MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
At the start of this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced intense scrutiny over a U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now an investigation criticizes a past action, the way that Hegseth shared highly sensitive attack plans for airstrikes against Yemen back in March. That was the attack that Hegseth discussed in a group chat that included the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. In a few minutes, we'll bring Mr. Goldberg into the chat here. First, what the government investigator said about Hegseth.
MARTIN: NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre is covering this, and he's with us now. Good morning, Greg, to you.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.
MARTIN: So where is this new report coming from?
MYRE: Yeah, this report comes from the Pentagon's inspector general, who says Hegseth risked endangering U.S. troops by using the Signal messaging app to share military plans before the first attack in Yemen. Now, NPR has not seen the report, but we've been in touch with people who have, and they've described it on condition of anonymity. The report says Hegseth shared information labeled secret as he described details of the U.S. bombing campaign that was just about to begin against the Houthis in Yemen. This report, which is expected to be released publicly today, says Hegseth violated Pentagon rules by using a personal phone for official business.
MARTIN: And would you remind us, who was Hegseth sharing this information with?
MYRE: Yeah. He was in contact with essentially all top national security officials. The CIA director, director of national intelligence, the national security adviser, the secretary of state. And as we noted, what none of them knew was that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, was inadvertently included and was reading the messages as well. Now, he didn't report the contents in real time but did so days later when that U.S. bombing campaign was well underway in Yemen.
All of these senior government officials at work and at home have rooms where they can communicate securely on government systems known as SCIFs, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. And this is what all of them should have been using. Instead, they were on Signal, a publicly available app anyone can download. It encrypts messages and is considered quite good, but it can be hacked.
MARTIN: And would you remind us of what Hegseth said in these messages?
MYRE: Yeah. Hegseth gave the exact times the U.S. military was launching F-18 warplanes, drones and Tomahawk missiles at Yemen. And then he provided updates on when these weapons would begin to strike inside Yemen. And this was the start of a bombing operation against the Houthis that lasted for weeks. And it ended when Houthi attacks diminished against commercial ships in the Red Sea.
MARTIN: Did the Pentagon's inspector general speak to Hegseth?
MYRE: So the report says Hegseth gave a written response but would not sit for an interview. Hegseth provided a few of his Signal messages, but the report relied on screenshots that Jeffrey Goldberg published in The Atlantic. Hegseth also denied that he shared classified information, saying he has the authority to declassify information, which is true. He can do that. But the report did not say whether he took any action to do so before sharing the material.
MARTIN: And before we let you go, what is the White House saying about this?
MYRE: They're saying that, quote, "no classified information was leaked and operational security was not compromised. President Trump stands by Secretary Hegseth."
MARTIN: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thank you.
MYRE: Sure thing, Michel.
MARTIN: And I want to mention, NPR's CEO Katherine Maher also chairs the board of the Signal Foundation. Its subsidiary makes the Signal app. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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