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.
It’s so wild that they are very demanding of touchpoints up front but totally clueless about everything throughout the chat…
They waited till he entered his girlfriends apartment building?.. seems on point for the military. How many people died? I think someone said 53? And was that guy the only target? So many deaths for one dickhead…
Isn’t that a war crime? No wonder so many people hate the US.
Good thing the US doesn’t recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, so there’s no risk of them having to face consequences for their war crimes.
They even have a law that makes it illegal to cooperate with the ICC in bringing US personnel to justice, and that allows the president to use any force necessary to prevent it from happening.
And their praying for the killers of so many innocent.
More risk to the US personnel or assets, and it would be a diplomatic and domestic incident if it came out that US troops or assets were operating in Yemen. It’s much safer to bomb them from a plane.
Also there’s the terror aspect where the US government presumably wants to cause chaos and fear explicitly to make continuing the blockade less appealing to both the Houthis and the people of Yemen.
So strange that no one is talking about this aspect of it.
Like I’m no war expert (obviously neither are they), but wouldn’t it cause far fewer causalities, and be far cheaper and easier, to just hide in the bushes and shoot the guy when he comes out? Since they know exactly where he is?
1 death vs 53, 1 bullet vs whatever TF it takes to level a building?
I think you meant attack expert, no war plan information was shared…
/s
You’re going to need a team of people, fly them in and out and make sure they get back home alive or it might hurt the president’s polls. It might be cheaper but it’s much riskier. Nobody in the US cares about those 52 other people so that doesn’t really matter to them.
I’m surprised they didn’t use drones.
Why kill one when you can kill a bunch. Rack it up to collateral damage then go have a beer at the bar. Maybe leak some more texts before your Telsa test drive.
See this as further proof they do not value human lives.
✊💣🔥
Not sure about legality, and not that the US military care, but confirming someone id, and that he is visiting a gf or family member, then bombing the house, sound like a war crime.
They will pay no penalties for this. Trump deserves to be hanged for treason but that hasn’t happened yet.
It’s okay when the US does it.
I’m sure USians would be perfectly normal and react calmly and rationally if a foreign power killed 50 innocent people while assassinating a target on US soil.
It is a crime and Israel is doing it too so Trump and the whole clown car just follows the lead. I am all for killing people who have done heinous shit but killing everybody in whole build just to get tom them is beyond fucked up.
Israel, Russia and now the US just joined the club!
We actually have munitions that don’t blow up too. We could literally have killed just him. This isn’t 20 years ago anymore.
Whatever… Exactly zero consequences…
Nonono this time they really got him. He’s truly fucked now. He’s getting slammed over this. America every day for 8 years now.
We are currently clean on OPSEC
While actively leaking information lmao
This is becoming a theme stretching back multiple administrations. The people at the top either don’t understand IT acceptable use policies, cybersecurity controls, classification divisions of systems, records retention policies, etc; or they are intentionally ignoring them. And for bonus points, everyone at this level is an espionage target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_email_controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_group_chat_leak
They’re ignoring them. Acceptable use policies are annoying and they’re too powerful to follow the rules.
It’s quantifiable and expected threat by a known entity, versus nebulous threat by a unknown entity.
The records will be scrutinized. The FoIA requests will happen. The hack of their private infrastructure might not ever happen, and even if does, the foreign actors are not necessarily going to leak the records back to the US constituents: the real perceived threat.
They’ll gladly risk operational security for less paper trail. Every. Fucking. Time.
if this were any other regime, they’d be facing jail time for using a non-approved messaging app. But this is the year of the trumptard, so they will face no consequences.
Whiskeyleaks going absolutely ham over here lmfao
Whiskey leaks is a hilar6name for this snafu. God I hate this timeline so much.
I was expecting truly stupendous levels of stupidity, and my expectations continue to be blown the fuck away on a more or less daily basis.
That thumbnail makes Trump look like Gary Busey with his mouth closed. Although, I’m sure that would be an insult to Gary.
Didn’t the original article say it mentioned a CIA operative?
It is mentioned in the text, but I don’t see anything redacted in the screenshots either.
Edit: It could be in the very first message, it’s not clear if there is text between the first and second screenshot.
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.
Dude literally looks like the bad guy’s top henchman that dies super easily after meeting the main character.
The interesting part of publishing all the texts is it only serves Trump’s plans. To tear America away from Europe and force America to find new global relationships. Interesting times we are living in.
There is the outside possibility that the journalist was added on purpose
“Won’t look good if this leaks and we don’t bomb them” is literally in the leaked chats. Journalist was added on purpose imo.
I’ve had this thought in the back of my mind since learning about this. How does one accidentally add someone to a group chat?
Why would an unfriendly journalist be in your (and everyone elsew) phone only as initials?
I honestly have 0 ideas as to why, but it’s just too stupid of an action to not be on purpose. I’m sure we’ll find out one day. These people aren’t very confidential and will probably blab about it on a talk show down the road.
We are four years out from a book deal.
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.
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/
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.
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.
i’m not even educated in opsec or sysadmin work and i have better fucking security lmao.
Exactly.
Gabbard tried to be more clever than she actually is.
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.
Same. Half Baked is one of my favourite stoner movies, this shit has been so disappointing.
I don’t understand. If they don’t recall why can’t they just open up their personal phone and check?
… 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.
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?
I mean, you nailed it right there, if it was that, then they could just say who had the similar name.
… but that isn’,t possible when everyone involved is a sentient piece of ratshit molded into the form of a human, that has absolutely no ability to ever admit any fault or take responsibility for anything, ever.
These people are all completely unqualified, sociopathic opportunists with moral fiber composed of fucking anti matter, they’d instantly explode if they ever attempted to flex those moral muscles and develop any actual principles.
I have, entirely seriously, known multiple meth/fentanyl addicts (in the process of detoxing) with better moral character, sense of responsibility for their actions, honesty, loyalty, and principles they strive to live by.
Turns out that the current administration was just a bunch of DUI hires.
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.
plus they were probably brown, not white, so it double-y doesn’t count.
“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”
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.
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”.
Sic semper tyrannis
idk why anybody is surprised, seeing how the republicans operate this should be obvious as fuck
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.
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.
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…
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.
That would have disqualified him from almost any normal job interview.
Since when do American leaders care about “collateral damage” ?
The largest terrorist organisation in the world.
Most countries in America do care
Since when do Americans im general? They sure were all united when they were leveling my country
Americans do not all support wars.
Zero comfort while I stand in the rubble of my former home
When you claim to be a democracy, and you have two group, both see killing Palestinian and brown people is okay, and your 2/3 of the population still vote for them, your statement objectively false.
Are you suggesting that if a person votes for a given candidate then it means the person agrees with everything the candidate does?
Ah yes, blame the victims, that’s sure to solve the problem. I suppose I should also blame the people who live in the building that was dropped for boarding with a terrorist? I mean they can just choose to be somewhere else, right?
Fuck off.
So what should they vote for no one and stay home?
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.
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
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.
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.
They are so incredibly dishonorable it’s appalling.
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.
the guy who says the ideal society is Mordor
I’m sorry, who with the what now?
Peter Thiel.
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).
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.
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.
It’s immoral on it’s face because of how they’re doing it is my point. There’s certainly a political philosophy discussion to be had about the underlying international system and American system, but there’s none to be had about throwing extra explosions around to “intimidate” a third country.
but there’s none to be had about throwing extra explosions around to “intimidate” a third country.
There is, and not having that discussion does nothing but help the imperial core maintain their facade of moral legitimacy even as they murder innocent people all over the world.
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The Atlantic putting a paywall on this when they got the texts for free from a government handout is peak America…
Government official work => no copyright?
Good journalism is very expensive to produce. You got to pay for it somehow.
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.
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.
Wired “has been killing it” during the ongoing soft coup, to quote my journalist wife, and we’ve replaced our WaPo subscription with that. We can never dump NYT just because of the recipes.
PBS and NPR are pretty decent places to put your subscription moneys
Hopefully they survive this administration.
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.
This was a gift given to the Atlantic, though. I guess you gotta milk it for what it’s worth.
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
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.
Turn JS off to “bypass” it
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”.
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.
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.
