I think most people on either side of the aisle agree the flub on the Signal app, where editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a group chat detailing attack plans against Yemen, was bad.
In my opinion, Goldberg’s inclusion in the group chat was not even the biggest issue. After all, he seemed to be the only person who followed proper protocol in the immediate aftermath of learning he was privy to actual communications that held information required to find and kill the aircraft conducting the mission.
The biggest issue was such information was being communicated using their phones. It does not matter how secure Signal is (probably not secure enough, but I will leave that question to cybersecurity experts) – if the sender or receiver is compromised, so is the information they send or receive.
I am not here to rub that in or double down. If everyone just followed Michael Waltz’s example and took responsibility while promising to do better – a refreshing amount of accountability from a Trump administration official – I would be mostly fine with that. I would still be uncomfortable, but sadly, leaking sensitive information or taking classified information where it does not belong seems to be the norm from politicians these days.
I do wish we held all politicians to higher standards. I mentioned in a previous piece I found the Mar-a-Lago fiasco to be highly prosecutable; however, the lack of real consequences, even from other incidents involving Joe Biden or Mike Pence, still bothered me.
The issue is that at this point, D.C. has developed a culture of lax standards around classified and sensitive information. While regular career employees working at three-letter agencies, the Department of Defense, or various contractors develop heart attacks upon realizing they accidentally carried their phone into a SCIF, politicians and public figures seem to flaunt even the most basic rules.
The fact these transgressions are so public is an open invitation to foreign intelligence services. Combined with the current state of technology, it’s no exaggeration to say there has perhaps been no better time to spy on America, as Noah Shachtman wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times.
However, national security is also threatened by other factors. Reports indicate National Security Council staff and National Security Agency brass were dismissed due to their potential disloyalty, at the recommendation of conspiracy theorist and activist Laura Loomer.
The damage caused by these moves is difficult to measure, especially if the replacements are not career employees or experts in their field. I know it’s not convenient or satisfying, but the general public will rarely, if ever, recognize the fruits of the Intelligence Community’s efforts, much less understand the damage done if such appointments and hirings become political instead of technical.
This much is clear, however: the IC’s and NSC’s efforts must be grounded in reality. The field is called “intelligence” for a reason. All possibilities must be considered in any scenario, but once there is convincing evidence that contradicts some idea, the IC and NSC must be quick to abandon it. Replacing staff with the goal of increasing loyalty to Trump is not something that serves the goal of finding the truth and using it to our advantage.
In an age where disinformation and propaganda often prove a more potent weapon than their kinetic counterparts, this is an alarming trend. Although the Cold War demonstrated some of America’s worst tendencies, it did produce one important lesson: America and our allies should play the long game, because we risk global war if we deal with crises only when they become imminent and directly relevant in our lives. We need our best up front to play that game better than our adversaries.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
