Washington:
The Acting Inspector General (IG) of the US Department of Defence (Pentagon) will investigate Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal in a group chat with other national security officials to discuss military actions against the Houthis in Yemen last month, according to a letter from the IG’s office on Thursday, CNN reported.
In a letter to Hegseth, Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins notified him of an upcoming evaluation following a request from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Stebbins said that the evaluation is in response to recent public reports regarding Hegseth’s use of an “unclassified commercial messaging application” to discuss military actions in Yemen in March.
“The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation. We are conducting this evaluation in response to a March 26, 2025, letter I received from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting that I conduct an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025,” the letter stated.
The letter further stated, “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
Notably, a leaked Signal chat had revealed that senior Trump administration officials, including Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe, shared details about an upcoming military strike on Yemen, The Atlantic reported.
The messages, inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, have raised serious concerns over operational security.
The administration downplayed the incident, with officials insisting that no classified information was shared. At a Senate hearing, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe stated that the messages contained no classified material. President Donald Trump echoed this claim, dismissing concerns over the security breach.
The chat, named “Houthi PC small group,” contained specific details about attack timing and logistics. A message from Hegseth at 11:44 a.m. Eastern Time on March 15 provided a real-time update on mission status, stating that weather conditions were favourable and confirming with Central Command (CENTCOM) that the operation was proceeding. He then detailed launch times for F-18 fighter jets and MQ-9 drones, along with a timeline of expected strikes. According to the message, the first bombs were set to drop at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
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