Written by Michael Thervil
Video by PBS News Hour
If there were any words used to describe the supposed intel leak between the United States intelligence officials those words would be “OP-SEC blown”. Those are the exact words being used by intelligence and security professionals around the world. But the question we have a VEDA Communications is: “Was the operational security between U.S. intelligence officials actually blown?” The correct answer is both yes and no; see the so-called plans that America had when it came to how they were doing to deal with Ansuallah via bombing Yemen was already known and demonstrated. How successful those plans were going to be is currently up for debate. However, the other side of the coin is that operational security between the U.S. intelligence officials involved were most definitely compromised. The top heads of U.S. intelligence op-sec were blown not by China or Russia but by themselves.
Currently, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe who is the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency are both holding the position that there “was no classified information leaked in the chat” while testifying today in front of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. The journalist that was “accidentally” added to the group chat between U.S. intelligence officials on “Signal” was Editor-in-Chief of the Atlantic Jeff Goldberg. While Democrats within the Senate Intelligence Committee are taking the position that this incident regarding the safekeeping of America’s National Security was both “careless”, a “huge mistake”, "sloppy”, “carless and incompetent”. Could they be right in their assessment?
For some people that are following this situation the answer is yes, however for others the answer is no – for the average American on the streets; they could give a fuck less about American operational security as they are worried about if they are going to be laid off or not and how they’re going to be able to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. There is one truth in the matter that needs to be addressed and a question as well. The truth is, something like this could happen to anybody, anywhere, and at any time. Think about how many times you accidentally sent someone the wrong text message? But the question that should be asked is why do any of the U.S. intelligence officials have Jeff Goldberg on speed dial in any of their phones in the first place?
What is there to talk about in terms of national security and a journalist. Questions such as: “is the CIA feeding information to selected members of the Press?” For many people the answer is an easy “yes” given the history of the CIA in terms of feeding information, misinformation, and disinformation to the Press, on a routine basis. During today's Senate Intelligence Committee grilling, CIA Director Tulsi Gabbard stated that: “There is a difference between "inadvertent release" and "malicious leaks" of information”. Whatever you believe, a “leak” is just that a “leak”. But there is another hidden variable that many people seem to be overlooking. And that's when it comes to the intelligence community, mistakes are rarely often made.
Could it be that the adding of the Editor-in-Chief of the Atlantic Jeff Goldberg to the messaging was intentional? Could it be that maybe the 18 officials within the Signal group chat wanted someone from the Press to leak information? Again, it's plausible. According to Jeff Goldberg, he stated: "I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans”. Currently, there are 11 names out of 18 that were released to the public regarding which officials were in the Signal group chat. Those 11 names are as follows to the date of this article:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Vice President JD Vance
National Security Advisor Michael Waltz
CIA Director John Ratcliffe
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
(Possibly) Secretary of State Marco Rubio
(Possibly) Stephen Miller
Joe Kent, Trump's nominee to lead the National Counterterrorism Center
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
Although the plans of America to bomb Yemen possibly on the behalf of Israel are no secret, the real secret is that U.S. intelligence officials have no idea who the main actors of Ansarullah actually are; because Ansarullah unlike the Taliban, ISIS, ISIS-K, JNIM, Al-Shabaad, and Al-Qaeda and many other designated terror groups out there are not a group of people but a movement. As a movement is an idea that is often contagious and can consist of anyone or be surrounded around anything.
So, is this an American intelligence security leak? Yes and no. “Yes” because it's a conversation that was had between the higher ups in the American intelligence community. But “no” in the official aspect, because there were no intelligence secrets divulged that we the public can see as of yet. Maybe there would have been intelligence secrets divulged at a later date in time if the conversation was allowed to persist – maybe the public found out too soon before it could’ve happened.
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