Not 'clean on OPSEC' — The Trump team's Signal snafu is something military leaders have long feared
OPSEC, or operational security, is a military priority. Accidentally sharing combat action plans over an unsecured app is what they want to avoid.
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- Trump officials mistakenly shared attack plans with a reporter on an unsecured app, breaching rules.
- Pentagon and military leaders emphasize operational security training to protect troops.
- OPSEC is the management and control of military information to mitigate an adversary's knowledge.
Trump administration officials accidentally shared planning for combat action with a reporter, and it's exactly the type of failure that military leaders have long feared — one that comes from sloppy OPSEC and smartphones.
Using Signal, a popular secure messaging app that is encrypted though not impenetrable, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and other top officials discussed key details related to pending US airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, including weather, assets involved, and timing.
What the group failed to recognize is that one chat member was actually the top editor of The Atlantic magazine.
"We are currently clean on OPSEC," Hegseth wrote in the group chat just below an operational timeline that identified the types of planes involved and strike start times.
"We are currently clean on OPSEC" is one for the history books https://t.co/76nczKt4d1— Christopher Ingraham
