The group’s cat scandal Yemen must be investigated in depth – Orange County Register

A month after the White House praised Whether the Trump administration is “the most transparent administration in history”, they are faced with a very real test of their commitment to this assertion.

THE inclusion of The Atlantic Jeffery Goldberg to a group cat of senior officials discussing highly secret plans of American attacks against Yemen is a serious violation of national security which is to be investigated.

Indeed, given the danger that this flight could have caused – notably in danger of American soldiers – there is no excuse to avoid a complete, impartial and transparent investigation.

Clearly, the investigation must examine both why Mr. Goldberg was invited to the cat, as well as why an extremely sensitive discussion took place on the signal application rather than on a secure channel.

To be clear, it is more than a simple period of judgment, and it is not the president of the “witch hunt” either that Trump described it as Wednesday.

It was a profound distribution of fundamental national and legal security protocols that occurred due to extreme negligence.

Unfortunately, in particular for the national security advisor Michael Waltz, negligence is apparently a model.

As CBS News has it reportedThe story of Venmo de Waltz was established on “public”, showing years of payments towards and coming from “journalists, government officials and members of the congress”. As the report indicates, this information should in no case be public, as it could be operated by foreign intelligence services.

This negligence should not be repeated and requires consequences for those involved.

Likewise, there are legitimate questions about the reasons why Goldberg did not alert those responsible from the start. This should also be examined, but Goldberg is not a government official responsible for protecting national security.

It should be noted that the administration said on several occasions that the group cat – which included vice -president JD Vance, Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulli Gabbard, and others – have not discussed technically “classified”.

However, the degree of classification is less important than what is said about the reckless approach to these national security officials, especially since we now know that our Israel ally provided targeting information.

If someone other than Mr. Goldberg had been invited to the cat, who knows where this information would have finished or what is the consequences.

In addition, given that this group cat took place on signal instead of official and secure channels, there was a very real risk that China, Russia or Iran – the main donors of the Houthis – could have been informed of American military plans in advance.

To this end, while each member of the group cat must be the subject of an investigation, the words of the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth deserve special attention. It now seems that the Senate armed services committee is looking for exactly this, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the full transcription Released Wednesday, Hegseth Personally – and Cavalière – sent specific details concerning the exact time of American war planes, when the attacks begin, the weapons used, as well as the information on the targets.

As a rule, the military kept the type of information closely before the attacks that HegSeth discussed openly. This prevents leaks which could endanger American troops or compromise the methods of intelligence and finally ensure the success of the mission.

Mick Mulroy, deputy deputy assistant secretary during Trump’s first term, told the Wall Street Journal The fact that Intel Hegseth has sent – on an unsecured application – is “very classified and protected”.

He continued: “Besides nuclear and secret operations, this information is the most protected.”

Worse, a cat member, Steve Witkoff, was in Moscow when receiving these messages. There is no doubt that the Kremlin intelligence services were monitoring its devices.

In the same vein, that the most senior defense and intelligence officials of our country had this signal conversation – a encrypted messaging application – rather than a secure government channel is simply inexcusable.

As Jake Williams, a former national security agency pirate, said CNBC, the personal devices of these individuals are constantly in the reticle of the pirates of our opponents.

Although the need for an investigation is obvious when Goldberg pointed out for the first time what happened, the administration’s response – and in particular that of Hegseth – has only underlined its necessity.

Since the news broke out, Hegseth refused to accept or recognize that he made a mistake, preferring deviation or attack Mr. Goldberg.

Monday, Hegseth critical Goldberg, saying that he is “a so-called deceptive and highly discredited journalist who has made a profession many times.”

Oddly, Hegseth’s criticism with regard to Goldberg came After The White House and the people involved had already confirmed that the history of Goldberg was correct.

Admittedly, even before his confirmation, there were serious questions about Mr. Hegseth’s ability for the Secretary of Defense, but his recent behavior did not rekindle these concerns.

Tuesday, asked about the group cat, HegSeth replied“I know exactly what I do”, but it would be quite understandable that the American people feel less confident in the capacities of our Ministry of Defense after that.

What makes an investigation even more important is how the Republicans in general, and Trump – as well as many individuals in the group group – in particular, reacted when the Democrats were accused of being nonchalant with classified information.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump directed the Republicans against the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after being accused of having used a private server to store official emails.

When former President Joe Biden was accused of having poorly managed the documents by storing them in his garage, Hegseth – then Fox News – called For the continuation of the people involved, saying that without responsibility, the United States has clearly “two levels of justice”.

And only two weeks before openly discuss secret information and military plans on an unsecured channel, Gabbard engaged “Continue aggressively” those who disclose intelligence.

Even the Trump allies on the hill, like the representative Don Bacon, are criticism The administration’s refusal to recognize that errors have been made, which suggests that it undermines public confidence and that Trump must “be up to it and preserve credibility”.

If the Trump administration wants to prove to the American people that he can trust them and ensure the security of the Americans, there is no alternative to a complete survey on how it happened.

Finally, as part of such an investigation, a serious consideration should be given to the question of whether Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard and others are adapted to the roles which have been given to them.

Douglas Schoen is a longtime democratic political consultant.

Originally published: March 30, 2025 at 6:27 p.m.