Why are Yemen’s messages so serious: negligence and insidia, vance in command and contempt to the EU

The White House confirmed Monday, March 24 that a journalist from the magazine The Atlantic earlier this month. The group included Vice President JD Vance; to the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh; to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; to the national security advisor Mike Waltz; to the Stephen Miller Cabinet Subrizfe, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, a total of 18 officials who were dealing with plans qualified as a high secret.

Is it just an unimportant slip? At all. It is a first -order skate, which should not be imaginable in the leaders of the most powerful country on Earth. President Donald Trump Justo accused in 2016 his Democratic competitor, for not protecting his personal emails and now it is his people who open the door to a civilian, an informant, of an armed conflict of possible consequences of draft ,.

It is one of the most formidable national security indiscretions in recent years, the country to look at. And from it unrequivalent conclusions are drawn, such as the arrogant attitude towards US secrets and the security of US forces in a mortal mission.

The group message, revealed Monday in an article by the editor ofJeffrey Goldberg (the aggregate to the chat unintentionally), implies that there is a process of national lax security and, also, incompetent, because no one realized what was happening, at a time when the nation faces a world of threats and even Trump, for example, calls to produce at home as much medicines as possible because the US would need them if there were problems,.

“This has been a serious negligence,” says Ryan Goodman, former special defense department ,. “Those are the terms of the Criminal Statute: ‘serious negligence in the improper management of classified information’ … if someone unauthorized is disclosed. And in his call there was a journalist. That means that, in fact, there was a dissemination.” The lack of public repentance, much less resignations, of senior officials, reflects a white house that operates in a culture of impunity and has filled the Department of Justice and the FBI – of which you would normally be expected to initiate immediate investigations – with ultraleals to the president. There is no possible dissent, Trump already learned that in his first mandate: he wants loyal, nothing more.

National Security experts his disbelief and indignation before the possibility that Waltz – which is the one to be indicated – committed such an error and discussed sensitive war plans in Signal, so exposed. The US government does not allow the use of Signal to transmit classified information or operational details such as those attacks on Yemen. It is an encrypted application that, however, is found in phones that are vulnerable to the penetration of foreign intelligence services, which also suggests contempt for strict laws on the management of classified material. To his own.

Some national security lawyers suggested that Waltz could have violated the espionage law by coordinating “national defense” plans so careless.

Many questions

Many questions arise, for which there is still no answer, since Trump’s people are throwing balls outside and simply criticize the journalist who, by chance, ended up inside. For example, as the Democratic Party has denounced this morning, the idea that Trump’s senior officials discussed such a delicate matter “out of a highly classified environment” is “amazing.” Even more surprising is the fact that Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, published operational details of attacks on LS Hutíes, including information on objectives, weapons and sequence of attacks, according to The Atlantic. Very detailed and in an attachable environment.

In addition, the White House has not explained why the officials involved did not use the facilities available for classified discussions, including safe phones or armored computer systems, more places such as the White House Situations Room or the Sensitive Compartment Information Facilities (SCIF) available in their agencies, throughout Washington and when they travel abroad. We have all seen those secret crisis rooms in the films, but they are not fiction. They are to use.

There are no indications that the multiple attacks against the huti rebels backed by Iran in Yemen were committed, in the end they were carried out as planned and as told in the chat, but discussing these issues out of classified areas “puts at risk the safety of US forces in combat,” Trump’s opponents say. It is an especially negative image for Hegesh, who promised to restore common sense in the leadership of the pentagon and do everything possible to protect combatants. This is not the way.

The incident seems to confirm the fears of critics who warned that Trump filled the highest national positions with unleaded officials, but, on the other hand, were chosen for their impact, including Hegseth ,. Waltz’s involuntary decision, an experienced and decorated green beret in combat, to add Goldberg to the chat of Signal is especially disconcerting.

More: The talk also raises the question of which other ultra -secret conversations about national security have also developed out of classified and safe environments; Since Trump returned to his office of golden curtains he has been talking about Gaza, Ukraine, tariffs, space career … There may be a history.

Now it is about to see if the espionage law is applied and if there are consequences. They say analysts to media such as That if those involved were lower rank officials this investigation would be underway since last night.

It rains on wet because Trump was criminally accused of, after leaving office in 2021. The case was dismissed, with a lot of controversy, by a Florida judge, designated precisely by the Republican the previous year. And at the beginning of his first term, the president shared highly classified information with the Russian Foreign Minister and the Russian ambassador to the United States in the White House. Shortly after, US intelligence agencies extracted one of their main undercover sources within the Russian government.

“There is a strong touch of hypocrisy in the fact that senior officials share classified information through a third -party application. After all, Trump and several of his advisors incessantly criticized the 2016 Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, for the classified information found in his private server after his service as a state secretary. And several current officials have already initiated investigations on leaks, including filtrations Hegseth in the Pentagon, “writes Stephen Collinson, the CNN man in the White House.

The details

The story of the chat texts contains fascinating and terrifying details, at the same time. They suggest that number two, Vance, despite their firm public support for Trump’s positions, did not initially support attacks against the hutis. It also has a power and a hand in foreign policy that have not had other seconds in the US administration. “I think we are making a mistake,” says Vance, literally. “I am not sure that the president is aware of how incoherent this is with his message about Europe at this time,” he adds.

He argued that freedom of navigation in the Red Sea is much more important for Europe than for the United States in economic terms, that attacks could cause an increase in oil prices and to delay them a month would give the government more time to present their case to the US people. Subsequently, Vance told Hegseth: “If you think we should do it, go ahead.” A Vance spokesman declared The Atlantic that he and Trump maintained “subsequent conversations” about the attacks and “totally agree.”

And the vice president, Hegseth and the senior White House official, Miller, also share their contempt for the US allies, coinciding that they should be forced to remunerate Washington for the attacks, since they would boost their economies by restoring the freedom of navigation after months of huti attacks.

The greatest rejection is European politicians. If Vance opposed the attacks, in part, it was because, in his opinion, they would mainly benefit Europe and, therefore, should be executed by Europeans. Even after Waltz and others responded with evidence that only the United States could execute such an operation, Vance replied: “I hate having to rescue Europe again.” “I fully share their rejection of European uses. It is pathetic,” Hegseth replied in capital letters.

There is a user identified as “SM” (possibly Stephen Miller, says Axios) that he added that they would ensure that the Europeans and the Egyptians knew “what we expect in return” and raised the question: “If Europe does not remunerate, then what?” “If the US manages to restore freedom of navigation to a high price, it is necessary to obtain an additional economic benefit in exchange,” he continued. It is not clear what compensation intended the US of its European allies for attacks in Yemen.

The reactions

The Democrats, who struggle to gain ground against Trump, took advantage of the report of The Atlantic to try to paint an image of an imprudent administration. “The Secretary of Defense, who was in that chain, must be the least qualified person who has never directed the Pentagon in the history of the United States,” said the leader of the minority of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

And Democratic Senator for Delaware, Chris Coans, declared that there should be a supervision and accountability hearing immediately. “Each and every one of the government officials in this message chain have committed a crime, even accidentally,” he tweeted. “We cannot trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep the Americans safe.”

Trump was informed about the controversy article on Monday afternoon. The president expressed his contempt for the journalist, Goldberg, who was behind another article during the first mandate of the Republican, in which it was claimed that Trump referred to the fallen Americans at war as “fools” and “losers.” So far, the tycoon supports his team and has no plans to fire Waltz. He insists that he knew anything about the chat in Signal.

The Secretary of Defense, Hegesh, lashed out at Goldberg after landing in Hawaii tonight, calling him a journalist “misleading and very discredited” and denying that someone was “sending text messages with war plans.”

To force someone to resign it could be necessary for the president to admit that he was wrong to choose some key national security officials that many of his critics – even some Republican senators – warned that they were not up to work.