The Pentagon chief revealed details about the strikes in Yemen while at a chalet with his wife.

The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, reportedly sent detailed information about U.S. strikes in Yemen to a Signal chat room, which included his wife, brother, and lawyer, among others. This was reported by The New York Times, citing its sources.

According to the article, on March 15th, Hegseth shared a schedule of F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet flights that targeted positions of Yemeni Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement in the chat room with his wife, Jennifer (who is not a Pentagon employee), his brother, Phil, and his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who works in the military department.

The publication emphasizes that, unlike a Signal chat involving U.S. administration officials, which became the subject of a scandal when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, joined it, the second chat was created personally by the Secretary of Defense. In addition to his wife, it included approximately 10 people from Hegseth's circle, including two officials who were suspended due to the data leak. Furthermore, the Secretary of the U.S. military used his personal phone, not a work phone, to communicate in the chat room.

According to the news outlets, the chat room typically contained information related to organizational and administrative matters.

The Signal Data Leak Scandal

In early April, the Pentagon's Inspector General's Office launched an investigation into the leak of data about U.S. military strikes in Yemen to Signal. According to the office's statement, the purpose of the investigation was to determine to what extent the Secretary of Defense and other Pentagon employees complied with policies and procedures regarding the use of commercial messaging applications for work purposes.

On March 24th, Goldberg published an article stating that on March 11th, he received a request to join the Signal messenger from a user with the pseudonym Mike Waltz (Assistant to the President for National Security). Two days later, the journalist received a notification to join a group chat where U.S. administration officials were discussing the strikes in Yemen. According to the journalist, on March 15th, a user with the pseudonym Pete Hegseth posted a message with details about planned strikes against the Houthis and an estimated timeframe for the start of the operation, which, according to Goldberg, coincided with the time when the first posts about the bombing appeared on social media. On March 15th, the United States, at the direction of President Donald Trump, launched massive strikes against Houthi targets, which control about a third of Yemen's territory.

The Democratic Party considers the information leak through Signal to be a major blunder by the Republican Trump administration. Calls for the dismissal of Waltz and other members of the President's team have emerged in the U.S. Congress and in the U.S. expert community.

Tass/gnews.cz