The Department of Defense Inspector General notified Secretary Peter Hegseth Thursday of an investigation concerning the use of the “unclassified” encrypted messaging app Signal in official discussions concerning military actions in Yemen.
A memo issued by Inspector General Steven A. Stebbins said the investigation was being opened at the request of the chairman and a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker and Jack Reed, respectively:
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. We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds.
The use of the app Signal was first reported in the Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a column entitled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” Goldberg claimed that he had been included in a group chat with Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz concerning sensitive military operations and administration plans for bombing Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The US airstrikes in Yemen have killed at least six people including civilians, exacerbating what is already a desperate humanitarian crisis in the region. President Donald Trump touted the US military might in the region shortly after the attacks were launched, writing: “Hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before.” The US has been accused of striking civilian targets including a cancer hospital while some reports peg the number of civilian deaths at 25.
Vance reportedly responded to news of the strikes in the group chat as “excellent” while Waltz replied with emojis of the US flag, a fist, and flames. Yemen is being targeted for Houthi military operations in the Red Sea against Israel and support for the war in Gaza.
A US federal judge ordered that any texts or evidence of the leak be preserved.
US airstrikes continue to pound Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, which is enduring one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “an estimated 4.5 million people — 14 percent of the population—are currently displaced,” with “more than 18.2 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection services.” Yemen has been embroiled in a ten-year-long civil war with an estimated 233,000 people dead.
