Washington, Mar 25: 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.

A Western intelligence official emphasised that while Signal has strong encryption, it should never be used for government operations. "It should never be used for classified or operational data, let alone policy discussions at a top government level," the official said. "This kind of breach could impact the level of trust between partners and allies."

Some former officials have raised concerns that the incident could constitute a violation of the Espionage Act, which criminalises the mishandling of national defence information. However, it remains unlikely that any investigation will be launched, as the officials involved--including Hegseth, Vance, and Rubio--would be responsible for initiating such a probe. The Justice Department typically relies on a formal referral from the agency that owns the classified information, in this case, the Department of Defence.

"If anyone else did it, no question it would be investigated," a former Justice Department official said.

Trump distanced himself from the controversy, claiming he was unaware of the situation. "I don't know anything about it," Trump told reporters when asked about The Atlantic's report. "It couldn't have been very effective, because the attack was very effective. I can tell you, I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time," CNN quoted Trump as saying.

The transfer of classified information from a secure system to Signal would have required manual intervention. A former senior US defence official explained that such a transfer would not have happened accidentally. "Hegseth somehow had to transfer it or copy it to get it onto Signal in the first place," the official said.

"You can't forward a classified email to an unclassified system. You would either have to print it out or type it up while looking at both screens. So he had to have done it or somebody would've had to have done it for him that way."

Former Defence Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta did not hold back in his criticism. "Somebody needs to get fired," Panetta told CNN. "How the name of a journalist was added to that list - this is just a serious blunder." He warned that if someone other than Goldberg had received the messages, they could have alerted the Houthis, leading to retaliatory attacks on US forces. "They in turn could have... attacked US facilities in the Red Sea, causing casualties of our troops."

Brian Hughes, National Security Council spokesperson, attempted to downplay concerns. "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," Hughes said in a statement to CNN. He claimed the discussion demonstrated "deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials" and insisted that "the ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."

However, messages from Vice President Vance suggest internal hesitation about the strikes. "I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now," Vance wrote in the chat, according to The Atlantic. "There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc."

Trump administration officials have not addressed the security concerns but have instead focused on Vance's remarks. William Martin, communications director to the vice president, defended him, stating, "The Vice President's first priority is always making sure that the President's advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations. Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration's foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement."

Democratic lawmakers immediately expressed outrage, with some calling for congressional scrutiny. Rep Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, described the situation as deeply alarming, CNN reported.

"I am horrified by reports that our most senior national security officials, including the heads of multiple agencies, shared sensitive and almost certainly classified information via a commercial messaging application, including imminent war plans," Himes said, citing the "calamitous risks of transmitting classified information across unclassified systems."

"If true, these actions are a brazen violation of laws and regulations that exist to protect national security, including the safety of Americans serving in harm's way," he added.

The incident has also drawn attention to past Republican criticism of private communications in government. In 2016, Rubio attacked Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, saying, "Hillary Clinton put some of the highest, most sensitive intelligence information on her private server because maybe she thinks she's above the law. Or maybe she just wanted the convenience of being able to read this stuff on her Blackberry. This is unacceptable. This is a disqualifier."

(ANI)

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