Pentagon Watchdog to review the use of the signal application by Hegseth for strike

By Tara Copp, Associated Press

Washington (AP) – The interim inspector general of the Pentagon announced Thursday that he would examine the use by Pete Hegseth of the signal messaging application to transmit plans for a military strike against Houthi activists in Yemen.

The examination will also examine the use by other managers of the defense of the encrypted application accessible to the public, which is unable to manage classified documents and is not part of the secure communication network of the Ministry of Defense.

Hegseth’s use of the application was revealed when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a signal text chain by national security advisor Mike Waltz. The channel included Hegseth, vice-president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, gathered to discuss the military operations of March 15 against the Houthis supported by Iran.

“The objective of this evaluation is to determine to what extent the Secretary of Defense and the other DD staff are satisfied with the DOD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging request for official cases. In addition, we will examine compliance with the classification and the requirements for the retention of recordings,” said the interim general inspector, Steven Stebbins, in a letter of notification.

In the chain, Hegseth provided the exact calendars of Warplane launches and when the bombs drop – before men and women put these attacks on behalf of the United States.

The examination was launched at the request of Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Committee for Armed Services, and the Senator of Rhode Island Jack Reed, the best democrat of the Committee.

During the Congress hearings, democratic legislators expressed their concern about the use of the signal and the military officers in a hurry to know if they would consider the commercial application appropriate to discuss military operations.

Current and former military officials said that the level of detail that Hegseth shared on signal would probably have been classified. The Trump administration insisted that no classified information was shared.

Originally published: April 3, 2025 at 11:46 a.m.