{"id":173684,"date":"2025-12-03T23:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/173684\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:07:07","slug":"us-defence-secretary-pete-hegseth-faces-escalating-scrutiny-as-report-finds-he-put-troops-at-risk-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/173684\/","title":{"rendered":"US defence secretary Pete Hegseth faces escalating scrutiny as report finds he put troops at risk | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth risked imperilling American troops by sharing information that could have been intercepted by a foreign adversary, according to a Pentagon watchdog.<\/p>\n

Sky’s US partner NBC News is reporting that the Inspector General also found that Mr Hegseth violated military regulations by using his personal phone for official business.<\/p>\n

The detail circulated in a group chat on the Signal app in March this year<\/a> related to an imminent strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.<\/p>\n

Messages reportedly posted by Mr Hegseth included: “1415: Strike drones on target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP).”<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

Image:
\n U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Dominican Republic president. Pic: Reuters <\/p>\n

Another read: “We are currently clean on OPSEC” – that’s operational security, suggesting the sender recognised the sensitivity of the information.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Hegseth cites ‘fog of war’ in defence of second ‘drug boat’ strike<\/a>
Why Putin won’t agree to latest Ukraine peace plan<\/a><\/p>\n

A journalist from The Atlantic had been inadvertently added to the group chat and reported how the top-secret military operation had been shared both in advance and in real time.<\/p>\n

\n From Signal-gate to second strikes \u2013 Pete Hegseth faces escalating scrutiny\n <\/p>\n

The Pentagon has weathered many scandals but rarely has it faced a convergence of crises that point so clearly to the man at the top.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s pick for defence secretary \u2013 the former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth \u2013 only got the job on the casting vote of Vice President JD Vance.<\/p>\n

Signal-gate was the first in a series of scandals that have blighted his first year in office.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon press corps walked out over draconian restrictions imposed by the Secretary of War.<\/p>\n

This week, he has been defending a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean, the vessel having already been incapacitated. Critics call his actions a “war crime”. <\/p>\n

It has been crisis after crisis and the Signal-gate report will bring more questions about his ability to not just lead the world\u2019s most powerful army but also protect US troops.<\/p>\n

The ‘Signal-gate’ scandal led to bipartisan calls for Mr Hegseth’s resignation<\/a>, but it was Donald Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz, who was also in the group, who lost his job.<\/p>\n

It later emerged that Mr Hegseth had created a second Signal group, including his wife, brother and personal lawyer, and shared much of the same detail there.<\/p>\n

The information came from an email labelled ‘SECRET\/NOFORN”, meaning it was classified and not to be shared with foreign nationals.<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth<\/a>, who has renamed his office The Department of War, declined to be interviewed by those investigating what became known as ‘Signal-gate’.<\/p>\n

In a written submission, he said he only shared information that he thought would not risk the mission or troops carrying it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US defence secretary Pete Hegseth risked imperilling American troops by sharing information that could have been intercepted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-173684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}