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We are covering other stories and we go to the US and, well, all the president's incompetent men
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We now have the director of the CIA assuring us that the defence secretary was not drunk when he invited journalists into that signal group
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It's like a WhatsApp group to discuss bombing Yemen. I mean, this is extraordinary stuff
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Defence Secretary Pete Hesketh told reporters yesterday. There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information
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You know who sees war plans? I see them every single day
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And of course, he's been defended currently, defense of the defense secretary from President Trump
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There was no harm done because the attack was unbelievably successful that night
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and it has been unbelievably successful every single night for the last four or five nights
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Well, I'm not a military bloke, but I know someone who is. Major General Jonathan Shaw was former assistant chief of the defence staff at the Ministry of Defence
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and is now consultant for Mast Security and joins me now. Good to have you on board, sir
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So I'm going to read some of these signal messages and then ask for your interpretation if I could as to whether it is sensitive information or whether it is not
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Pete Hexas, team update. Time now 11 ET Whether is capitals favourable Just Capital confirmed W which is with CENTCOM We are go for mission launch 12 F capital launch brackets first strike package
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13.45, quotes, trigger-based F-18 first strike window starts, brackets, target terrorist is at his known location, so caps should be on time, close brackets
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14.10, more F-18's capital words, launch. And so it goes on. 14, 15, strike drones on target and on and on
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I said earlier, I'm not a military bloke. It looks sensitive to me. What's the reality, Major General? Morning
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Good morning, indeed. No, you're absolutely right. Of course it's sensitive. And indeed, if I can just say it and stuff
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I don't think that... I think that all this quibble about whether the information itself
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is sensitive or not is a distraction from the fundamental fact that they should not have been discussing any of this stuff
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on a non-government, non-secure means. As Senator Kelly pointed out to the intelligence chiefs yesterday, DOD rules forbid talking about this sort of stuff on private, on civilian communication means
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That's why you have government secure communication, so you can have secure conversations with people
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This is a flagrant breach of protocol And it really it terrible I going to ask you a question of course to which there is no answer So this is what we have found out about major general imagine what we don know that might have been going on in the u well there are all sorts of questions that come out of that i mean i
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think uh um yeah i mean to go into that really interesting what comes out about when you read
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all the emails is the uncertainty about the purpose of the attack why was this attack launched in the
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first place there's no clear explanation was it to beat israel to the punch because otherwise if
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israel struck first then trump would lose his status as the as the big boy on the block was it
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in order to extort money off the europeans i mean you get the impression and you look for the
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rationale that this is a really sort of unthought through operation launched for reasons that are
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absolutely unclear lastly as someone who's been brave enough to serve and reach a senior position
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you'll know the severity of what's going on here. People's lives are being put on the line
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People's lives are being taken in Yemen. And yet, can I put it to you, all the president's men are discussing it
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as if it's an American football or baseball game. The tone doesn't feel right to me, Major General
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I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, I think it's a disgrace. And I think the tone of the response to Mr Goldberg
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the editor of The Atlantic, does America a great disservice Because I think you know if you a schoolmaster and you heard school kids treating each other the way that uh the way that the the administration has treated goldberg you clip them around the ear and say oh that not grown behavior you know behave uh and you
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know i've served alongside many many great americans and i can't i just feel embarrassed
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on their behalf that these guys are doing united states an enormous disservice i think they're
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damaging the soft power of America globally. And they're making everyone looking at America thinking
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what an awful place, what a ghastly bunch of people. You know, Mary Taylor thingy, what's her name
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I can't remember her name now. You got me a little bit caught there, but go ahead. The response to the Sky journalist
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Oh, yes, yes, sorry, yes, yes. Marjorie Taylor, just awful. Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think you're speaking
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Marty Taylor Green is indeed the lady I'm talking about. It was like Scrabble there, Major
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It was like you gave me a Scrabble game there. You sort of threw all the letters on the board and worked it out
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Sorry, my mistake. Not at all. But, yes, so I think the whole thing does the United States
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an enormous disservice because they're great people in the United States and I don't think that these people are representing them
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in any way that does them credit at all. Always good to speak to you. Thanks for your time. Sir Major-General Jonathan Shaw was Assistant Chief of Defence Staff
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at the MOD and is now consultant for MAST, as in telephone MAST, MAST Security
