An aerial take of the pentagon on May 12, 2021 (photo of Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brittany A. Chase/Department of Defense)
Washington -The chairman and a member of the US Senate -Stride Service Committee sent a letter to the inspector of the Ministry of Defense on Thursday, in which he asked the independent watchdog to create an investigation of the utilize of the Signal chat -app by the top officials to discuss plans for the bomb attack on Yemen.
The Republican Senator of Mississippi, Roger Wicker, and the Democratic Senator of Rhode Island, Jack Reed, wrote that the group chat, to which Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor -in -chief of the Atlantic, was somehow justified.
“This chat should contain classified information on sensitive military actions in Yemen,” the two wrote in The one -sided letter. “If this report has to do, this reporting raises questions about the use of non -classified networks in order to discuss sensitive and classified information as well as the exchange of such information to those who have no adequate approval and need to know.”
They asked the General Inspector to include an “evaluation of the DOD classification and classification guidelines and processes and whether these guidelines and processes were observed” as well as a statement as to whether “classified information, including operating details, from classified systems on non -classified systems and if so, how.
The senators asked the General Inspector to find out whether “the guidelines of the White House, the Ministry of Defense, the secret service group and other departments and agencies, which are represented on the National Security Council, distinguish.”
The letter demands that the general inspector make recommendations to solve problems that may be determined by an examination.
Signal gate began as it is known published Extracts of the group chat, to which Vice President JD Vance, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, Director of the National Secret Service Tulsi Gabbard, CIA director John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and others.
President Donald Trump and numerous officials from the White House have repeatedly tried to downplay the utilize of a commercial communication app to discuss plans for the bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Hegseth said publicly that no classified information was passed on in the group chat, but Wicker told reporters On Wednesday that the “recently published information is published to me recently, I seem so sensitive that I wanted to classify it based on my knowledge.”
A spokesman for the Defense Ministry of General said the office “received the request yesterday and we check the letter. We have no further comment at that time.”
