“I don’t recall.”
Tulsi Gabbard, DNI, and John Ratcliffe, CIA director, don’t recall. They also can’t say or don’t know. Sure, Signal is encrypted and has been in use by the CIA. How? That’s worth looking into, but judging by an earlier Pentagon warning against the use of that end-to-end encrypted app (we all have access to) it is safe to assume the DOD uses it as well. At least until the warning was issued.
Obviously, whatever the parameters for using Signal in Defense and Intelligence business were (are?) they don’t involve discussing matters not approved for public knowledge. That’s the point here, that transcends the classification of the matters discussed. As senator Mark Kelly pointed out, during the Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing this morning, “controlled unclassified information” is not admitted on unsecured platforms. Both Gabbard and Ratcliffe were unaware of this.
For a moment they didn’t even seem to understand what controlled unclassified information is, let alone the protocols for its discussion over communication platforms. They also seemed confused about the level of classification of the matters discussed in the so called “Houthi Signal chat group”. They were presented information regarding a projected military operation over an unsecured platform and their reaction to it was that it must be unclassified.
Think about this for a minute. A projected military operation is being discussed over unsecured comms and, because the Secretary of Defense and a National Security advisor are on it, this information is assumed as not classified. Now, pretending we are ignorant and consider any plans to attack a foreign country, in particular when such attack is imminent, as unclassified information, our common sense would at least realize it is not approved for disclosure over unsecured lines.
The reason for it is obvious to any six year old, but apparently not to the heads of the DNI or the CIA, never mind the Secretary of Defense. As I write these words, the declassification by magical thinking justification is already making its way to the news, but that doesn’t include controlled unclassified information. Although I will not be surprised if the ability to remove control from such material can also happen by magically thinking about it.
All these incredibly stupid excuses and arguments defending what is possibly the worst intelligence self inflicted breach in our history only reveal the level of incompetence that exists at the highest levels of our government. Plus their relentless impulse to lie. Gabbard and Ratcliffe may be incompetent but they surely are capable of remembering details regarding a high level conversation about an attack on another country 10 days ago.
To believe otherwise and assume that they actually “don’t recall” such details only means they are totally inept to perform their jobs at the top of the intelligence community. Even the uniformed officers in that hearing couldn’t bring themselves to answer simple direct questions for fear of appearing critical of the event at hand. They did look very uncomfortable, though. At least they didn’t use “I don’t recall” in their illusive answers.
I know what to expect from all this. Nothing. I don’t expect anyone to be fired; I don’t expect Signal to stop being used like this; I don’t expect any meaningful results from a hypothetical FBI investigation I doubt will even happen, except maybe in a paper covered in random words of exoneration, maybe followed by another hearing with similar results. The Secretary of Defense appears to be drunk half the time and that’s acceptable. Why should anything happen now?
These hearings will not make this government do anything. The courts are barely functioning; do you really think Congress will do something about this that will force the Executive to “see the error of their ways”? Not going to happen. But hearings like this serve a very important purpose. They show the country what is going on and who these people really are. The government will do nothing. Congress will do nothing. But the country might. The country should.
