk and may result in the unauthorized disclosure of controlled unclassified information," and therefore directs DOD personnel to not use "unclassified systems, government-issued or otherwise, for classified national security information." And none of the "high-level national security principals" appeared aware that just last month, the NSA issued a special OPSEC bulletin warning a vulnerability in the Signal app "has made the application a high-value target to intercept sensitive information," as reported by CBS News. Anyone who uses Signal knows it has a useful feature to link the account across multiple devices. Then you can send and read messages on your phone, tablet, or laptop. But it also means hackers can conceal malware in "phishing" invitations, and read all of your messages remotely without you knowing it. Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, it should be noted, joined the "Houthi PC small group" while in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin, but while the FSB is perfectly capable of trying to hack into his phone, the White House insists that didn't happen. "Steve Witkoff did not have his personal device, nor did he have his government device with him," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. "He was given a classified, protected server by the United States government and he was very careful about his communications when he was in Russia." Witkoff confirmed as much in a post on X. "It’s a great, secure messaging app. That doesn’t mean you have 100% security," Graham Cluley, a cybersecurity expert, and co-host of the “Smashing Security” podcast, said on CNN. "It doesn’t mean that anything you write on it will never be seen by the wrong people because, of course, someone else’s device could be stolen, their password could be cracked, your message could be viewed." "I mean there are government-approved secure messaging systems where these sort of communications should be happening. You shouldn’t be using an off the rack messaging service," he said "You shouldn’t be using Snapchat, you shouldn’t be using WhatsApp, you shouldn’t be using Signal if you are communicating at this kind of level about this kind of serious thing." MIXED SIGNAL: HEGSETH, TRUMP OFFICIALS PERFORM 'RHETORICAL GYMNASTICS' OVER 'WAR PLANS' VERSUS 'ATTACK PLANS' CAN'T HEGSETH DECLASSIFY WHATEVER HE WANTS? During yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) produced a page from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence classification guide, which specifies that “Information providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an attack" should be classified at the Top Secret level. "I don’t disagree with that. I’d just point out that the DOD classification guidance is separate from the ODNI’s classification guidance," Gabbard responded. "Ultimately, the Secretary of Defense holds the authority to classify or declassify." Hegseth hasn't said he declassified his battlespace update, insisting nothing needed to be declassified. But Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director Defense Intelligence Agency, testified that he effectively declassified a few nuggets of information while picking some bullet points to share. "When the Secretary extracted individual details from that and provided those on Signal, whether individually or in aggregate, that is his decision of what is classified and what is not from an operational aspect," Kruse said. The question is not so much was the information classified, but should it have remained classified. EDITORIAL: THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S SIGNAL GROUP CHAT LEAK AND ITS CONSEQUENCES THE RUNDOWN: Washington Examiner: Four US Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania have died, NATO chief Rutte says Washington Examiner: Atlantic reporter publishes operations details from Signal group chat. White House pushes back on 'war plans' claims Washington Examiner: House Democrats accuse intelligence officials of lying in Signal chat fiasco Washington Examiner: Mixed Signal: Hegseth, Trump officials perform 'rhetorical gymnastics' over 'war plans' versus 'attack plans' Washington Examiner: Trump says Hegseth 'had nothing to do' with Signal scandal with Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg Washington Examiner: Rubio admits Signal group chat debacle was a 'big mistake' Washington Examiner: Democrat asks if Hegseth 'had been drinking' before Signal group chat leak Washington Examiner: Byron York suggests Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg should have identified himself in Signal chat Washington Examiner: Elon Musk helping to investigate Signal chat leak: White House Washington Examiner: Private data of top US officials including Hegseth and Waltz found online Washington Examiner: Tom Rogan Opinion: There is no question Houthi Signal chat included classified information Washington Examiner: Editorial: The Trump administration's Signal group chat leak and its consequences Washington Examiner: Russia reneges on Black Sea ceasefire, says Western sanctions must first be lifted Washington Examiner: US boosts Iran strike options with aircraft carrier and bomber deployments Washington Examiner: Noem sends warning to illegal immigrants from El Salvador prison with Tren de Aragua members Washington Examiner: Encounters of suspected terrorists drop at Mexico border as Canada border sees spike Washington Examiner: Trump administration using public visual threats as immigration deterrents Washington Examiner: Five controversies surrounding Hegseth since he was confirmed Washington Examiner: Defense officials outline developments to Trump's 'Golden Dome' order Washington Examiner: Encounters of suspected terrorists drop at Mexico border as Canada border sees spike The Atlantic: Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump's Advisers Shared on Signal National Review: Opinion: Trump Should Fire Pete Hegseth Politico: 'We Have to Have It': Trump Ups the Pressure on Greenland AP: Middle East latest: Israeli strikes kill a family of 6 and a Hamas spokesman in Gaza Wall Street Journal: The US Missile Launcher That Is Enraging China DefenseScoop: Dan 'Razin' Caine, Trump's Nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Set to Testify at Confirmation Hearing AP: Trump says Signal chat isn't 'really an FBI thing.' The FBI has a long history of such inquiries Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Picked Boeing for NGAD Based on 'Best Overall Value.' Here's What It Means The War Zone: B-52 Radar Upgrade Alternatives Info Sought by Air Force Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Clears ULA's New Rocket to Compete with SpaceX Defense One: Space Force Plans to Put a Multisatellite 'Carrier' Into Orbit SpaceNews: US Military Prepares to Award New Commercial SATCOM Deals Air & Space Forces Magazine: Saltzman Wants 'Fundamental Shift' in Space Force Budget Breaking Defense: US Greenlights Potential $1.96 Billion MQ-9B Drone Deal for Qatar Defense News: In the Wake of Hegseth's Software Memo, Experts Eye Further Change Air & Space Forces Magazine: 'Time is Now' to Look at New Airlifter: TRANSCOM Boss Military Times: Military Moves Are Improving Some Under New Contract, General Claims Air & Space Forces Magazine: End of an Era: Last F-16 for Training US Pilots Leaves Luke THE CALENDAR: THURSDAY | MARCH 27 10 a.m. — Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation Subcommittee hearing: “NTSB Preliminary Report: DCA Midair Collision," with testimony from NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy http://commerce.senate.gov 11 a.m. — Washington Institute for Near East Policy virtual forum: “Assessing the U.S. Military Campaign Against the Houthis,” with Michael Knights, WINEP senior fellow; Noam Raydan, WINEP senior fellow; and Elizabeth Dent, WINEP senior fellow https://washingtoninstitute-org.zoom.us/webinar/register 2 p.m. — Defense One virtual forum: “State of the Army,” part of its “State of Defense” series, with Gen. Randy George, chief of staff, U.S. Army https://events.defenseone.com/state-of-defense-2025 3:30 p.m. — Center for a New American Security virtual book discussion: The Hand Behind Unmanned: Origins, U.S. Autonomous Military Arsenal,” with co-author Jacquelyn Schneider, fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; and co-author Julia Macdonald, research professor at the University of Denver’s School of International Studies https://www.cnas.org/events/the-future-of-military-artificial-intelligence FRIDAY | MARCH 28 10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual discussion: “Major Power Rivalry and Nuclear Stability,” with former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Brad Roberts, director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Global Security Research https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/major-power-rivalry-and-nuclear-stability/ TUESDAY | APRIL 1 9:30 a.m. G50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings 2 p.m. 2172 Rayburn — House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing: "Countering the Iranian Regime's Malign Activities," with testimony from Norman Roule, non-resident senior adviser, Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Claire Jungman, chief of staff, United Against Nuclear Iran https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/a-return-to-maximum-pressure THURSDAY | APRIL 3 9 a.m. Brussels, Belgium — Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers, with press conferences scheduled by both Rubio and NATO Secretary-General Mark Ruttehttps://www.nato.int | | | | "This report calls Russia, and I quote, "an enduring potential threat to U.S. power, presence, and global interests. But as far as I can tell, we're now on team Kremlin. We vote with them and against our allies in the United Nations. We humiliate President Zelensky in the Oval Office. The President's chief Russia negotiator Steve Witkoff is repeating Russian talking points…" | | Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, comment on the Intelligence Community's Worldwide Threats Assessment |
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Megyn Kelly -> Pete Hegseth responds to 2017 rape accusation. 🔥 vol. 3, issue 13 | December 6, 2024 Quick Hits All the news you need in...
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