More from the OpEd ...
... You know how IT admins are always warning employees about best practices for security? They're always mandating which apps to use, which to avoid and which devices can safely connect to corporate networks.
You know why they do that? To keep idiot workers from going rogue and endangering corporate data and secrets.
Case in point: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who's under fire this week for -- and it's almost too stupid to be true, but it is -- setting up a high-level chat using Signal for top National Security officials to discuss a military attack. And then somehow, some way, a journalist -- Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the liberal publication The Atlantic -- was invited to join the secretaries of State and Treasury, the director of the CIA, and the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, for the discussion.
Now, I like serious spy shows. Give me Gary Oldman as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Solider Spy to keep me on the edge of my seat. But I can't watch those now, because the real world has gotten so stupid I can no longer suspend my disbelief.
I still have trouble believing what Hegseth and company did. So does Goldberg: "I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal, [the popular, secure messaging service] about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president."
Believe it. Goldberg was added to the Houthi PC small group. The virtual group's purpose was to talk about planning a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Goldberg wasn't asked if he wanted to be involved; he was just added. If there was a group administrator, he or she paid no attention whatsoever to what they were doing. ...
[emphasis mine]
