Top Trump officials accidentally shared war plans with media

[Aryeh Jay]

Whos job is it to clean up all that mess?

I did it.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

 

[iluvatar5150]

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

Last one, I promise....

 

[Merrill]

1.) It was obviously a mistake. It's possible they meant to add somebody else (perhaps with a similar name, set of initials, user id, or phone #) and they just fat-fingered the wrong contact. IME as somebody with a very common (among my age cohort) first name, married to somebody else with a very common first name, this happens a lot. Heck, I have two different pairs of friends with the same first name, similar last names with the same initial, similar jobs in the same industry, very similar hobbies, and similar tastes in music. My wife loves it when try to retell stories because she has to keep asking for clarification about which one I'm talking about. From Goldberg's screenshot, it looks like his handle/avatar is merely his initials, not his picture or full name like some of the other participants. It wouldn't strike me as odd for him to be in the regular contacts list of a high level government official, and then to be added instead of the person immediately above or below him.

As for how they added somebody outside government at all; that's because they were using an unofficial platform that didn't have those sorts of controls in place.

2.) I don't know how Signal's contact list works, but are there settings to allow identifiers such as that when requesting a contact? IIRC, Facebook will override some of your privacy settings when you try to add somebody as a friend, so they'll have visibility into your account as if they were already a friend.

3.) I don't find this hard to believe at all. At that level, those folks all have assistants who have access to all, or nearly all, of their communications. My wife is an EA for somebody at a Dean/VP level and she sees everything.

4.) Reading the initial article, it sounds like he was added to it after nearly everybody else (his screenshots show only Marco Rubio being added after him). It strikes me as conceivable that people just missed the notification. Perhaps it got swamped by other notifications.

Still a lot of questions here

1. Why would a staffer of Mike Walz have the name of a Variety reporter in his contact list--especially a reporter who has been hostile to the Trump administration for years? There might be some reason for this, but it is extremely odd

2. Goldberg told The NY Times he did not have Walz's contact info/number. Is he lying? He said he thought it was a fake phishing attempt by someone claiming to be Walz

Now it is possible this staffer, or even Walz himself, royally screwed up here and somehow added this guy to the chat room, but it seems almost inconceivable from an IT security perspective. That would be like one of the CEOs I worked for "accidentally" transmitting all our secure IP to a competitor's company.

 

[DaisyDay]

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/26/signal-lawsuit-judge-trump-deportation-flights

The federal judge Republicans want to impeach for blocking deportation flights to El Salvador will handle a new lawsuit alleging Trump officials violated federal law by discussing an attack on Yemen in a Signal chat.
Driving the news: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was assigned to the lawsuit brought by watchdog group American Oversight alleging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials violated the Federal Records Act.

• The new lawsuit alleges that Trump officials' use of a platform that allows messages about government business to be erased is a violation of record retention laws.

Mike Waltz is the Signal chat guy; Tim Walz (no "t") is the Minnesotan governor.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Overheard somewhere (possibly Colbert?): “They realized there was a reporter from The Atlantic on the chain because after 10 messages, they hit a paywall.”

 

[Aryeh Jay]

I get 0 points.

Country Joe and the Fish, Vietnam.

 

[Merrill]

So I looked at the chat transcript released by the Atlantic

It says "Mike Walz added you to the group"

but it does not say whose account we are looking at, and it is not a raw transcript or log. These are screen-shots

so it is very possible that this reporter was never invited to the group: he merely has screen shots from another individual who is in the group--or someone who has access to the Signal account.

Out of the 19 people in the group, one could be a mole, and sending the Atlantic screen shots

this jives with the fact that:

1. No one in the group saw a suspicious person enter the group (who would have been identified by his name, a fake name, or simply a phone number). Everyone in the group announced their identity and department --except this guy?
2. No one saw this guy leave the group (you get a notification in Signal)
3. the reporter said he had no contact with Walz prior to this, and didn't have his phone number
4. The idea that Walz's staff would have a hostile reporter in his Signal contacts seems far-fetched (but not impossible)

so this is what we need to see going forward:

1. The full list of the 19 names in the Signal chat group. This will verify what account the reporter was using--or if he was in there at all
2. A statement from Alex Wong, Walz's aid who supposedly invited the reporter.

 

[JosephZ]

So I looked at the chat transcript released by the Atlantic

It says "Mike Walz added you to the group"

but it does not say whose account we are looking at, and it is not a raw transcript or log. These are screen-shots

so it is very possible that this reporter was never invited to the group: he merely has screen shots from another individual who is in the group--or someone who has access to the Signal account.

Looking at the screenshot, the initials match the reporter's name.

 

[Merrill]

Looking at the screenshot, the initials match the reporter's name.

View attachment 362756

OK I didn't see that screen shot. Thanks

it answers a couple questions (provided the above is not photoshopped)

1. The Michael Walz account was used to create the Signal group (which is what we suspected)
2. There was an interloper in the account (JG)
3. Somehow, no one in the group, including the admin, didn't realize a user named "Jeffrey Goldberg" joined the group (and later left)

No way do I believe Walz's story that his aid had a different name associated with Goldberg's number (Walz wouldn't say who was supposed to be invited). It just happened to be the highest ranking reporter on the most hostile news magazine, and somehow this got mixed up?

this whole thing stinks to high-heaven. Both Walz and Goldberg need to be dragged in for questioning, their phones confiscated, etc.

Alex Wong also needs to be dragged in

 

[adrianmonk]

Last one, I promise....

View attachment 362739

I like this one too.

 

[Belk]

OK I didn't see that screen shot. Thanks

it answers a couple questions (provided the above is not photoshopped)

1. The Michael Walz account was used to create the Signal group (which is what we suspected)
2. There was an interloper in the account (JG)
3. Somehow, no one in the group, including the admin, didn't realize a user named "Jeffrey Goldberg" joined the group (and later left)

No way do I believe Walz's story that his aid had a different name associated with Goldberg's number (Walz wouldn't say who was supposed to be invited). It just happened to be the highest ranking reporter on the most hostile news magazine, and somehow this got mixed up?

this whole thing stinks to high-heaven. Both Walz and Goldberg need to be dragged in for questioning, their phones confiscated, etc.

Alex Wong also needs to be dragged in

I had not realized these things were quantified. What are the units of reporter rankings and hostility?

 

[Pommer]

How many times did Joe Biden include a journalist in national security chats on insecure apps with personal phones being used?

I’ll wait.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

View attachment 362711Shooting a remote controlled Houthi drone boat.

I just realized that was March of last year. My how time flies, I was a young snot filled 52 year old kid back then and now I will be a cranky 54 year old man next month, like in 30 days.

I hadn't noticed how many emotions my post received so here's another, I realized that that's just a picture of me shooting an M240 machine gun but it could be just me shooting for training in the Atlantic or Pacific years ago and it could be fake altogether, I do own one and have uniform so that could be me on Lake Michigan shooting at birds on the SS Badger.

This picture is of Jeddah KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). I was able to go out and get things for other officers on the ship but officially we never entered KSA. my being able to speak Lebanese dialect Arabic (not taught at the Defense Language school) and having a Spanish / EU passport might have helped. Any way, I was not supposed to have a camera and couldn't leave the side of my driver / Government chaperon. I tried to be covert and snap some pics but he heard it and started screaming "wa-lack! Majnun!" Which loosely translates as "What! Your crazy!" Not only was I not supposed to have a camera, taking photos of Royal palaces is really frowned on. I was able to talk my way out after deleting all the good photos but these are just flags so they were OK.

June 2024

 

[Aryeh Jay]

How many times did Joe Biden include a journalist in national security chats on insecure apps with personal phones being used?

I’ll wait.

Thankfully the Cricket that Joe Biden uses doesn't have the ability to install the app.

 

[NxNW]

So I looked at the chat transcript released by the Atlantic

It says "Mike Walz added you to the group"

but it does not say whose account we are looking at, and it is not a raw transcript or log. These are screen-shots

so it is very possible that this reporter was never invited to the group: he merely has screen shots from another individual who is in the group--or someone who has access to the Signal account.

Somebody's lying, and my money is on the Republicans.

Out of the 19 people in the group, one could be a mole, and sending the Atlantic screen shots

this jives with the fact that:

"Jibes" is the word you're looking for.

1. No one in the group saw a suspicious person enter the group (who would have been identified by his name, a fake name, or simply a phone number). Everyone in the group announced their identity and department --except this guy?
2. No one saw this guy leave the group (you get a notification in Signal)

We don't know this, because we don't have all the info.

3. the reporter said he had no contact with Walz prior to this, and didn't have his phone number
4. The idea that Walz's staff would have a hostile reporter in his Signal contacts seems far-fetched (but not impossible)

Never underestimate stupidity.

so this is what we need to see going forward:

1. The full list of the 19 names in the Signal chat group. This will verify what account the reporter was using--or if he was in there at all
2. A statement from Alex Wong, Walz's aid who supposedly invited the reporter.

That, and much more. We also need Congressional hearings and indictments once we know who shared classified info.

 

[NxNW]

How many times did Joe Biden include a journalist in national security chats on insecure apps with personal phones being used?

I’ll wait.

But but but Hillary sent an email, or something.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

But but but Hillary sent an email, or something.

Used illegal servers with a direct link to the Kremlin. Jeepers, what podcasts do you get you facts from?