US lawmakers push for action on Signal breach, warn of 'mourning dead pilots'

Patricia Zengerle - Reuters - 26/03
A powerful U.S. Senate Republican called on Wednesday for an official probe of Trump administration officials' discussion of sensitive attack plans on a commercial messaging app, after critics argued that U.S. troops could have died if the information had fallen into the wrong hands.
  • Republican chairman wants probe, classified briefing
  • Screenshots show defense secretary shared attack plans
  • Trump supports team, officials deny sharing classified info
  • Justice Department urged to probe Signal chat inclusion of journalist
WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - A powerful U.S. Senate Republican called on Wednesday for an official probe of Trump administration officials' discussion of sensitive attack plans on a commercial messaging app, after critics argued that U.S. troops could have died if the information had fallen into the wrong hands.
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he and Senator Jack Reed, the panel's top Democrat, would ask President Donald Trump's administration to expedite an Inspector General report and provide a classified briefing.

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"We are signing a letter today asking the administration to expedite an IG report back to the committee. We're sending a similar letter to the administration in an attempt to get ground truth," Wicker told reporters at the Capitol.
"The information as published recently appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified," Wicker said.
A few of Trump's fellow Republicans have joined Democrats in expressing concern about the chat on Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app, about the planned killing of a Houthi militant in Yemen on March 15.
The chat included officials such as National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who did not know that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently included...
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