Journalism of Courage
The Pentagon’s watchdog has found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike put US personnel and their mission at risk.
One of the most embarrassing episodes of the early days of the second Donald Trump administration, often referred to as Singnalgate, happened in March when a group of US national security leaders used a group chat on Signal to discuss an imminent military operation against the Houthis in Yemen.
The discussions took place on a Signal chat group called Houthi PC small group, which was created by the then-National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.
Those participating in the discussion about the US military operations against Houthi rebels, code-named Operation Rough Rider, included US Vice President JD Vance, top White House staff, three Cabinet secretaries, and the directors of two Intelligence Community agencies.
Waltz had also inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to the chat group and the journalist had full access to classified details of the impending airstrikes shared by Secretary of Defense Hegseth. This included types of aircraft and missiles, as well as launch and attack times, before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.
Hegseth had created another Signal chat with 13 people that included his wife and brother, where he shared similar details of the same strike, The Associated Press reported.
The revelations sparked intense scrutiny, with Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans saying Hegseth posting the information to the chats before the military jets had reached their targets, potentially put those pilots’ lives at risk.
The inspector general opened its investigation at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker and the committee’s top Democrat, Senator Jack Reed.
Some veterans and military families also raised concerns, citing the strict security protocols they must follow to protect sensitive information.
Hegseth had played down the incident and told Fox News in April that what he shared over Signal was “informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things.”
According to CBS News, acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins’s report about “Signalgate” was sent to Hegseth on Tuesday. It was also sent to Congress and a redacted and unclassified version could be released as early as Thursday, a source told CBS News.
CNN reported that Hegseth has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly.
Citing an unnamed source, CNN said that the report states that Hegseth should not have used Signal and that senior Defense Department officials need better training on protocols.
