Editorial: Security problem

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Mar 27, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Washington is aflutter with the latest Trump “gotcha,” this one involving the revelation that White House officials mistakenly included a journalist on a group chat about potential American airstrikes against rebels in Yemen. It’s not a good look for the administration, but it also doesn’t appear to be the massive scandal that Democrats crave.

On Monday, The Atlantic reported that several top administration officials over the course of days discussed war-planning information on Signal, a commercial messaging app. They accidentally included the editor of the magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, on the chain. The latter is inexcusable, sloppy and a breach of security.

But like many early reports on developing news events, additional information shed more light on the situation. It’s not at all clear that the information discussed was “highly classified.” A full transcript remains unavailable. The Wall Street Journal reported that the discussion revealed high-ranking officials — apparently including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, intelligence chiefs and Vice President JD Vance — exchanging views on the timing of airstrikes against the Houthis, a terror group that has gummed up shipping in the Red Sea as a show of support for Hamas.

In addition, let’s remember that Signal is an encrypted system and has been approved for use dating back to the Biden administration.

That said, discussions about sensitive military plans are normally held on secure government systems to prevent precisely what happened in this case. Regardless of what was or wasn’t said during the exchanges, even defenders of the White House will admit that the fact the discussions ended up in the lap of a reporter represents a mistake that mustn’t be repeated.

“I suspect the Armed Services Committee may want to have some folks testify and have some of those questions answered,” Senate Majority Leader Jon Thune, R-S.D., said during a news conference Tuesday. “What we want to do is make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, acknowledged the issue. “We dodged a bullet,” he told The New York Times. “I hope we understand what happened and never do it again.” He recommended that the Intelligence Committee should take a look at the breach “in a bipartisan way.”

This sounds eminently reasonable. Congressional oversight shouldn’t be ignored simply because the same party controls the legislative and executive branches. In the meantime, the administration must review its policies about such communications and implement safeguards to prevent such mistakes in the future.