The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | March 29th, 2025: Signal Gate Fallout & Iran’s Hidden Hand in Yemen
29 Mar 2025
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: • We begin with the fallout from “Signal Gate,” the serious communications blunder that exposed sensitive U.S. military chatter during early strikes against the Houthis. Retired Army Colonel John Mills, former Director of Cybersecurity Policy at the Pentagon, joins us to break it all down. • Then: U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen are escalating—but who’s really calling the shots? Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the Washington Office for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, says the answer lies in Tehran. He joins us to explain how Iran’s regime is orchestrating the fight. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get ourselves briefed. We're starting today's show with the latest on Signalgate. You knew it had to have a catchy name. That's the stunning blunder that exposed sensitive national security chatter during the early strikes against the Houthis.
Retired Army Colonel John Mills, former director of cybersecurity policy at the Pentagon, will join us to break that all down. Later in the show, U.S. strikes on the Houthis are ramping up. But how much of this fight is actually being run out of Tehran?
Now, Ali Reza Jafrizadeh, Deputy Director of the Washington Office for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, can't put that on a bumper sticker. Well, he says Iran's regime is pulling the strings. He joins us with the evidence. But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight. The Trump administration is facing serious questions after a major communications blunder now known as Signalgate.
During the early stages of U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, senior national security officials, and there were a lot of them, including the vice president and secretary of defense, were coordinating in a private Signal group chat. Now, if you don't know what Signal is, it's a commercial app. It's considered to be somewhat secure and discreet, certainly more so than an open line.
Unfortunately, during the course of this chat, someone mistakenly added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. Okay, enter a journalist. Sensitive details about the strikes, including targets and timing, were shared before the mistake was caught.
The incident, as you might imagine, has sparked concerns about operational security, what we would call OPSEC, and discipline at the highest levels. Joining us now is retired Army Colonel John Mills, former director of cybersecurity policy at the Department of Defense. perfect guy to talk to about Signalgate. Now, you can check him out on Substack at Colonel Rhett John.
You can also grab his excellent book, and that's called War Against the Deep State. If you don't already have it on your shelf, go out and get it, all right? If there's a bookstore near you. I don't know if we still have bookstores. John, welcome to the show, man. Hey, Mike. Always an honor to be on this show with you. Thank you so much. That's very kind of you to say.
I would like you, if you wouldn't mind, to write that down and send it as a note to my producers. Tell me what you think about Signalgate.
Well, I don't attach the word gate to it. I was one of the key people who had to deal with Hillary Clinton. And it wasn't just Hillary. It was a pervasive, intentional crime.
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