Israeli Officials Outraged Over Signal Chat Leak Exposing Sensitive Intelligence

Israeli officials are furious over the Signal chat leak involving senior Trump administration officials because it included sensitive intelligence Israel provided to the U.S. from a human intelligence source in Yemen, CBS News has learned. While the Signal chat messages published by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic this week may not have compromised the effectiveness of the airstrike, given the publication's restraint on releasing the information, it did compromise a human source who provided the intelligence to the Israelis, who then provided it to the U.S. for targeting, a senior American intelligence official and a source with knowledge of the Israelis' ire told CBS News. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters.

Israeli officials are expressing outrage over the leaked Signal chat involving senior Trump administration officials, as it contained sensitive intelligence provided by Israel to the US from a human source in Yemen, according to a report. The disclosure, published by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, did put a human intelligence source at risk, a senior American intelligence official and a source familiar with Israel’s concerns told CBS News.

Israel provided the US with critical intelligence from an on-the-ground source in Yemen that was later leaked as part of the SignalGate scandal, according to a report. In the Signal messages, national security adviser Mike Waltz told top Trump administration officials that intelligence had a “positive ID” of the Houthis’ “top missile guy” entering a building that was hit in the US airstrikes. That message was revealed by the Atlantic this week after its editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a private Signal chat on March 11 to plan out the strike. Privately, Israeli officials complained to Washington that Waltz’s message about that intelligence went public, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a US official.