Absolutely inexcusable...potentially criminal. I'm not an expert on information classification but have been around it enough to know that providing times, delivery platforms and targets sure seems like it would or should be classified. You can't put this genie back in the bottle...especially after the media gets ahold of it. Fox reporters are losing their minds over spinning this into something trivial. The rest of the media are publicizing every ounce of blood out of it. The administration is passing it off as an "oops." People who are convinced they're not going to be held accountable are "taking full responsibility." And one indicates: "I know exactly what I'm doing..." Really? It doesn't appear that way.
In a previous life & job where I did have access to classified materials, I once counted 5 distinct security barriers I had to get through to open one email. It was time consuming and cumbersome...but probably pretty secure (except for Chinese hacking). And if nothing else, each time I got into that system through all those steps, it reinforced the importance placed by DoD on the information I was about to access.
Had it been a low-ranking service member who made this error, there would undoubtedly be consequences, potential discipline and/or more. At the very least, this whole incident should be considered a dereliction of duty and investigated along those lines. Plenty of blame to go around on this but the finger should be pointed at the person that didn't use a secure system for transmission of critical pre-operational information and who didn't double-check who was on the receiving end of the text. Actions create consequences....and no amount of administrative spin or pro-administrative news coverage can minimize the potential damage done by this.
I liked your putting your finger on Congress. I think changing the GAO from General Accounting Office to Government Accountability Office was a huge mistake. Congress is the Government Accountability Office. There would be no need for DOGE if Congress had been doing its job.
Yep yep dat
interesting catch, Cliffie. As a former GAO auditor, I never focused on that but I am convinced they ARE a great deal of the problem here.
Absolutely inexcusable...potentially criminal. I'm not an expert on information classification but have been around it enough to know that providing times, delivery platforms and targets sure seems like it would or should be classified. You can't put this genie back in the bottle...especially after the media gets ahold of it. Fox reporters are losing their minds over spinning this into something trivial. The rest of the media are publicizing every ounce of blood out of it. The administration is passing it off as an "oops." People who are convinced they're not going to be held accountable are "taking full responsibility." And one indicates: "I know exactly what I'm doing..." Really? It doesn't appear that way.
In a previous life & job where I did have access to classified materials, I once counted 5 distinct security barriers I had to get through to open one email. It was time consuming and cumbersome...but probably pretty secure (except for Chinese hacking). And if nothing else, each time I got into that system through all those steps, it reinforced the importance placed by DoD on the information I was about to access.
Had it been a low-ranking service member who made this error, there would undoubtedly be consequences, potential discipline and/or more. At the very least, this whole incident should be considered a dereliction of duty and investigated along those lines. Plenty of blame to go around on this but the finger should be pointed at the person that didn't use a secure system for transmission of critical pre-operational information and who didn't double-check who was on the receiving end of the text. Actions create consequences....and no amount of administrative spin or pro-administrative news coverage can minimize the potential damage done by this.
I liked your putting your finger on Congress. I think changing the GAO from General Accounting Office to Government Accountability Office was a huge mistake. Congress is the Government Accountability Office. There would be no need for DOGE if Congress had been doing its job.
Regards — Cliff