Liars and Fools: Security Breach Signals Something Worse than a Clown Show

Last week's disclosure that the Trump administration officials responsible for keeping us safe from our enemies resemble reckless frat boys may have been shocking, but it wasn't surprising. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was already regarded by most members of Congress as profoundly unsuited for that position. This was because of his obvious lack of credentials for the job, and because of evidence that he had engaged in serious sexual misconduct and had an apparent penchant for getting inebriated, all of which suggested a certain -- what shall we say? -- incompatibility with directing the U.S. military.

But it wasn't necessarily on anyone's Bingo card that he would pre-publish the operational details of a planned attack against Houthi rebels on a commercially available communications platform that his own department has assessed is vulnerable to monitoring by hostile actors. Here is what the Pentagon has warned about the use of Signal, which Hegseth used to disseminate the precise time, method and target of the attacks hours before they took place: "The use of Signal by common targets of surveillance and espionage activity has made the application a high value target to intercept sensitive information."

Were those to whom Hegseth used Signal to communicate our attack plans "common targets of surveillance"?

Nah, not really. Just the vice president, the secretary of state, the director of national intelligence, the national security adviser, the head of the CIA and a half dozen other obvious targets of surveillance.

But Hegseth didn't just use Signal to communicate top-secret intelligence to those who were prime targets of monitoring and electronic penetration. No, he published it to ... a journalist, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. Seems our National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, had inadvertently included Goldberg in the little chat group sharing our war plans, and none of the country's Team of Geniuses noticed.

The information being tossed around on a vulnerable platform, said Trump's own former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Mick Mulroy, "is highly classified and protected. Disclosure would compromise the operation and put lives at risk. Next to nuclear and covert operations, this information is the most protected." Trump, however, was ready with his customary BS. It was all, he said, "fake news." His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, with the deceitful brio that her master demands, blamed Team Trump's mind-blowingly reckless mishandling of top-secret information on ... Goldberg.

You read that right. "The entire story," the dismissible Leavitt posted, "was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin."

Uh-huh.

Ever the bro, confident -- with good reason -- that he can lie his way out of anything, Hegseth picked up the theme, blaming his own stupidity on Goldberg. And, of course, there were the lies, always the lies. "Nobody was texting war plans," he actually said.

But here is what Hegseth texted on a vulnerable platform, ignoring his own Department's warnings:

"1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)

"1345: 'Trigger Based' F-18 1st strike window starts ... also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s) ...

"1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP) ...

"1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts -- also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."

Kind of sounds like a war plan.

Testifying before the Senate this week, a panel of those who were on the moronic group chat mindlessly chatting with Jeffrey Goldberg vied to be the most vapid witness not only of the day but of all time. Tulsi Gabbard won. Asked by Sen. Mark Warner whether she would confirm that she appeared on the texts as "TG," our director of national intelligence refused to confirm it. Warner did not ask her whether, in that event, it stood for "Too Glib."

And here's a shocker.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a fierce competition to show The Boss that she will do whatever he tells her to do faster than anyone else among all the other Cabinet members selected precisely for their lackeydom, announced even as her colleagues were still actively dissembling that the Justice Department had no interest in investigating the matter.

Not even curious.

These are the same people who have spent nine years thundering about how Hillary Clinton should be "locked up" for using a private server to email about yoga lessons and wedding plans, and who defended Trump when he was indicted for violating the Espionage Act for pilfering military secrets.

What a surprise.

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Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast.