Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies
As more develops about the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats, there are growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage target.
Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. There are fears that the mounting firings and leak inquiries in Hegseth’s orbit, along with his inability to manage these internal crises, exposes the entire global US war footing – especially, if a geopolitical and external crisis comes across his desk.
“[What if] a foreign entity, whether it be a state actor or non-state actor, is able to intercept the movements of troops or department personnel, or something like that, capture them and hold them to ransom,” said Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq war veteran and CEO at Task Force Butler. “That kind of thing could very easily happen.”
Espionage? They are giving it away lol
Come on down to Crazy Pete’s intel emporium! We’re practically giving this intel away!
Crazy Pete’s 😂
Seriously, these people are publicly making mistakes that my grandma would make. If there’s a best practice for safety and security, they actively don’t do it.
Well, only if Trump hasn’t already Xeroxed the classified papers already, himself, to sell for personal profit.
Don’t worry, the Russians are still busy processing what they downloaded after fElon left the downloads open in DOGE-infested agencies.
Oh I’ve seen this one! This is where the crowd starts chanting “LOCK HER UP, LOCK HER UP” right?
But what about her emails? /S
The amount of unqualified idiots being handed out security passes like halloween candy is unfathomable
Signal leak Pete is a pretty good nickname
The guy is a moron. He’s clearly demonstrated that he has no concept of information security on multiple occasions. For more than a year, it has been known the Signal has a weakness that Russia and others have been exploiting.
It’s really pretty simple. The hackers send a phishing email or text to the target with a specially crafted QR code. If the user is dumb enough to scan the code, and we all know Hegseth is dumb enough, then the hacker’s device will from then on be linked with the target users device and get a copy of every message sent or received. There is no way in hell that Russia, China, and anyone else who wants to isn’t already getting all his Signal messages.
That’s not an exploit, that is a known and published and advertised feature of signal. That’s like when Grandma says her Facebook was hacked because she gave her username and password to MichaelSoft tech support. This is the level of profound fucking stupid that our Republican government has.
I never said it was an exploit. I said it was a weakness that was being exploited.
Why bother? I’m sure for the right price it’s for sale. Might require a trip to the Mar-a-Lago bathroom though.
Earlier in the week, news broke that Hegseth had personally created a Signal group chat including his wife, brother and about a dozen other people who he then texted highly sensitive information on active strikes in Yemen… One person said Russian and Chinese spies were no doubt directly targeting susceptible people in Hegseth’s inner circle.
Even if, as I am sure he very wrongly does, Hegseth believes himself morally beyond reproach and too smart to be tricked, does he honestly think every single person in his circle and in their circles is as well? JFC.
is ‘espionage’ a new whisky distillery? Then he is def a big target.
That headline is a masterwork of obfuscation, softening an obvious fact by hiding it behind “fears grow”.
If anyone learned anything from nepotism ever, it would stop happening but here we are.
Edit: cronyism instead of nepotism as I was rudely half corrected. Words elude me due to 75% of my blood being thc
If you think nepotism has anything to do with this…
I’d love to hear what you think nepotism is.
Hegseth getting the position in the first place
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Have fun with that
Target, he’s the eye of the bull.
I assumed it’s all part of the plan. He’s not going to face any consequences and the info is available to whoever wants it.
Even if they do get rid of him, won’t he be a vulnerability for years to come? Because of the position he was given, certainly not earned, he is privy to not only the details of current military strikes but also secret goals for future military projects. Right? I assume most people who have these jobs have a modicum of self-respect and patriotic duty. But couldn’t he just leak that important info to anyone even after he is fired?
