A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more on this meeting of military leaders in Virginia next week, we've called up Sabrina Singh. She served as the deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense under Secretary Lloyd Austin. Singh is now a partner with the D.C.-based communications firm, Seven Letter, and also a CNN contributor. So, Sabrina, we just heard our Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman, say he's never heard of a meeting at this scale. So what did you think of this meeting when you first heard about it?
SABRINA SINGH: I think he's exactly right. I've never heard of a meeting at this scale happened so quickly. I think it's important to note that four-star general and flag officers, either who leave the services or the combatant commands, come into Washington, D.C., once or twice a year to meet with the secretary and the president. And these officers, I mean, they are stationed in places like the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, places where - are pretty hot, for lack of a better word. There's a lot of activity going on. And so to pull these general and flag officers into Washington, D.C., and then they also travel with their aides. You're looking at probably upwards of a thousand people about to descend into Virginia for a meeting that no one knows what it's about. So it's very concerning.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. What's most concerning? Is it the size of the meeting or how quickly this is being organized?
SINGH: If I could say, it's a little bit of both. Our military is great because we are very structured and follow order. And so this injects disorder and chaos into a very rigid system. And that's not something that our military responds to well. So it's the size, and then it's also just the unprecedented nature of doing this so quickly without any type of agenda, really. I think it's really rattling a lot of people that I've spoken to at the Pentagon because they like to prepare for these meetings, and yet they don't know what they should be preparing for.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And you mentioned how some of these people are coming from areas in the world that are very, very hot. So, I mean, what does the Pentagon do to kind of mitigate that in case, you know, someone decides to take advantage?
SINGH: Well, you know, if I'm China right now and I'm seeing some of this reporting that's coming out, I'm thinking, probably, this is an excellent time to test my power a bit. I think that's what's so concerning here is it sends an incredibly shaky message to our adversaries around the world and also our allies. I think you raise an interesting point. It's - you know, you're pulling these combatant commanders and their deputy combatant commanders out of their regions. Who is in charge? If something were to happen, who is in charge in their theaters? And so this sort of speaks to, I think, how out of depth someone like Secretary Hegseth is for calling a meeting like this, when meetings like this, if you want to call up your general and flag officers all around the world, there is a very easy way to do it. There are video conferences that are secure, that can be done from any place in the world, and the secretary has all of these at his disposal from his office.
MARTÍNEZ: And this follows Secretary Hegseth's demand that Pentagon reporters sign a pledge not to report any information that hasn't been released by the government. Sabrina, you worked with the press in your time at the Pentagon. What were your thoughts on that?
SINGH: Well, you know, it was incredibly disheartening, and I think it really flies in the face of a free press. That's not going to make for good reporting, and I can't imagine that any reporter or outlet would sign it because it's because of the deep reporting and deep sourcing that you had some of the stories exposed to the public when it came to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction to today, where you have the Department of Defense taking action against, you know, so called cartel boats leaving from Venezuela. That wasn't something that the administration had disclosed. That came from the press reporting it. So it's going to be incredibly damaging, I think, in the long term, and, frankly, a real detriment for Pete Hegseth 'cause I do think it's going to backfire for him.
MARTÍNEZ: Sabrina Singh served as a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense in the Biden administration. Sabrina, thank you.
SINGH: Thank you.
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