Former national security officials have reacted with shock after revelations that senior members of President Donald Trump's administration shared operational plans for military strikes in Yemen via an encrypted messaging app, inadvertently adding a journalist to the discussion, CNN reported.
According to The Atlantic, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz started a Signal group chat with Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe to discuss US airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen. In a critical mistake, Waltz also added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who remained in the chat throughout the discussion, witnessing the exchange of sensitive details before removing himself.
The messages contained highly sensitive information, including details about the timing of the strikes, the specific targets, and the weapons being deployed. Hegseth reportedly shared "operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing."
Ratcliffe, meanwhile, sent "information that might be interpreted as related to actual and current intelligence operations."
Former officials have stated that such information would almost certainly be classified at the highest level. The breach has sparked widespread condemnation among former intelligence and military officials.
"Dear Sweet Baby Jesus," one former senior US official said upon learning of the incident. Another simply responded, "No," when asked if such a breach had ever occurred in the Biden administration. Security experts have warned that using Signal for discussions of this nature violates every established protocol for handling classified information.
"They broke every procedure known to man about protecting operational material before a military strike," a former senior intelligence official said. "You have a total breakdown in security about a military operation." Although Signal is considered highly secure due to its open-source encryption, it is not authorised for transmitting classified government communications.
The Pentagon specifically prohibits the use of messaging apps like Signal to handle "non-public DoD information." Additionally, intelligence agencies have warned that foreign adversaries, including Russian-linked spies, have attempted to compromise Signal accounts. -- ANI
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