# War Plans Signal Screwup- The Atlantic is publishing the full messages **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 26, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136 "2025-03-26T12:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/41 "2025-03-26T16:15:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > For sure, China, Russia, Iran, and others are taking every opportunity to load spyware on these unsecured and unsurveilled personal devices, but with people like Hegseth and Gabbard in their positions, does it really matter? Yeah, they hardly need to pilfer information when Tulsi Gabbard is their woman on the inside. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/42 "2025-03-26T16:17:45Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > They weren’t that competent. The Plumbers got caught breaking into the DNC headquarters because they were shitty burglers, and then Nixon apparently forgot that he shouldn’t talk about cover-ups in the Oval Office where there were recording devices he had installed. Drug dealers are smarter than this. They were shitty burglars but you have to understand that the Watergate break-in was only one part of a much larger campaign. The Nixon administration got away with breaking a lot of other laws. So I guess the lesson here is if you commit enough crimes, eventually you will have an unlucky break and one of them will be discovered. But Nixon didn’t forget the tape recorders were there. They were part of his planning. He often said things in meetings that were designed to protect him in possible future investigations. People who were meeting with Nixon and didn’t know the recorders were there would often be confused by some of the things he said - like saying they must obey the law and fully comply with an investigation but then go on to outline how they would do the opposite. Nixon’s assumption was that he could keep control of the tapes and choose which ones got released if needed. So his plan was that if things went bad and an investigation was closing in, he could release the tape where he ordered people to obey the law and fully comply with investigators and use this as evidence that he was innocent. The other tape where he contradicted this would be buried. This fell apart when Nixon was ordered to turn over all of the tapes to investigators. He made a half-assed attempt to erase the “bad” tapes (the missing eighteen and a half minutes) but there just too many tapes of him acting illegally for that to work. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/43 "2025-03-26T16:18:55Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Secretary of Defense Hegseth should resign They should all be fired and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but we all know “should” means nothing to these people. None of this “should” have happened in the first place, and yet they all went along with it. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/44 "2025-03-26T16:20:42Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🦫 🤬 🇨🇦 👉 🏴‍☠️ 👉 🇱🇷 How is Liberia involved? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/45 "2025-03-26T16:21:56Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Liberia I’m predicting their usual level of competence. I got tired of scrolling through the list and decided to go for the funny instead ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/46 "2025-03-26T16:22:44Z")
It goes back further than the first Trump administration. During the 2016 campaign, Trump made a major issue out of accusing Hillary Clinton of illegally using non-government communications systems. So Trump and the officials in his administration were undeniably fully aware that what they were doing was illegal when they went on to use non-government communications systems themselves. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/47 "2025-03-26T16:25:58Z")
@Horatius is confused. This is actually the Canadian emoji code for sending in our Angry Canuck War Beavers to cause Death and Destruction. Beavers can’t count, so the number of stars don’t matter; they’'re just trained to respond to the stripes when they see them. Besides, they’ll cross over North American borders easily. How do you expect _beavers_ to make it to Liberia? That’s absurd. We launch the Geese for that. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/48 "2025-03-26T16:27:54Z")
I didn’t read through this thread yet, but I ran across this last night: [![](https://i.imgur.com/QnxMpLo.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/QnxMpLo.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/eH1Cmyu.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/eH1Cmyu.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/XUi28Dl.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/XUi28Dl.png) [![](https://i.imgur.com/m51DCK1.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/m51DCK1.png) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/49 "2025-03-26T16:32:16Z")
I was certain that I read that there another principal with the initials ‘JG’ that probably was the person that should have been invited, but I cannot find that information now. Also, shouldn’t the Commander-in-Chief have been included on this little tidbit of a military operation? Or doesn’t he need-to-know? ---
**Author:** ![betonbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@betonbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betonbill)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/50 "2025-03-26T16:32:22Z")
Shades of Michael Broderick and War Games! Michael B was smarter–he actually solved the problem he started. If all the foreign adversaries didn’t know about Signal before, they certainly do now! And there apparently were at least several other chains running in the system to boot. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/51 "2025-03-26T16:33:24Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Also, prone to misinterpretation; official communications , and especially those about military operations should be unambiguous and as free of interpretation as possible for reasons that should be obvious when involving aircraft, ordnance, and the lives of American servicepeople as well as noncombatants on the ground. Reminds me of the [Canadian](https://mcmillan.ca/insights/publications/thumbs-up-or-signed-deal-court-affirms-emoji-as-valid-acceptance-of-agreement/) ruling (Saskatchewan court of appeals) that a thumbs up emoji can be considered equivalent to a signed contract. This sort of thing an be dangerously misunderstood! ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/52 "2025-03-26T16:35:02Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Beavers can’t count, so the number of stars don’t matter; they’'re just trained to respond to the stripes when they see them. My God. Have you considered the risk? If those beavers ever get near an old timey beach… It’d be a massacre. [![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71nxpovgeSL._AC_UY1000_.jpg) ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71nxpovgeSL._AC_UY1000_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/53 "2025-03-26T16:35:50Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Also, shouldn’t the Commander-in-Chief have been included on this little tidbit of a military operation? Or doesn’t he need-to-know? First time around, Trump wouldn’t even read his daily briefs unless they were dumbed down with lots of pictures, and his own name used prominently on every page. Do you really think he’d tolerate being part of an actual discussion of work? Screw that, he’s got important golfing to do! ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/54 "2025-03-26T16:35:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Everybody on the call, and Goldberg, are all guilty of crimes under the Espionage Act. The problem is everybody on the call controls the corrupt prosecution of such guilt. Goldberg does not. And **all** minus one will receive presidential pardon signed with a mocking smile by the dork on national television. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/55 "2025-03-26T16:37:49Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > My God. Have you considered the risk? Don’t ask [how we trained them](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=43a7b294d0c04888&rlz=1C1GCEA_enCA1053CA1053&q=candy+striper+costume&udm=2&fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWpA-dk4wpBWOGsoR7DG5zJBsxayPSIAqObp_AgjkUGqengxVrJ7hrmYmz7X2OZp_NI91rBH-UXYxTUYaXid-i80m9vjAr4-k3_aLB11FKNayYlgjRllLPBdHkhC58UyUfxBcn6wTNLBoXocRQY1yuAe612tDputnoCMoFMu9b6ug0O3rWcJq4nAdjkRIGkC4vtndepEg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig9JqIl6iMAxX1L1kFHXn8IYwQtKgLegQIExAB&biw=1851&bih=737&dpr=1.15). Our healthcare system may never recover. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/56 "2025-03-26T16:38:30Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I was certain that I read that there another principal with the initials ‘JG’ that probably was the person that should have been invited, but I cannot find that information now. OK, I found this on a Thread, FWIW: > Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was added as “JG” to the Signal group chat. The “JG” Mike Waltz meant to add most likely was Jamieson Greer, US Trade Rep (cabinet) who often attends National Security Council meetings. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/57 "2025-03-26T16:39:05Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > That’s leaving aside the problem with using Signal for anything sensitive, rather than actual secure channels, and with the messages set to self-delete in a week, which is probably also illegal, violating some records act. This is why we need a Deep State. America should have a cadre of trained professionals who know how to do nefarious deeds outside of the public eye, not a bunch of rank amateurs who don’t know how to cover their tracks. /s ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/58 "2025-03-26T16:40:08Z")
Just saw this: [![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm6UhbaWQAAxPNP?format=jpg&name=900x900) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gm6UhbaWQAAxPNP?format=jpg&name=900x900) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/59 "2025-03-26T16:45:58Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Michael Waltz texting: > > > > 👊 🇺🇲 🔥 > > > > Kill 'em good! Yay USA!! > > As someone who is emoji-illiterate, is that what it says? Translation, please? I’m no emoji expert, but while individual emojis or even groups of emojis can take on specific meanings within certain groups, I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re anything like a codified language, like Egyptian Heiroglyphs. The closest I would guess is that he meant to convey “America is strong, and kills its enemies in fiery explosions”. Which is why, as Stranger said, use of emojis are: > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > …prone to misinterpretation; official communications , and especially those about military operations should be unambiguous and as free of interpretation as possible for reasons that should be obvious when involving aircraft, ordnance, and the lives of American servicepeople as well as noncombatants on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136/60 "2025-03-26T17:25:23Z")
Now that is Really funny: [https://i.postimg.cc/HnPKxK3F/Screenshot-20250326-142212.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/HnPKxK3F/Screenshot-20250326-142212.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-plans-signal-screwup-the-atlantic-is-publishing-the-full-messages/1016136.md?page=4)