The breach left military and intelligence experts asking the same questions as the public: Why would top U.S. officials use a free messaging app to discuss classified military plans?
An extraordinary breach of U.S. security is stunning security and intelligence veterans, after a journalist was added to a Trump administration group chat on Signal, where senior leaders discussed plans for a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The breach left military and intelligence experts asking the same questions as the public: Why would top U.S. officials use a free messaging app to discuss classified military plans? How could a journalist be added to their group chat?
«Any one of us that served in the military or serve in the military would be in Leavenworth if we did this», former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said via X.
«Heads are exploding», Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who was deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in the Biden administration, told NPR’s Morning Edition as he described conversations with former colleagues about high-ranking Trump officials’ Signal chat.
A ‘Principals Committee’ discussion is normally highly secure
Under normal circumstances, national security officials go to great lengths to maintain secrecy when discussing sensitive military operations. But the Signal snafu exposed conversations among the Principals Committee — a body that «generally includes the heads of departments or agencies», according to the Congressional Research Service.
«The meetings of the Principals Committee are held in the White House Situation Room, perhaps the most secure venue within the U.S. government», Price said.
Members who can’t attend in person can participate via a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF.
