Pentagon chief posts details of Yemen strikes in chat with wife

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth sent details of the U.S. strikes on Yemen to a chat room on Signal that included his wife, brother and lawyer, among others. The New York Times reported this, citing its sources.

According to the March 15 article, Hegseth, in a chat room with his wife Jennifer, who is not a Pentagon employee, as well as his brother Phil and personal lawyer Tim Parlatore, who works in the military department, posted a flight schedule of F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets that hit Yemeni Houthi positions of the Ansar Allah rebel movement.

As the publication points out, unlike the chat involving US administration officials in Signal, which became the subject of scandal when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, joined it, the second chat was created by the Pentagon chief himself and involved about 10 people from Hegseth's inner circle, including two officials suspended for leaking the data, in addition to his wife. At the same time, the head of the US military department used a personal, not a work phone to communicate in the chat room.

According to the newspaper, the chat room was usually used to discuss information regarding organisational and administrative matters.

Signal data leak scandal

In early April, the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into the leak of data on US military strikes in Yemen to Signal. According to a statement from the office, the purpose of the probe was to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other Pentagon employees followed policies and procedures regarding the use of commercial messaging applications for work-related purposes.

On March 24, Goldberg published an article stating that on March 11, he received a request to connect to the Signal messenger from a user with the nickname Mike Waltz (Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs). Two days later, the journalist received a notification to join a group chat where members of the US administration were discussing strikes on Yemen. According to the journalist, on March 15, a user with the nickname Pete Hegseth posted a message detailing the upcoming strikes against the Houthis and the estimated timeframe for launching the operation, which Goldberg said coincided with the time when the first posts about the bombing were posted on social media. On March 15, the US began massive strikes against Houthi targets, who control about a third of Yemen's territory, at the behest of President Donald Trump.

The US Democratic Party considers the Signal leak a big mistake by the Republican Trump administration. There have been calls in the US Congress and in the US professional community for the dismissal of Waltz and some other members of the President's team, among others.

Tass/gnews.cz