US and UK escalate aggression on Yemen as Signal scandal unfolds
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
The last couple of weeks saw an unprecedent escalation by the Western coalition against Yemen, after Ansar Allah resumed Red Sea operations in retaliation for Israel’s renewed genocide and aid ban in Gaza.
For nearly two weeks, the US has conducted daily airstrikes on Yemen. The UK also took part in the heavy, non-stop aggression in different areas across Yemen.
In the early hours of Friday, March 28, US fighter jets hit more than 40 locations in the Arab country including the capital Sana’a, Saada, Marib, Al-Jawf, and Hodeidah governorates. The airstrikes reportedly left several people across the country injured.
On Thursday, March 27, at least two people were killed and two others wounded in a series of US airstrikes that targeted the Yemeni capital Sana’a.
The aggression was launched one day after the US launched 15 airstrikes on the southern and northeastern regions of Sanaa, in addition to the vicinity of Sanaa International Airport. The US and the UK targeted the Saada governorate in northwestern Yemen with dozens of airstrikes on the same day as well.
The western coalition had already intensified its airstrikes against Yemen for several days before Wednesday, March 26. Dozens of people, including women and children, were reported killed in the fierce aerial campaign.
US national security exposed after Signal chat on Yemen’s aggression plan leaked
A huge scandal has rocked the Trump administration after internal national security deliberations related to the US plans to strike Yemen were mistakenly leaked through the Signal messaging application, on Monday, March 24.
Contents of the Signal chat were published in The Atlantic after its Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was seemingly inadvertently added to the chat by US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
Goldberg disclosed the content of the chat, which was considered a huge breach of data security via a story published by The Atlantic. The journalist revealed that he knew that the US was planning to bomb different targets belonging to Ansar Allah across Yemen on March 15, two hours before the first airstrike was launched.
Goldberg elaborated that he became aware of the plan once the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hesgeth texted him the information at 11:44 am. Goldberg said that “the plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
The breach has provoked criticism and raised questions about the accountability in Trump’s cabinet as it has not only revealed sensitive details related to military-operations, but also what was perceived as institutional dishonesty inside the Trump administration.
Downplaying the seriousness of the leak, Trump called the incident a “witch hunt” while speaking to reporters at the Oval Office. The US President instead focused on the success of the US airstrikes in Yemen. The White House also said that the leaked information shared via the commercial messaging application was not classified.
The Democrats slammed the Trump administration calling on the officials involved to resign. Meanwhile, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a bipartisan call for an expedited investigation into the breach.
Progressive movements and commentators have noted that amid the scandal, the attacks on Yemen themselves and their legality seem to be an afterthought for the Democrats who have instead focused their criticisms on the security violations of the officials’ communication.
Der Spiegel exposes new data security breach of Trump’s top officials
While the Trump administration is trying to dismiss the embarrassing scandal, German news website Der Spiegel reported on Thursday, March 27 that it found the contact data of Trump’s most important security advisers via hacked data dumps and commercial providers.
The leaked data included password details for Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in addition to mobile phone numbers and email addresses.
The website pointed out that these phone numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, some of which are linked to accounts on social media networks like Instagram and LinkedIn.
Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
