Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to communicate plans for a military strike against Houthi insurgents in Yemen is being investigated by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general.
We will also examine the usage of the publicly accessible encrypted app by other defence officials. This app is not connected to the Defence Department’s secure communications network and cannot handle sensitive material. When national security adviser Mike Waltz unintentionally included writer Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic to a Signal text chain, Hegseth’s use of the app was exposed.
On March 15, Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others gathered to discuss military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.
In a notification letter to Hegseth, acting inspector general Steven Stebbins stated, The goal of this evaluation is to ascertain the degree to which the Secretary of Defence and other DoD personnel adhered to DoD policies and procedures for using a commercial messaging application for official business. We will also examine adherence to the rules on classification and record-keeping. Before the US service members conducting those attacks were in the air, Hegseth gave the chain the precise times for bomb drops and warplane launches.
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