The Pentagon Inspector’s office said in a memo Thursday it would evaluate the use of Defense Secretary Pete Hegses. signal To discuss Strikes against Houthis Last month in Yemen.
“The purpose of this assessment is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DOD officials have complied with DOD policies and procedures for using commercial messaging applications for official business,” Steven Stebbins’ representative said in a memo.
“We will also verify compliance with classification and recordkeeping requirements.”
The chair of the Armed Services Committee and ranking members requested that inspectors investigate the use of signal chats to discuss strikes.
Message posted by the Atlantic shows that Heggs The group-specific weapons systems and strike operations were scheduled to start on March 15th, 2025. Atlantic reported that chat messages were set to disappear a week later, raising questions about whether the chat complies with record retention regulations.
“Nobody’s texting war plan,” Hegses said last week after the Atlantic. Published message. “No units, locations, routes, flight paths, sources, methods, no classification information.”
However, some lawmakers and experts have questioned the claim that the information was not classified as the message included the timing of the strike before the strike.
Inspectors in 1978 authorize that inspectors have access to personnel and materials to perform supervision functions, as the memo points out. Stebbins took over to the Pentagon’s proxy inspector after firing many departmental watchdogs, including Pentagon inspector Robert Stoke, when President Trump took office.
Some Democrats have I was asked Hegseth’s resignation for the use of the signal discloses sensitive strike information.
