Summary

The Atlantic has published unredacted attack plans (non-paywall link) shared in a Signal group chat of senior Trump officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg released the full texts after officials denied sharing war plans or classified information, arguing transparency was necessary amid accusations of dishonesty.

The leaked messages detailed U.S. military strikes targeting Houthis in Yemen.

206 points
*

A CIA spokesperson asked us to withhold the name of John Ratcliffe’s chief of staff, which Ratcliffe had shared in the Signal chain, because CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified. Ratcliffe had testified earlier yesterday that the officer is not undercover and said it was “completely appropriate” to share their name in the Signal conversation. We will continue to withhold the name of the officer. Otherwise, the messages are unredacted.

The news outlet these fucktards accidentally leaked their detailed operational plan and timeline to…

… is still excersizing better OPSEC than the actual head of the CIA.

EDIT:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_2sODSpJo2A

Watch this clip of Mark Kelly with some pretty on point questions for Gabbard and Ratcliffe, listen to their responses, and go read through the full text chat.

Watch more of the hearings.

I think there’s a pretty decent case Tulsi actually fucked up enough in her testimony that she actually did a perjury, Ratcliffe however, was both a bit more conciliatory and ever so slightly more honest, and also a bit better at just giving ‘I don’t recall’ answers.

permalink
report
reply
70 points

I have been in fucking EVE Online corporations with better OPSEC than these guys.

This would be hilarious if I didn’t fucking live here.

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points
*

Oh yeah absolutely.

I never partook in any of that myself, but yeah I’ve watched/listened to some hours of youtube videos doing their best to recount some of the more insane history of subterfuge, sabotage, getting rival clan members installed as spies, as CEOs and masters of coin in their enemy’s corps, draining all their funds and liquidating an entire clan after a 3 year long deep undercover op with the spies regularly being on voicechats of some kind, and then just doing the deed and ghosting everyone …

…fucking bonkers shit for a video game clans… but yeah, many of those kinds of stories show people with better understanding of spycraft and opsec than… the literal, actual, current heads of the CIA, DoD, etc.

absolute clown world.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

i’m not even educated in opsec or sysadmin work and i have better fucking security lmao.

permalink
report
parent
reply
28 points
*
16 points

Exactly.

Gabbard tried to be more clever than she actually is.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Man, I miss old school Chappelle… Ever since he brought Elon Musk on stage I’ve just been hoping he’d go the fuck away.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Same. Half Baked is one of my favourite stoner movies, this shit has been so disappointing.

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points

I don’t understand. If they don’t recall why can’t they just open up their personal phone and check?

permalink
report
parent
reply
24 points
*

… So, the angle they are going with now is that this was a very serious offensive and nefarious act perpetrated against Mike Waltz, the guy who created the group chat.

M Waltz is saying that well hey maybe this piece of shit Goldberg guy (the journalist) hacked his way into the chat? Maybe it was an inside job, or an outside cyberattack, and somebody swapped out Goldberg’s phone number with another one of my contacts, so that when I tried to add a legit person who should have been in that group chat, it tricked me and added Goldberg!

… Yeah. These idiots are unfortunately in charge of investigating themselves, and at least Mike Waltz seems to be saying ‘no it is utterly impossible that I accidentally added the wrong guy to the chat, I was clearly the victim of some kind of hack!’

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hJ2gxzPEzjU

Yes, Mike Waltz ‘takes full responsibility’… by positing an inconsistent mess of possible cyberattacks/manipulation techniques that could have been used against him, absolutely no way he fat fingered a contact add, nope.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Did they leave out some high ranking general with the same name? In their frantic CYA narrative isn’t there some key person missing from the chat, and if so why not name them?

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

When is the last time that a non-poor has ever gotten tried and convicted for perjury?

It is the silent threat to keep poor people honest in court while allowing rich people and lawyers to lie their hearts out and use it for publicity because “they wouldn’t lie under oath”

https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-perjury-so-rarely-prosecuted/

permalink
report
parent
reply
195 points

So many people talking about the fact that this leaked, and not enough are talking about what leaked.

We have political leaders throwing up fire emoji’s over dropping a building on a terrorist, with no regard for the, what, dozens? of innocent lives that were lost in the crossfire.

If you have to kill someone, sure, that’s a moral position we can discuss. No one should ever be celebrating it, particularly when others died in the process. But hey, they’re not Americans, so they don’t count.

permalink
report
reply
47 points

idk why anybody is surprised, seeing how the republicans operate this should be obvious as fuck

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

No one should be surprised. We’ve seen who these people are time and time again. But we shouldn’t be so desensitized to moral bankruptcy that we completely overlook such a disgusting disregard for human life.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

idk what to tell you anymore, i don’t care about human life lmao.

You all ruined it for me by being so fucking stupid. Like i’m sorry, but how is a satirist supposed to live in a climate where everybody is just fucking stupid. The answer, inevitably, is benevolent disregard for human life, because clearly nobody cares about it enough to do anything about it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
33 points

It’s like the confirmation of Brett Kavenau when he threw a hissy fit about how he “likes beer”…

That in and of itself should have disqualified him. If someone isn’t capable of being even-keeled and not throwing a temper tantrum, then they shouldn’t hold the highest judicial office in the land…

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

That would have disqualified him from almost any normal job interview.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

The dude cried and vowed retribution against one of the two parties in the US…and was still confirmed to the highest court in the country. Fucking wild.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

Since when do American leaders care about “collateral damage” ?

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

The largest terrorist organisation in the world.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

Since when do Americans im general? They sure were all united when they were leveling my country

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

Americans do not all support wars.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

We have political leaders throwing up fire emoji’s over dropping a building on a terrorist, with no regard for the, what, dozens? of innocent lives that were lost in the crossfire.

As someone who was around for “We’ll put a boot in yer ass, it’s the American way” this does not surprise me in the slightest.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points
*

We’re talking about the same guys funded by the guy who says the ideal society is Mordor. This doesn’t surprise anyone. Everyone is expendable for the company’s machine, they wouldn’t mind targeting innocent people, let alone causing civilian casualties when targeting real terrorists.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

the guy who says the ideal society is Mordor

I’m sorry, who with the what now?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Peter Thiel.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points
*

They are so incredibly dishonorable it’s appalling.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

If you have to kill someone, sure, that’s a moral position we can discuss. No one should ever be celebrating it, particularly when others died in the process

I can think of a few deaths worth celebrating

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

There are only a few handful for whom I’d pull the trigger myself, but quite a multitude more that I would celebrate their passing with glee.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I just think, especially when we’re pulling the trigger ourselves, we should be sad, maybe disappointed, that it’s come to that. Bad people are still people, and while I believe they throw away their right to life when they start indescriminately revoking it from others, I don’t ever want to find myself happy to take life. I’ll be happy later, in the better world that’s been created.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

We have political leaders throwing up fire emoji’s over dropping a building on a terrorist, with no regard for the, what, dozens? of innocent lives that were lost in the crossfire.

Correction: They dropped a building on a “terrorist” (read: brown person the US doesn’t like).

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

There is a reason to attack him. I don’t agree with the whole situation but shooting at cargo ships and American warships is going to get a response. I just expect the world’s most technological military to do a better job of not attacking innocent people in getting to him.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I don’t agree with the whole situation but shooting at cargo ships and American warships is going to get a response

It’s going to get a response, but that response is as immoral as the status quo it’s trying to protect.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

plus they were probably brown, not white, so it double-y doesn’t count.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

“If we discussed dropping a building on a terrorist we should also discuss bombing weddings, so let’s stick to using proper communication channels and following proper protocol for records”

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

These dumbfucks have no empathy. They will tell you empathy is weakness. In reality empathy is a social defense mechanism. If we all have empathy for each other it limits the harm we do. What they’re missing is not having it isn’t some kind of advantage, historically we are the most savage to those without empathy. It causes the mob to turn their empathy off and give in to their worst impulses. They think they’ll be the first ones in history to avoid that fate. They won’t.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Sic semper tyrannis

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Look at what JD “couch fucker” Vance wrote. Regarding potentially delaying the strike. He didn’t give any shits about the benefits or risks to lives, only the optics (oil prices going up), politics and his hatred for helping Europe.

Sure, clearing the shipping lanes is “good” but it’s more helpful to Europe “gross” so that’s a tick “con” colum.

Their “worst case scenarios” were all “it could look bad”.

permalink
report
parent
reply
154 points

The Atlantic putting a paywall on this when they got the texts for free from a government handout is peak America…

permalink
report
reply
47 points

Good journalism is very expensive to produce. You got to pay for it somehow.

permalink
report
parent
reply
32 points

Exactly why I used to subscribe to the Washington Post until Bezos wiped his ass with it. I’ll have to look into subscribing to The Atlantic now.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

Yeah I’m considering dumping NYT too. I heard Reuters was a better ‘investment’. Please someone tell me if that’s wrong. I don’t want to support Billionaires.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

I have been The Atlantic subscriber for about 5 years now. I think it has pretty great writers on staff. Their physical subscription is pretty cheap too.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

This was a gift given to the Atlantic, though. I guess you gotta milk it for what it’s worth.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-4 points

I’m not disagreeing in a general sense, but it’s funny to make that argument here when this info basically fell into the journalist’s lap. Very little actual journalism went into making this story possible

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points
*

But think of how much money is going to be needed for the security detail this guy is gonna need for the foreseeable future. Or the costs of retaining legal representation to help him navigate through what is guaranteed to be an endless sea of investigations, frivilous lawsuits, etc. that the Trump administration is guaranteed to launch until something sticks.

I wouldn’t be getting on any planes any time in the near future if I were him either.

This story may have fallen into his lap, but it sure as hell wasn’t free.

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

JG got the texts for free but he’s probably gonna need someone watching his 6 now. And I’m pretty sure a lawyer is billing for helping them figure out how to publish the details and still avoid getting trapped into anything illegal, like naming the CIA agent.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Nah, the guilty parties already told congress nothing the texts did not contain classified material, so releasing them should be fine. It’s not like this administration would suddenly change its mind now, surely.

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

Turn JS off to “bypass” it

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

OP linked an archive link, and updated the post to have it.

But I clicked it before and had the same reaction as if I opened a box labeled “dead dove”.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Government official work => no copyright?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
144 points

My favorite quote is the one where he says it could leak lol

“…If this leaks we look indecisive”

Try incompetent beyond reason. This clown world is funny if people weren’t dying.

permalink
report
reply
55 points

Also this:

Pete Hegseth, after broadly describing the big picture situation/rationale for the strike, that same block of text you pulled the ‘we look indecisive’ from:

But, we can easily pause. And if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC.

… I don’t even know what to say.

permalink
report
parent
reply
24 points

He said he would do all he can.

We know what his best is now.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Of course… the main thing is how they look not what good they do. It’s unforgiveable

permalink
report
parent
reply
135 points
*

Lmao Waltz saying he is going to try and figure out “how the heck he got into this room” and then the first text screenshot literally says “Michael Waltz added you to the group” is so goddamn hilarious to me.

permalink
report
reply
105 points
*

Oh wow, proof it also has disappearing messages enabled.

I don’t know the legality of the messages being able to disappear, but the fact it’s enabled is a clear cut violation of the law.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

For any other administration, this would be a catastrophe. For the Trump administration, it’s Thursday.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-34 points
*

Eh, they could have had a service forwarding the messages to a database running on one of the group’s member’s devices.

permalink
report
parent
reply
38 points

Yeah sure thing. The guy who has already been caught mishandling classified documents… The guy who literally ate the notes from a meeting he had with Putin so nobody would see them.

Right.

permalink
report
parent
reply
36 points

Lol. That would be uncharacteristic at this point. They need to show us the servers before I believe that

permalink
report
parent
reply
26 points

And how likely do you think that is? Given the clown show that has gotten them to this point.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

you would think they would then be using a government hosted platform, instead of signal, but i guess that makes too much sense.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Don’t worry, given their apparent compliance to threat-model, it’s most likely stored somewhere on an adversarial database. Compliance by idiocy.

permalink
report
parent
reply
87 points

Oh, yeah, these guys sat in front of the Senate yesterday and flatly lied about all of it. At the end, one of the Democrats said that it wouldn’t be long before they had the transcripts, which would be compared to their testimony, analyzed for discrepancies, and legal options considered.

The MAGA Nazis aren’t really worried, they know there is no possible way that HitlerPig, Big Booby Bondi, or the Nazi legislature will do anything about it, and even if they did, HitlerPig would just pardon them, but at least it’s one more egregious national security lapse/lie that the Dems can beat them with forever.

IF the Dems ever show the guts to fight back.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

If they get pardoned, they can no longer plead the 5th, so that should be fun!

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

But the judges won’t jail them for ignoring them anyways.

permalink
report
parent
reply
22 points

This is some real old white guy, how did this get here i am not good with computer energy lmfao

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

Same vibe as that flat-earther in Behind the curve who ran this laser experiment that ended up proving the curvature of the earth and, upon seeing the evidence, went like “Huh, how about that, guess we gotta analyze the data some more to see what’s going on.”

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

The other thing I noticed up there is that it says “MAR added MAR”. Not sure if those are two people with the same Signal/Contact name/intials, or how that happened (as a Signal user, best guess is group link but that is also would be in the log at the top)

permalink
report
parent
reply

politics

!politics@lemmy.world

Create post

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to “Mom! He’s bugging me!” and “I’m not touching you!” Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That’s all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

Community stats

  • 14K

    Monthly active users

  • 17K

    Posts

  • 316K

    Comments