The Signal Story is Far From a Closed Case

By U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner

In Wall Street Journal

Given the dizzying pace of events in Washington, Americans can be forgiven for wondering which issues are worth paying attention to, and which are like one of national security adviser Mike Waltz’s disappearing Signal messages—here today, gone in a second. More than a week after news broke that President Trump’s top advisers were using an unclassified messaging app to discuss details of a planned military strike, there’s still much we don’t know about this security breach.

Any rank-and-file enlisted military or intelligence officer who so carelessly jeopardized our national security would lose his security clearance and his job. A nearly identical incident earlier this year involving a Homeland Security employee who accidentally included a journalist on an email chain with even less sensitive information resulted in that employee immediately losing her security clearance and being placed on leave.

It’s disturbing that, despite the potential ramifications of this breach, no one has been held accountable for mishandling classified information—not Mr. Waltz, who initiated the group chat and who, we learned this week, has a habit of discussing sensitive government matters using unsecure channels; not Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who gambled with the airmen’s lives by sharing the details of weapons, targets and timing nearly three hours before military operations were scheduled to begin; and not Tulsi Gabbard, who as Director of National Intelligence is tasked with keeping our nation’s secrets safe from adversaries but appears to have lied about the incident when questioned before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The White House is obviously eager to move on from this episode, but we still have no idea if the officials in that Signal chat were using personal or government-issued phones. In her testimony Ms. Gabbard declined to answer this question, citing the alleged existence of a White House review into the matter. We also don’t know if those phones have been checked for malware. Were America’s adversaries tracking these conversations? It’s possible. The participants’ phone numbers are readily identifiable on the dark web. And we know from both intelligence and unsealed indictments that hostile powers from China to Iran have repeatedly and successfully targeted senior U.S. officials’ devices.

This lack of transparency and accountability is deeply damaging to the intelligence-sharing relationships upon which our security depends. Israel—one of our best sources of intelligence in the Middle East—is reportedly furious that the breach exposed a source on the ground in Yemen. There is nothing that requires Israel, or any of our allies, to share this kind of intelligence with the U.S. These relationships depend on mutual trust. Other countries may now be reluctant to share information knowing that the Trump administration can’t be relied on to protect sensitive sources and methods.

Our men and women in uniform make great personal sacrifices to serve the nation. They must also be wondering if they can trust this administration to have their backs. Over the weekend I held town halls in Hampton Roads, Va., home to the USS Harry S. Truman, the aircraft carrier that participated in the strikes against the Houthis. I got an earful from friends and family members of the sailors and pilots deployed on the Truman, incensed that Mr. Hegseth and his colleagues cavalierly put their loved ones’ lives at risk. Why, they asked me, is he allowed to keep his job when their spouses, siblings and children would have been court-martialed for doing anything remotely similar?

They have a right to be angry and a right to some answers. We owe them nothing less.