It's a loaded word used for propaganda purposes: it implies something that didn't happen. The only "scrambling" the administration did was respond to the questions the media was peppering them with.
Keep believing that if you helps you sleep. If these "anonymous" ex officials are so certain of their information, why did they refuse to go on record with it? There are more than five million ex officials who've had secret or top secret clearances and could easily confirm such a statement. As for your absurd claim that they're all so afraid of Trump that they won't speak out, you forget that many of these same officials and ex-officials criticize Trump on a daily basis.
There was nothing to downplay. But let's contrast this to an incident that was downplayed horrifically, both by the administration and their media allies: the actual deaths of 13 US service members in Afghanistan, because instead of evacuating from their secure military base at Bagram, President Autopen forced them to travel cross country to fly out of a civilian airfield in Kabul, surrounded by ten million screaming Taliban.
I was giving you the benefit of the doubt -- are you saying you actually believe something so absurd, that every detail of every military operation is kept on a "top secret computers on a separate network" -- inaccessible to many of the people who actually have to carry out the operations?
Experts disagree with your foolish beliefs.
"While the administration has confirmed the authenticity of the Signal chat, officials are denying that any classified information was shared. Still, they have not directly denied the allegations that specific operational details were sent in the chat.
Military.com asked Hegeseth's office whether he declassified the information he put onto the chat before sharing it but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Experts who spoke with Military.com on Tuesday said it's highly unlikely that operational details at the level Goldberg described would not be classified. And, they added, sharing the information outside of classified systems is incredibly irresponsible.
"It's an extraordinary departure from how we deal with classified information," Eric Carpenter, a law professor at the Florida International University College of Law and a former Army judge advocate, told Military.com in a phone interview Tuesday."
"Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired
Air Force brigadier general, similarly said the officials on the Signal chat "were jeopardizing the aviators who were dropping these bombs."
"There's the old phrase from World War II: Loose lips sink ships," Bacon told reporters Tuesday. "And so you're doing it in an unclassified way where Russia and China could know about it two hours before the attack? It's not right."
Experts who spoke with Military.com said it's highly unlikely that operational details at the level Goldberg described would not be classified.
www.military.com
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The Times reported Sunday that the second chat had the same warplane launch times that the first chat included. Multiple former and current officials have said sharing those operational details before a strike would have certainly been classified and their release could have put pilots in danger.
Hegseth’s use of Signal and the sharing of such plans are under
investigation by the Defense Department's acting inspector general. It came at the request of the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee — Republican Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi and ranking Democratic member Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Reed urged the Pentagon watchdog late Sunday to probe the reported second Signal chat as well, saying that Hegseth “must immediately explain why he reportedly texted classified information that could endanger American servicemembers’ lives."
"I have grave concerns about Secretary Hegseth’s ability to maintain the trust and confidence of U.S. servicemembers and the Commander-in-Chief," he added."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administr
www.military.com
foreignpolicy.com
