Dear Pete - Please Include Me In Your Next Signal Chat

by Craig Wiesner - March 24, 2025

Early on in my military career I decided to work my way towards a college degree, which was quite the decision given that it was being kicked out of Hunter College that prompted me to enlist. My college advisor had said “academics might not really be for you.” I’d assumed he was right since I had always been a “C” student at best. I was surprised then, that from Basic Training through getting my degree from the University of San Francisco, I aced every test and got stellar scores on papers and research projects. Yeah, I’m bragging a little, because I hope that anyone else out there who has ever been told that their skills were “less than” might want to seek other opinions and opportunities. 

While sitting in a community college course on base one evening I began to get irritated by the teacher, a commanding officer of another unit on my base, who, in his spare time, taught world history. He kept getting interrupted by his Walkie Talkie, comms from his unit, about something that was going to happen in the coming days. While he and his subordinates tried to be cagey in what they were talking about, it soon became clear that they were getting ready for a major exercise, and their logistical challenges were getting the best of them. When the class was over I asked the officer if I could stay behind for a moment and talk to him privately. He said yes. Once the other students had left, I took the Walkie Talkie that was sitting on his desk in my hands and turned it off. I told him that I knew his unit was about to launch a major exercise, and that if he would like to continue the conversation in a secure facility, I would tell him all the details. Red faced, he looked up at me and said “Skivvy Nine, right?” That was the name of my unit, part of the Air Force’s Electronic Security Command. I said “Sir, you can’t use that thing for conversations like that, no matter how much you try to hide what you’re talking about.” He thanked me. The exercise was cancelled. 

Using secure means of communications is critical to our national security, as is doing so in a secure facility, especially when the communications relate to potentially classified information. That’s why, way back in the day and long after I left the military, I was saddened to learn that then Secretary of State Clinton had used a private email server, instead of a secure State Department server, for much of her communications while she served in that role. I was volunteering with her presidential campaign and as more and more details of that poor decision came to light, and the FBI investigation seesawed back and forth, my enthusiasm for her candidacy waned a bit, but I remained steadfast in believing that she would be a much better president than her opponent. When the Access Hollywood tapes came out, which should have doomed her opponent’s campaign, MAGA enthusiasts cried out in unison “But her emails!” Indeed. 

Well, speaking of emails and Walkie Talkies, did you hear the one about the text messages that went between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and other top national security officials as they recently planned to bomb Yemen on March 15th, 2025? They conducted days of conversations about the strike on Signal, a phone app, and somehow, the chain included an editor from The Atlantic. Oopsie? WOW! Now, if we switch over to FOX News I'm sure their pundits will be telling viewers that all is OK because Signal is an encrypted app. No one has reported, thus far, that any foreign power has been able to break that encryption. Whew! Wow! Thank goodness! Of course, that’s what our adversaries believed during WWII, despite our having broken their codes. But even with Signal being encrypted, unknowingly looping in a journalist kinda ruins any sense of security, doesn’t it? Too bad they didn’t have someone from Skivvy Nine to point out the error of their ways. Oh wait, they do! 

This would be funny if it was funny. It isn’t. This is a debacle of the highest order. Where were these people when they were keying in those texts? Were they in secure facilities? Were they in the Green Room at FOX News? Were they at a pub or restaurant? Signal may be encrypted but, FOX NEWS ALERT: we can read your fingers as you type and we can read the screen on your device from the zillions of cameras that are everywhere. Yeesh. 

I got an A in that history class. What grade would you give the current Republican administration? Perhaps national security might not really be for them. Let's discuss their grade at craigwiesner.bsky.social