(Washington) The former national security adviser from Donald Trump, Mike Waltz, defended the use of encrypted messaging on Tuesday to discuss military plans during a hearing in the Senate for the position of United States ambassador to the United Nations.
Mike Waltz, a former elected Republican, had been dismissed in early May from his post as a national security advisor, weakened by the revelations of a magazine journalist The Atlantic which had been added by megarde to a discussion group about imminent American strikes against the Houthis rebels of Yemen, on signal messaging.
The Trump government was included there, including the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice-President JD Vance, as well as other senior American officials, such as intelligence and CIA patterns. The real -time course of American attacks had been shared there.
This important security flaw had caused an uproar and shaken the American political class, even if the Trump administration had tried to minimize the case.
“We have followed the recommendations and even the requirement to use encrypted messaging, but there was no sharing of classified information,” said Waltz, questioned by several Democratic Senators member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Senator Cory Booker has notably deplored the “absence of leadership” and the “lies” of the manager.
Appointed UN United States Ambassador to the UN, a position which must obtain approval from the US Senate, Mr. Waltz pleaded for a major reform of the organization which he described as “plethoric”.
“The United Nations is plethoric and now have more than 80 agencies whose missions overlap and waste resources,” he said during the hearing.
“If I am confirmed in my functions, I will insist on transparency, like the UN reform plan of the Secretary General (Antonio Guterres), which provides for a 20 % reduction in the number of employees,” he said.
He also promised to fight against anti -Semitism presumed to the UN and asked for the dismantling of UNRWA, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees.
“From 2015 to 2023, the General Assembly adopted 154 resolutions against Israel, against 71 against all other nations combined,” he said.
“UNRWA in Gaza, whose staff are involved in the massacre of October 7 and whose schools teach anti -Semitic hatred, must be dismantled,” said Waltz, referring to the accusations of Israel according to which certain members of UNRWA staff would have participated in the attack on Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
He also undertook to work in favor of a reform of peacekeeping at the UN, noting that these “missions cost billions of dollars”, and promised to use his gallery to counter the influence of China.
