NYT: Pentagon watchdog believes Hegseth's Signal chat risked endangering US troops
Kyiv • UNN
A Pentagon report found that Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal app to discuss airstrikes in Yemen posed a threat to US troops. Information could have been compromised, and messages were not properly stored.
A report by the acting Inspector General of the Pentagon concluded that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal app to discuss upcoming US military airstrikes in Yemen earlier this year risked endangering American troops, according to two people familiar with the findings, The New York Times reports, writes UNN.
Details
The report, which was due to be released on Thursday, thoroughly examines Hegseth's participation in a group chat on the Signal messaging app with several other senior Trump administration officials, which became public after a journalist, who was accidentally added to the list, wrote about it.
The Pentagon's internal investigation found that Hegseth's use of the app "posed a risk of potentially compromising Department of Defense information that could have endangered personnel and missions if it had been disclosed to a foreign adversary," according to two people familiar with the document.
The report did not state whether any information was classified at the time it was shared. However, it noted that Hegseth has "initial classification authority" as part of his role as head of the Pentagon, and did not assess whether he properly attempted to declassify information before discussing it on an unauthorized messaging platform.
Investigators also found that not all messages were properly preserved in accordance with US federal records law, and instead relied heavily on publicly available messaging data.
The report also noted that Hegseth declined to be interviewed by the Inspector General on the matter and instead provided a brief written statement, sources said.
A classified version of the report was provided to a small number of members of Congress in a secure room on Wednesday.
Addition
In March, Michael Waltz, then national security adviser to the US president, mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a chat on the Signal app that included US Vice President J.D. Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House adviser Stephen Miller. The head of the Pentagon provided a detailed schedule of airstrikes on Houthis and infrastructure in Yemen just two hours before the first bombs began to fall on March 15, the publication indicates.
This air campaign, which the Pentagon called Operation "Rough Rider," lasted about six weeks, during which the United States attacked more than 800 targets in Yemen, using approximately $1.5 billion worth of ammunition.
The Inspector General's office announced on April 3 that it would review Hegseth's use of Signal. Later that month, it emerged that he had improperly shared sensitive information in a second Signal chat group that included his wife, brother, and personal attorney.
The Inspector General's office then stated that it would conduct an "assessment" of Hegseth's conduct, a term used to describe a review of non-criminal violations of Pentagon policy, as opposed to an "investigation," which is initiated in response to potential criminal activity.
The investigation did not include whether Hegseth's use of the app was more extensive, or whether additional sensitive information was provided to unauthorized individuals.
The release of the report will cap a difficult week for Hegseth, who has faced criticism over a series of airstrikes on September 2 by the US Joint Special Operations Command on a small motorboat in the Caribbean Sea that the Pentagon said was engaged in drug smuggling.
Two congressional committees overseeing the Pentagon have launched bipartisan investigations into Hegseth's actions regarding a second wave of strikes on survivors of the initial attack, including whether he may have ordered that no one should be left alive as a result of the strikes, which could violate international law.