Two texts sent by national security adviser Mike Waltz and CIA director John Ratcliffe in the now-infamous group chat involving high-level government officials may have done long-term damage to intelligence gathering against Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to current former U.S. officials.
Those sources told CNN that Ratcliffe exposed the intel operation against the Houthis, which they said was bad enough, but also hinted how the agency was going about it, and they said Waltz then revealed the targets of those efforts in a follow-up message in the chat to which he had inadvertently added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg.
"The language [Ratcliffe used] about 'starting points,' these people said, suggests clearly that the CIA is using technical means like overhead surveillance to spy on their leadership," CNN reported. "That could allow the Houthis to change their practices to better protect themselves."'
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"Then, in a later message, Waltz offered an extremely specific after-action report of the strikes," the report added, "telling the thread that the military had 'positive ID' of a particular senior Houthi leader 'walking into his girlfriend’s building' — offering the Houthis a clear opportunity to see who the US was surveilling and potentially figure out how, thus enabling them to avoid that surveillance in the future, the sources said."
Waltz, Ratcliffe and other Trump administration officials on the group chat have repeatedly insisted that no classified information was disclosed in texts using the encrypted Signal app, but the current and former officials strongly disagreed and said they couldn't believe the CIA director and defense secretary Pete Hegseth had used a commercially available third-party platform to communicate top-secret military plans.
“I think [Ratcliffe] is going to be viewed skeptically for using the app for that purpose,” one U.S. official told CNN.
“[Ratcliffe] was basically talking as if he was in a SCIF,” said another former intelligence official, referring to a secure room hardened against electronic surveillance.
“He’s the director,” said the first former official, calling Ratcliffe’s text “irresponsible.” “He should know better.”
CIA regulations permit the use of Signal on both work phones and desktop computers, according to U.S. officials, and agency employees are encouraged to use the platform to communicate basic logistical movements or schedule meetings, but career CIA officials provided a gentle “reminder” to Ratcliffe’s staff this week about using it to communicate operational matters and other sensitive information.
“It’s the most secure (commercial messaging app) but not sanctioned for classified information,” said one U.S. official, "and be careful of sensitive information that is not classified.”
“There are ways to effectively use Signal for alignment," said another official, "but you just can’t cross that line of classified data for obvious reasons."