U.S. Military Intelligence Breach Raises National Security Concerns

TaiwanPlus News

U.S. Democrats are calling for an investigation into a security oversight by top Republican officials that allowed a journalist access to confidential military plans on an unsecured app.

Transcript

00:00Deny.

00:01Nobody was texting war plans.

00:05Plead ignorance.

00:06I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?

00:09Evaluate.

00:10We have taken a step back.

00:13A spectrum of responses from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration

00:17after reports that a journalist was given access to a group chat

00:21that the nation's highest national security officials were using to plan military action.

00:27Writing in The Atlantic, Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg

00:32said he was mistakenly added into a group on the messaging app Signal earlier in the month.

00:37Among its members, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth,

00:42the latter apparently texting details of an attack in Yemen two hours before bombs began exploding.

00:49Part of Trump's ongoing campaign against Houthi rebels

00:53over the group's attacks against cargo ships in the Red Sea.

00:58But despite the evidence, including screenshots from Goldberg,

01:02Hegseth has been quick to try and discredit his claims.

01:06You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist

01:12who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.

01:17The oversight has ignited a storm of criticism from across the political spectrum,

01:22with top Democrats demanding a full investigation into the blunder

01:26and calling out the officials involved for gross incompetence.

01:30Though I will note that the Secretary of Defense who was on that chain

01:37has got to be the most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon in American history.

01:46Signal, the commercial messaging app hosting the group chat,

01:50has not been approved by the U.S. government for sharing sensitive information.

01:55If found to have taken place outside of secure channels,

01:58the conversation could violate the Espionage Act.

02:01Despite the controversy, the White House has been celebrating the attacks on the Houthis

02:06as highly successful and effective,

02:09paying little mind to what Democrats are calling the most stunning breach of military intelligence.

02:15John Su and Reese Ayres for Taiwan Plus.

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