WASHINGTON: The Pentagon’s acting inspector general announced Thursday that he would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
The review will also look at other defense officials’ use of the publicly available encrypted app, which is not able to handle classified material and is not part of the Defense Department’s secure communications network.
Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz. The chain included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” the acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins, said in a notification letter to Hegseth.
The letter also said his office “will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration are required by law to archive their official conversations, and it is not clear if copies of the discussions were forwarded to an official email so they could be permanently captured for federal records keeping.
The Pentagon referred all questions to the inspector general’s office, citing the ongoing investigation.
President Donald Trump grew frustrated when asked about the review.
“You’re bringing that up again,” Trump scoffed at a reporter. “Don’t bring that up again. Your editors probably — that’s such a wasted story.”
In the chain, Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.
The review was launched at the request of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat.
In congressional hearings, Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern about the use of Signal and pressed military officers on whether they would find it appropriate to use the commercial app to discuss military operations.
Both current and former military officials have said the level of detail Hegseth shared on Signal most likely would have been classified. The Trump administration has insisted no classified information was shared.
Waltz is fighting back against calls for his ouster and, so far, Trump has said he stands by his national security adviser.
On Thursday, Trump fired several members of Waltz’s staff after far-right activist Laura Loomer urged the president to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his “Make America Great Again” agenda, several people familiar with the matter said.
In his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Trump’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, would not say whether the officials should have used a more secure communications system to discuss the attack plans.
“What I will say is we should always preserve the element of surprise,” Caine told senators.
Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth’s use of Signal app to convey plans for Houthi strike
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Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth’s use of Signal app to convey plans for Houthi strike
- Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration are required by law to archive their official conversations
FACTBOX-Major militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir
- At least 20 people feared dead after suspected militants opened fire on them in Indian controlled Kashmir
- India and Pakistan, who administer parts of Kashmir but claim it in entirety, have fought two wars over Kashmir
NEW DELHI, April 22 : At least 20 people were feared dead after suspected militants opened fire on them in India’s Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, with officials saying it was one of the deadliest such attacks in recent times.
Here is a look at major attacks over the years in India’s only Muslim-majority region, where militants have fought security forces for decades.
NOVEMBER 2024
At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at security personnel in a crowded flea market in the main city of Srinagar.
OCTOBER 2024
Six migrant workers and a doctor were shot dead by militants who opened fire near a tunnel construction site. The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility.
JUNE 2024
At least nine people died and 33 were injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims plunged into a deep gorge after a suspected militant attack.
MAY 2024
Suspected militants opened fire on a tourist couple from the northwestern city of Jaipur, injuring them both.
FEBRUARY 2019
At least 44 security personnel were killed after a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir. The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility.
JULY 2017
At least seven Hindu pilgrims, on their way back from the revered Amarnath shrine deep in the Himalayas, died when their bus got caught in crossfire after two militant attacks on police in the area.
SEPTEMBER 2016
At least 17 soldiers were killed as separatists armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades stormed an army base in Uri near the disputed border with Pakistan.
Pentagon says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
- Hegseth left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated
- “We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” he said
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned on Tuesday of possible prosecutions of former senior advisers who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.
Dan Caldwell, who was one of Hegseth’s top advisers, and two other senior officials were fired on Friday after being escorted out of the Pentagon. But they have denied any wrongdoing and said they have been told nothing about any alleged crimes.
Hegseth, who has come under fire for using unclassified messaging system Signal to discuss plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi group, left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated during the investigation but played down those chances.
“If those people are exonerated, fantastic. We don’t think — based on what we understand — that it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation,” Hegseth told Fox News.
Hegseth said there had been a number of leaks that triggered the investigation, including about military options to ensure US access to the Panama Canal and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon.
“We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation,” Hegseth said.
“We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.”
He said evidence would eventually be handed over to the Department of Justice.
“When that evidence is gathered sufficiently — and this has all happened very quickly — it will be handed over to the DOJ and those people will be prosecuted if necessary,” Hegseth said.
Caldwell had played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth and his importance was underscored in a leaked text chain on Signal disclosed by The Atlantic last month.
In it, Hegseth named Caldwell as the best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as it prepared for the launch of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
On Sunday, news emerged of a second Signal chat, a disclosure that Hegseth and other officials have blamed on former Pentagon employees.
Despite growing calls from Democrats for Hegseth to resign, President Donald Trump has stood firmly by his defense secretary.
John Ullyot, who was ousted from his job as a Pentagon spokesperson after two months, said on Sunday that Hegseth’s Defense Department was in “total chaos.”
“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion piece in Politico.
Asked about Ullyot’s remarks, Hegseth said: “He’s misrepresented a lot of things in the press. It’s unfortunate.”
Ghana in fresh drive to woo back Sahel states to West African bloc
- John Mahama: ‘The recent decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS is a regrettable development’
- Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are led by juntas that seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023
ACCRA: Ghana’s new leader said Tuesday he initiated a fresh bid to woo back Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to the west African bloc ECOWAS after the junta-led countries quit earlier this year.
President John Mahama said his government had appointed a special envoy to “initiate high-level conversations” with the three countries after their withdrawal from the political and economic group.
“The recent decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS is a regrettable development,” said Mahama at the launch of the bloc’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
“We must respond not with isolation or recrimination, but with understanding, dialogue and a willingness to listen and to engage,” he said.
Before him, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye had initiated similar efforts but said earlier this month he had “done everything possible” to bring the three countries back into the bloc, to no avail.
ECOWAS earlier said it had extended invitations to the junta leaders to attend the event at Accra’s International Conference Center.
Officials acknowledged the presence of representatives of the three countries at the event, but did not specify who they were, with the junta leaders apparently having declined to attend.
Mahama, who took office in January, said he has “prioritized diplomatic re-engagement with our Sahelian neighbors.”
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are led by juntas that seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have since turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.
They lie in the region known as the Sahel, which stretches between the dry Sahara desert in the north and the more humid savannas to the south.
They quit ECOWAS at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France.
They have joined together in a bloc called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which was originally set up as a defense pact in 2023 but now seeks closer integration.
Each has been wracked by attacks by extremists allied with either Al-Qaeda or Daesh for a decade — violence that governments have not been able to eradicate despite previous help from French forces.
Together the three countries sprawl over an area of some 2.8 million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) — roughly four times the size of France — in Africa’s northwest.
Vietnam urges stricter controls on origin of goods after tariff shock
- The ministry called for stricter controls to avoid “sanctions that countries may apply on goods imported to their countries“
- “Uniform and determined measures are required... to stop and prevent fraud in the origin of goods”
HANOI: Vietnam’s trade ministry has ordered authorities to tighten control over the origin of goods to avoid sanctions by trading partners in the wake of threatened US tariffs, according to a document seen by AFP on Tuesday.
A document by the ministry dated April 15 said escalating trade tension meant Vietnam was increasingly exposed to trans-shipment fraud.
Less than two weeks earlier, US President Donald Trump had threatened massive 46 percent levies on Vietnam, with Washington accusing the country of facilitating Chinese exports to the United States and allowing Beijing to get around tariffs.
In the document, the ministry called for stricter controls to avoid “sanctions that countries may apply on goods imported to their countries.”
“Uniform and determined measures are required... to stop and prevent fraud in the origin of goods... especially illegal imported raw materials and goods without origin for the production of goods for export,” it added, without naming China.
Hanoi is now trying to negotiate with Trump over the so-called reciprocal tariffs, which have been paused until July.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged for “negotiations to promote balanced, stable, sustainable, and effective trade relations with the United States.”
He warned however that the talks were “not to affect another market.”
China on Monday said it “firmly opposes” other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, warning it would take “countermeasures” against them.
During his visit to Vietnam last week, China’s President Xi Jinping urged the communist neighbor to join forces in upholding free trade.
Trump, however, said the trip was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Vietnam was Southeast Asia’s biggest buyer of Chinese goods in 2024, with a bill of $161.9 billion.
In the first three months of this year, the United States was Hanoi’s biggest export market.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach — striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
Many feared dead in gun attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
- Initial reports say shots fired at mostly Indian tourists visiting Baisaran meadow
- Attack much larger than anything directed at civilians in recent years, says official
SRINAGAR, India: Many people are feared to have died after gunmen indiscriminately fired at tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said.
Police have described the incident as a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule.
“This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.
“The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” he said.
Initial reports said shots were fired at mostly Indian tourists visiting Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam.
Police and officials said tourists with gunshot wounds were evacuated to local hospitals.
The scene of the attack was cordoned off as police launched an operation to track down the attackers.
India’s home minister, Amit Shah, is heading to Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he said he would review the situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit in Saudi Arabia, has been briefed about the incident, Shah said.
“We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” Shah wrote in a post on the X social media platform.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key Kashmiri resistance leader, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack on tourists.”
“Such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes visitors with love and warmth. Condemn it strongly,” he wrote on X.
The attack coincided with the visit to India of US Vice President JD Vance, who is on a largely personal four-day visit.
The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular sightseeing destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Tuesday’s attack seems to be a major shift in the regional conflict where tourists for many years have largely been spared from violence despite a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Tensions have been simmering ever since as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations.
The region, known for rolling Himalayan foothills, exquisitely decorated houseboats and pristine meadows, has also become a major domestic tourist destination, with hotels booked out for months. Kashmir has also drawn millions of visitors, who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers.
Although violence has ebbed in recent times in Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion, fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored “terrorism.” Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
