Government officials have started facing consequences for a group chat containing classified information.
From March 11 to March 15, government officials such as Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance were part of a group chat containing classified information about the U.S. bombing of the Houthi group in Yemen. The group chat is a big deal due to the fact that classified was shared.
On May 1, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz did face consequences as he got fired from his position. However, he was announced soon after as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
The group chat was leaked on March 24 after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the magazine The Atlantic, was accidentally added to the group by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
The group chat is a big deal due to the fact that classified information was shared. Government officials are supposed to talk about classified information like that in a SCIF, which is a room where it is safe to discuss and store sensitive information, as security is extremely tight and only those with a security clearance can access.
However, since they discussed it on their phones, if the information being shared had fallen into the wrong hands, Americans could have been harmed or killed.
“I think there is a time and place for group chats,” says Dream Team history teacher Mr Kevin Scott. “U.S. military stuff should not be in one.”
Mrs. Annie Thrasher, civics teacher on the Dolphins team, says that it is a really interesting situation.
“On one hand, we always want our government officials in constant communication with each other, especially when it concerns military operations,” she explains. “On the other hand, it is really concerning a leak occurred.”
Brady Haymond, 13, on the Majestics Team, has similar thoughts.
“I believe what happened is truly unfortunate,” Brady says. “We are fortunate that no one gained access to the group chat.”
“A lesson to all of us to be careful who’s on your group chat,” says Mr. Scott.
Around a month after the first chat was leaked, it was discovered that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was discovered to have a second group chat that contained his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
Seeing that this could become a common occurrence throughout the next few years, and more things like this could happen, Yug Mehta, 13, on the Dream Team, said, “I don’t know. All we can do is hope [this won’t continue].”
Ms. Thrasher hopes steps are being taken to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen again.
“It compromises the safety of our troops,” she explains.
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, in a heated exchange with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was also involved in the Signal thread, ended up shouting at Mr. Ratcliffe.
“This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies,” Mr. Bennet ranted, according to a C-SPAN video released on March 25. “And the personnel who work for them is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment.”
Mr. Bennet cut Mr. Ratcliffe’s response off by pointing at him and saying, “You need to do better. You need to do better.”
Brady thinks the Republicans in the government are to blame for this.
“They should face legal consequences because it could have been much worse,” explains Brady.
“I guess the consequences should be them getting removed from their positions and some jail time,” says Yug.
Mr. Scott thinks there should be a review of protocols.
“This deals with U.S. military lives,” he says.
