The episode has left some senior White House officials questioning the need for a traditional National Security Council and content to leave Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Trump on Thursday named as Waltz’s interim replacement, in a caretaker role for quite some time, a decision that will likely diminish an institution that has had a powerful role in shaping the foreign policy of modern presidencies. And it sidelines a key figure in the White House with a long track record of favoring military intervention, officials said.
Archiv: Signalgate: The Atlantic reports on 25-03-2025 that reporter Jeffrey Goldberg had been magically invited to a high-ranking chatgroup of Trump officials texting war plans about airstrikes on Yemen
Waltz was photographed using Signal during Trump‘s Cabinet meeting a day before his removal
In the photo, taken by a Reuters photographer, the names of people Waltz had been texting included Vice President JD Vance, Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Steve Witkoff, Trump‘s Middle East envoy.
Mike Waltz, other National Security Council staffers out in latest Trump purge following Signal chat leak
Fox News confirmed Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were ousted Thursday. Sources said additional staffers removed from the office will likely be announced, and President Donald Trump is expected to speak publicly about the matter. (…)
Following confirmation of Waltz‘s ouster, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News, „The National Security Advisor Waltz is out. He’s the first. He certainly won’t be the last.“
Pete Hegseth’s Top Advisor Framed for Pentagon ”Leaks” (It Was Really About Iran)
(April 22, 2025)
Dan Caldwell was one of the strongest voices at the Pentagon opposing war with Iran. Then he was falsely accused of leaking classified documents and fired.
Fired Pete Hegseth Adviser Tells Tucker Carlson He Was Framed: ‘A Lot of Evidence That There Is Not a Real Investigation’
(April 22, 2025)
“You’re being accused of leaking classified information, but the people accusing you would have no way of knowing whether you did that or not because they haven’t polygraphed you or taken your devices, your private devices,” Carlson declared.
Caldwell suggested that the true source of the leaks were opponents of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary Hegseth’s foreign policy within the Pentagon, who had been pushing for war with Iran.
Something BIG is happening at Trump‘s Pentagon and it‘s not good for peace | Redacted News
(April 22, 2025)
The Israel lobby is working overtime right now trying to destroy the anti-war team that Trump has assembled. We‘ve learned that former Israeli Mossad agents are working overtime on both social media and behind the scenes trying to discredit Pete Hegseth. Neo Con Mike Waltz has now hired a dual citizen and former IDF official to work under him. And three anti-war DoD officials were just fired.
Pentagon chief Hegseth shared sensitive Yemen war plans in second Signal chat, source says
(April 21, 2025)
The latest revelation comes days after Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth‘s leading advisers, was escorted from the Pentagon after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense. (…)
Following Caldwell‘s departure, less-senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth‘s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave and fired on Friday.
2 Defense Department officials, including senior adviser to Pete Hegseth, put on leave amid leak investigation
(April 16, 2025)
Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday, according to an official. Darin Selnick, the Pentagon‘s deputy chief of staff, was also suspended as part of the same probe per two Defense Department officials.
(…)
A source familiar says Caldwell is accused of sharing classified documents with reporters.
“There remains little clarity on what right the President has to repeatedly strike a foreign country without the approval of Congress” .. If another nation bombed a U.S. city & killed civilians, our Congress would treat that as an act of war — because it is.
The Other Side of Signalgate
(April 8, 2025)
American Presidents have struck Yemen before, often pointing to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a joint resolution passed after 9/11, which gave the President the power to attack terrorist targets in foreign countries without a formal “declaration of war.” But Trump hasn’t invoked the A.U.M.F.; instead, he echoed aides who say that it is within the President’s constitutional power to launch attacks for defensive purposes. His predecessors, too, seemed to operate with that license: most recently, the Biden Administration continued to strike Houthi targets, without Congressional approval, even after taking the Houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Trump administration fires director of National Security Agency
The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.
The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration.
Trump confirms National Security Council firings as Waltz‘s Signal chat woes snowball
Waltz, who previously served as a Florida congressman and as a decorated combat Green Beret, has come under fire from Democrats and critics since March, when the Atlantic magazine‘s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a firsthand account of getting added to a Signal group chat with top national security leaders, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, while they discussed strikes against Yemen terrorists. Trump and his administration have repeatedly defended the national security leader amid criticisms over the chat leak.
Signal is an encrypted messaging app that operates similarly to texting or making phone calls, but with additional security measures that help ensure communications are kept private to those included in the correspondence.
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal
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. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared. (…)
At 2 p.m., Waltz responded: “Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
Vance responded a minute later: “Excellent.” Thirty-five minutes after that, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, “A good start,” which Waltz followed with a text containing a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji.
Gesetz abgeschmettert: Französische Regierung wollte verschlüsselte private Kommunikation mitlesen
(March 21, 2025)
Das Gesetz gegen den Drogenhandel enthielt einen Artikel, der von verschlüsselten Diensten wie Signal, WhatsApp, Protonmail oder Matrix forderte, dass sie Ermittlungsbehörden Zugang zu den Nachrichten ihrer Nutzer:innen geben müssen. (…)
Laut der Digitalorganisation La Quadrature Du Net hatten die Befürworter:innen des Gesetzes versucht, die Gefahr herunterzuspielen, indem sie nicht von Hintertüren sprachen. Bei einer möglichen Überwachung der verschlüsselten Kommunikation sollten sogenannte Phantomteilnehmer unsichtbar an der Kommunikation teilnehmen. Das sei allerdings nichts anderes als eine Hintertür, sagt die Digitalorganisation und beschädige das Vertraulichkeitsversprechen der verschlüsselten Kommunikation.
US-Sicherheitspanne zu Jemen-Angriff: „Das soll wohl ein Scherz sein“
Ein Journalist des US-Magazins The Atlantic wurde in eine Chatgruppe eingeladen. In der diskutierten 18 hochrangige Vertreter der US-Regierung über die Angriffe auf die Huthi-Miliz im Jemen, die nur wenige Stunden darauf ausgeführt wurden. Eine Panne, die vor allem bei den Demokraten für massive Empörung sorgt, in den Reihen der Republikaner wird abgewiegelt.
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.
I went back to the Signal channel. At 1:48, “Michael Waltz” had provided the group an update. Again, I won’t quote from this text, except to note that he described the operation as an “amazing job.” A few minutes later, “John Ratcliffe” wrote, “A good start.” Not long after, Waltz responded with three emoji: a fist, an American flag, and fire.