{"id":450,"date":"2025-03-27T14:15:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T15:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2025-03-31T11:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T11:18:42","slug":"senate-committee-presses-pentagon-watchdog-for-answers-on-signal-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/27\/senate-committee-presses-pentagon-watchdog-for-answers-on-signal-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee presses Pentagon watchdog for answers on Signal chat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armed-services.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/dodigsignalletter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a letter to the Defense Department\u2019s acting inspector general<\/a> demanding more information about a Signal chat on which senior Trump officials apparently discussed military attack plans.<\/p>\n<p>Wicker and Reed noted that the chat on Signal, a commercially available communications app, \u201cwas alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter was addressed to Steven Stebbins, the Defense Department\u2019s acting inspector general.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration fired more than a dozen independent inspectors general, including the Defense Department\u2019s watchdog, a few days after Trump took the oath of office in January.<\/p>\n<p>Wicker told reporters Wednesday that his panel would seek an \u201cexpedited\u201d investigation from the Pentagon\u2019s inspector general.<\/p>\n<p>He and Reed have asked the Defense Department\u2019s watchdog to \u201cconduct an inquiry into, and provide us with an assessment\u201d of the facts and circumstances surrounding the Signal chat, including what was communicated and what \u201cremedial actions were taken\u201d after it became revealed publicly.<\/p>\n<p>The senators also want the watchdog to review and explain the department\u2019s policies related to government officers and employees sharing sensitive and classified information on nongovernment networks, and an assessment of its classification and declassification policies and whether senior officials followed those policies.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most importantly, they are demanding an assessment of whether senior administration officials transferred classified information, including operational details, from a classified system to an unclassified system and, if so, how.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, they are requesting an assessment of how the security policies of the White House, Defense Department and other agencies involved in the call may differ on classification and security procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Senate Armed Services Committee will work with you to schedule a briefing immediately upon the completion of your review,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have sent a letter to the Defense Department\u2019s acting inspector general demanding more information about a Signal chat on which senior Trump officials apparently discussed military attack plans. Wicker and Reed noted that the chat on Signal, a commercially available communications app, \u201cwas alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen.\u201d&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}