Republican Senator Asks To Investigate Leaks Of US Military Attack Plan To Houthi Through Signal Group

UNSPLASH/Andy Felicotti ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - US Senators from Republicans are calling for an independent investigation into the leak of plans to attack Yemen's Houthis via the Signal messaging application. In the application group there are journalists who finally know the US military plan.

Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Senator Jack Reed, Democrats, would ask President Donald Trump's administration to speed up the Inspector General's report and provide classified briefings.

"We signed a letter today asking the government to speed up the IG report back to the committee. We sent a similar letter to the government in a bid to get the truth on the pitch," Wicker told reporters on the Capitol.

"Information published recently in my opinion is so sensitive that, based on my knowledge, I want that information to be kept secret," Wicker said.

The Inspector-General of the Department of Defense, a nonpartisan official in charge of eradicating waste, fraud and abuse, has been one of several officials Trump has fired since he began his second term in January. He has not been replaced.

Wicker said he remained confident the Pentagon would forward the inspector general's report.

Some of Trump's Republican counterparts joined the Democratic Party in expressing concerns about chats in Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app, about plans to assassinate a Houthi militant in Yemen on March 15.

The chat involved officials such as National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Radcliffe, and Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, who did not know Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic editor-in-chief, was accidentally included.