The scandal about the unprotected chat of high -ranking government members about sensitive military operations shows that the United States is depriving a superpower of the amateur. This is highly dangerous – also for Europe.
Bastian Brauns reports from Washington
The case is so absurd that he mocks every description: Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the US magazine “Atlantic”, was able to read operational details about planned and finally executed military strikes against the Huthi rebels in Yemen in a strictly secret chat. All of this in the commercial messenger app signal, which would be too insecure even for every intern in the security apparatus.
But high -ranking American security officers and cabinet members – including Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and the secret service coordinator Tulsi Gabbard – cheerfully chatted in the unsecured chat, weapon systems and operating sequences. In one tone as if they were exchanging a football game via the pizza counts.
The carelessness is more than just a faux pas. It reveals a systemic problem of this second Trump government: the members of the government obviously provide speed and convenience about care and security. They almost celebrate their amateurous approach as a virtue. The representatives of the world’s largest military power expose themselves as a laundry group of complacency.
In the United States, as in every other country, elementary security protocols apply to meetings of this kind, especially with highly sensitive military operations. They were simply ignored. And Donald Trump? He didn’t even seem to have known about it when reporter asked him to speak to it after the scandal in Washington became known in front of the camera. A spokesman for the National Security Council had long since confirmed parts of the “Atlantic” reporting.
The critical questions are obvious: Why do American top officials communicate via an unauthorized messenger service instead of the intended, canceled paths? How can it also be that an outsider receives access to secret information unnoticed? And how do you also justify communication channels in which messages are automatically deleted, which is in direct contradiction to regulations, according to which official, i.e. also internal government communication must be recorded?
Those responsible must bear the consequences – especially the national security advisor Mike Waltz. Anyone who invites a journalist to such a chat, if only accidentally, has disqualified themselves for one of the most sensitive offices in the US government. But actually everyone who was in this chat group reveals that they are not ripe to take responsibility for their country. Everyone should have been aware that this is not the right channel for such conversations.
Particularly explosive for the allies, albeit no longer surprising: the published internal chat courses reveal a deep disregard for the European countries. Vice President JD Vance mocks to “save Europe again” with the operation to liberate the sea dealerships against the Huthi rebels. Defense Minister Hegseth seconded with contempt for the “pathetic” free -board driving of the Europeans.
This attitude is more than just diplomatic rudeness. It is a declaration of war on multilateral cooperation and a declaration of bankruptcy for the international responsibility of the United States. It also fails to recognize that a danger to European trade routes also affects the USA and the entire global economy. Vance ‘demand to demand a consideration for the free shooting of trade routes from the Europeans is therefore more than an arrogant cheek.
In view of this scandal, you have to expect that the US government may maintain many other chat groups, in which safety-related topics may also be covered by Germany and other countries. Since it has now also been known that the Signal app cannot be installed on government telephones. America’s top chat round is obviously exchanging secret information about private telephones. And they are easy to chop. How indescribably negligent.
After this scandalous unveiling, there can only be a consequence for Europe – because it is almost more serious than the public humiliation of Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj in the Oval Office: The military and secret service sovereignty must be set up quickly. Because the United States may be the strongest military power in the world. But if it is ruled by irresponsible amateurs, this means a security risk for the allies that is hard to underestimate.
Those who undermine their own role as a reliable security guarantee for decades so negligently play out the acquired trust. The transatlantic partnership needs eye level – and it has probably never been so little since Donald Trump and his team of compliant dilettants were in power. Fortunately for the allies: thanks to the carelessness, everyone now knows how fragile international security is when incompetence and complacency direct.
