In Washington, a Pentagon inspector‑general report has opened a new firestorm. The watchdog found that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth exposed U.S. troops to danger by sending sensitive mission details about a planned strike on Yemen’s Houthi fighters over the encrypted messaging app “Signal.” Two officials who reviewed the findings said the report did not show he had improperly declassified any material, but it did rule that he broke policy by using his personal phone for official work. The inspection team therefore urged the Pentagon to boost training for all senior leaders.
Hegseth didn’t agree to speak with the inspector‑general, but he sent a written statement. In it he insisted he was entitled to declassify whatever he chose and that he only shared information he believed would not compromise the mission. He also tried to explain away the Signal incident as “unclassified coordination” and denied any wrongdoing.
The findings have put extra pressure on the ex‑Fox News host who had earlier asked lawmakers to launch an independent probe into his use of the commercial app. Lawmakers are now also investigating claims that a later strike on a suspected drug‑smuggling boat in the Caribbean – ordered by Hegseth after a briefing that said “kill everybody” – left survivors dead. Hegseth defended the action as a product of “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors and that the admiral on duty made the right call.
The story began when a journalist from The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally added to a Signal chat that included high‑ranking officials such as Vice President Dick Vance și Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The group discussed March 15 operations against the Houthis. Hegseth had also created a separate Signal thread with 13 people, including his wife and brother, sharing the exact timing of aircraft launches and bomb drops before the planes even took off.
Signal is encrypted, but it’s not a sanctioned channel for classified material and is off the Pentagon’s secure network. Hegseth maintained that nothing in the chats was classified, yet many current and former military leaders said that such pinpoint details could never have safely been transmitted on an unsecured device.
The inspector‑general’s review was handed to Congress members in a sealed box on the Capitol, and a partially redacted version is slated for release later this week. One source told the AP that Hegseth viewed the inquiry as a partisan witch‑hunt and that the report had to rely on screenshots from The Atlantic because Hegseth could only supply a handful of his own Signal messages.
During a July‑August briefing, Pentagon spokesman Kingsley Wilson dismissed the investigation as a sham conducted in bad faith. Meanwhile, a mix of Democrats and a handful of Republicans in Congress pressed for the inspector‑general to look into whether Hegseth’s pre‑strike messaging put pilots at risk. Veterans and military families echoed concerns about the strict security protocols they’re bound to follow.
The backdrop of the whole saga is the U.S. campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who began striking merchant and military vessels in late 2023, citing the Israel‑Hamas war. Their raids disrupted the Red Sea trade corridor—a route that typically moves $1 trillion of goods each year. By early 2024 the U.S. had stepped up its campaign, creating one of the Navy’s most intense sea battles since World War II. A ceasefire in the Gaza conflict stalled in March, prompting a broader U.S. offensive that concluded when Trump said the Houthis agreed to halt attacks on ships. The latest ceasefire began in October.
After the Signal chat revelation, The Atlantic released the entire thread, showing Hegseth sending granular mission details, timing windows, target locations, and weapon assignments. He claimed he only shared “informal, unclassified coordination” for media purposes. In a June congressional hearing, lawmakers repeatedly asked whether he had shared classified data and whether he should face accountability. Hegseth avoided a direct answer, simply noting that he serves “at the pleasure of the president.”
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