Summary

Lawmakers from both parties expressed outrage after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief revealed he was accidentally included in a Trump administration Signal chat discussing Yemen airstrikes.

Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) called for investigations and firings, labeling it a serious security breach.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) criticized the use of non-secure systems, warning that adversaries like Russia and China could exploit it.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) condemned the administration’s mishandling of classified information, saying it endangers national security.

  • very_well_lost@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    As long as we’re putting on our tinfoil hats, it’s also possible that this was an intentional action taken against The Atlantic (or against Jeffrey Goldberg in particular). Trump’s admin has plenty of reasons to want to silence that publication, and might’ve hoped that by “accidentally” giving Goldberg access, they could entrap him into committing a crime (mishandling of classified material, espionage, etc).

    With a little cooperation from the AG’s office, presto! You’ve got one of your biggest critics in jail, and sent a message to other would-be whistleblowers.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 days ago

      Reminds me of this from the Bush II years:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy

      The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate) involved six documents containing false allegations about President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. Dan Rather presented four of these documents as authentic in a 60 Minutes II broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate them. Several typewriter and typography experts soon concluded that they were forgeries. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett provided the documents to CBS, but he claims to have burned the originals after faxing them copies.

      Anyway, interesting and worthwhile thing to consider.