Discovery of the U.S.'s military strike plans against Houthi rebels in Yemen following the inadvertent inclusion of The Atlantic's editor-in-chief in a Signal chat by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has prompted Defense Department Acting Inspector General Steve Stebbins to launch an investigation into how the commercial messaging app was used by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared warplane launch and bomb strike timings in the chat, The Associated Press reports.
"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," said Stebbins in a letter to Hegseth, which also noted an assessment of adherence to the agency's requirements regarding classification and records retention. Such a review by the Pentagon watchdog, which was sought by Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and the committee's top Democrat Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, comes as the suitability of Signal for military operation discussions is being questioned by Democrat legislators.
Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse, along with Republican congressman Pat Harrigan, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urging the addition of three Indian companies—BellTroX, CyberRoot, and Sunkissed Organic Farms (formerly Appin)—to the Commerce Department’s entity list.
The bill addresses a perceived gap in regulatory power, as the NCUA's temporary authority to oversee third-party vendors has lapsed, leaving financial systems vulnerable.
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