US Defence Secretary shared Yemen details in another Signal chat
Information has been shared about US air strikes on Yemen in another private group on the Signal app by the US Defence Secretary, the BBC via CBS reported on April 21st.
Sent on March 15th, the messages contained flight schedules for US F/A-18 Hornets conducting strikes on Houthi targets. Included in the group was the wife, brother and personal lawyer of the Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth.
This has come after another group on Signal was disclosed. The group discussed private information about US military activity. The White House said in a statement to the New York Times that no secret information was disclosed.
Previously, Donald Trump dismissed the security breach of the release of highly sensitive details on bombing Yemen in the other group chat as a “glitch”, NBC News reported on March 25th.
He defended Waltz, his national security advisor, saying “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man” as he described the leak as “the only glitch in two months.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt “there was no classified information” distributed on Signal. The Atlantic reported on March 24th that Waltz requested to connect with the publication’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, on 11th March.
Goldberg was then added to a group chat with senior officials, discussing intricate details about a planned airstrike on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.
Trump said in the interview Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation as the White House sought to play down the security breach. Goldberg had presumed it was a hoax until the Yemen airstrike unfolded precisely as the chat detailed.
BBC via CBS, NBC, The Atlantic
