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The Signal ‘Disaster,’ and Ensuring It Doesn’t Happen Again

Cipher Brief experts say the inadvertent invitation of a journalist wasn’t the real issue

EXPERT ANALYSIS
Pete Hegseth and Michael Waltz during Hegseth’s Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Posted: March 26th, 2025

By The Cipher Brief

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — When the heads of the intelligence community (IC) came to Capitol Hill Tuesday to present the Annual Threat Assessment, they were met by questions about something else: the leak of a Signal group chat, in which U.S. military attack plans had been under review, and to which an editor for the Atlantic had been inadvertently invited. 

CIA director John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard, head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that while the chat had included the nation’s top national security officials, and the subject was a pending military strike against the Houthis in Yemen, no classified information had been shared. Ratcliffe maintained that the use of the Signal app had been appropriate for the discussions. 

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