Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ill-advised Signal chat planning an attack onYemen went against a Pentagon warning from last week, and even Department of Defense regulations altogether.
According to NPR, a department-wide email went out last week warning everyone in the DoD that a vulnerability was detected in the Signal messaging app, which Hegseth used to discuss bombing Houthi targets in Yemen along with several other administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance.
Specifically, the email stated that “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations,” and noted that Google identified Russian hacking groups “targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.”
As head of the DoD, Hegseth would have undoubtedly received that email. Even if he missed it, or habitually lets his work emails pile up, he should have known that using Signal for government business is an explicit violation of DoD regulations. This raises the question as to whether Hegseth and other officials were using Signal to avoid leaving records of their communications.
“Unmanaged ‘messaging apps,’ including any app with a chat feature, regardless of the primary function, are not authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information. This includes but is not limited to messaging, gaming, and social media apps. (i.e., iMessage, WhatsApps, Signal),” a 2023 department memo states.
Will Hegseth, or any of the other senior government officials in the chat group including Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz face any accountability for using Signal to conduct national security operations, let alone any government business? Even aside from violating DoD regulations, the chat may likely have been illegal.
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