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Former officials who served in national security positions under Joe Biden's administration also told the Guardian that the situation is dangerous and that Hegseth has jeopardized the secrets of the Defense Department and the White House...
Repeated revelations of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats have raised concerns that Pete Hegseth's behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and the Defense Secretary's inner circle a prime spying target.
Allies, already worried by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to look with concern at the US’s commitment to intelligence sharing. There are fears that the leaks in Hegseth’s orbit, coupled with his inability to manage these domestic crises, expose the entire basis of US global warfare – especially if a geopolitical and foreign crisis is on his desk.
"What if a foreign entity, whether it's a state or non-state actor, is able to intercept the movements of troops or department personnel, or something like that, capture them and hold them as a ransom," said Christopher Goldsmith, an Iraq War veteran and CEO of Task Force Butler. "That kind of thing could happen very easily," he said.
Earlier this week, news broke that Hegseth had personally created a Signal group chat involving his wife, brother, and about a dozen other people, to whom he then sent highly sensitive messages about active strikes in Yemen. Earlier, he discussed similar intelligence in a group chat on the same app involving senior Trump administration officials, including a journalist.
Former officials who served in national security positions under Joe Biden's administration also told the Guardian that the situation is dangerous and that Hegseth has compromised Defense Department and White House secrets. One person said that Russian and Chinese spies were clearly directly targeting sensitive people in Hegseth's inner circle.
Goldsmith, an intelligence expert, said there were many scenarios where a foreign government could gain access to those conversations without having to directly compromise Hegseth's equipment.
"Pete Hegseth is texting his wife and his wife is posting on Instagram, clicking on a link and getting malware on her phone," Goldsmith said, describing a hypothetical scenario. He goes on to say "then the Chinese, Iranians or Russians are just like, 'Oh, shit, we have Mrs. Hegseth, we're not even targeting Pete.'"
For Goldsmith, Hegseth has undermined the overall strength of the US military in his several-month reign.
"These kinds of leaks, the prediction of troop movements, the prediction of attacks - they could put our adversaries in a position to intercept pilots, convoys or ships, which could create an international incident. That could mean a nuclear, biological or chemical crisis of some kind," he said.
Within the geopolitical competition between the US, Russia and China, assigning teams of skilled intelligence agents who track, hack and spy on your top officials' every move is an open secret.
Protecting those officials and the sanctity of their communications from these intrusions is a well-trodden and technical mission that requires some of America's most secretive agencies.
But if the advice, equipment, and applications provided to these officials are ignored, foreign adversaries have an opening.
Hegseth's adherence to operational security, "opsec" for short among national security professionals, referring to the general craft of preventing the leakage of sensitive information, has given foreign adversaries a leg up on how to compromise him.
Joe Plenzler, who was a public affairs officer in the Iraq war under former Defense Secretary General James Mattis, a senior figure in the first Trump administration, said he and his boss understood the importance of respecting the confidentiality of communications in the field.
"If any officer or enlisted member had passed classified information on an unsafe or unauthorized [device], we would have immediately removed them from their position, investigated them, most likely prosecuted them," he said, adding that "for an officer, that would be career murder."
Plenzler said Mattis told his subordinates, "When you're leading Marines, you have to lead by example. The quickest thing that will break the morale of any unit is a leader who says, 'Do as I say, not as I do.'"
Plenzler added that Hegseth's behavior was "inexcusable," especially when he revealed some of the types of resources and methods, gleaned from intelligence gathering, that could put people's lives at risk.
"What resources are burned when secrets are revealed? People are risking their lives to help the United States, to protect our citizens and our allies, and when these things go sideways, some people run for their lives," he said.
On Monday, during the Easter egg hunt at the White House, Hegseth was defiant with the press in attendance.
“The signal-talk controversy?” he told reporters. “That’s what the media does – they get anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then try to cut and burn people and ruin their reputations.”
Trump agreed, supporting Hegseth.
"He's doing a great job," Trump said, dismissively, at the same event. / Adapted from The Guardian/
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