Atlantic Gets Specific
They say the cover-up is worse than the crime. I’m not sure that adage can hold true when offense includes sharing war plans on a group chat that included a journalist and a member of the administration who was in Moscow. But the cover-up is definitely more predictable than the crime. When DOD’s Pete Hegseth, DNI’s Tulsi Gabbard, CIA’s John Radcliffe, and OMFG’s Donald Trump all denied that the instantly infamous Signal chat detailed war plans or included classified information, it came as little surprise. But as the original story’s author Jeffrey Goldberg explains: “These statements presented us with a dilemma. In The Atlantic’s initial story about the Signal chat—the “Houthi PC small group,” as it was named by Waltz—we withheld specific information related to weapons and to the timing of attacks that we found in certain texts. As a general rule, we do not publish information about military operations if that information could possibly jeopardize the lives of U.S. personnel. That is why we chose to characterize the nature of the information being shared, not specific details about the attacks. The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): So, about that Signal chat.
+ The exposing of the predictable lies issued by the Trump team will likely be met with more attacks on Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. But here’s the truth. Goldberg is a rock solid journalist, who, at a time when so many individuals are cowering in fear or ceding the ethical high ground, is standing firm—both in terms of this particular story and in terms of The Atlantic’s consistently prescient, excellent, and accurate coverage of this era. So journalists (along with readers who care about the truth) should band together behind Goldberg. Don’t just call out the individuals and institutions that let you down, celebrate and support those that hold you up. Consider that Jeffrey Goldberg is the journalist who informed us that Trump described Americans who died in war as “suckers and losers,” who told us that James Mattis denounced Trump as a threat to the constitution, who predicted that the Capitol Riot was a prologue, who reminded us that Trump longed for military leaders who would be more like Hitler’s generals, and who warned us that a second Trump term would be much worse (OK, he understated that one). Maybe if the average American voter watched a little less Fox News and read a little more Jeffrey Goldberg, we wouldn’t be in this f-cking mess in the first place.
+ “If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.” Noah Shachtman in the NYT (Gift Article): Foreign Spies to Team Trump: 👊🇺🇸🔥
+ Our enemies are excited by the leak. Our allies are sickened by it. Disdain for Europe in US Signal chat horrifies EU.
