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The senior US intelligence official told CBS News that in this context, "Trigger Based" refers to an operation that is contingent on a specific condition or event - essentially, a decision to launch an airstrike based on confirmation of the target's presence...
Israeli officials are outraged over the leaked Signal chat involving senior Trump administration officials. According to the Israelis, the conversation involved sensitive intelligence that Israel was providing to the US from a human intelligence source in Yemen, CBS News reports.
While the Signal chat messages published by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg this week may not have compromised the effectiveness of the airstrike, given the publication's content in releasing the information, it did compromise a human source who provided the information to the Israelis, who then passed it on to the U.S. for targeting, a senior U.S. Israeli intelligence official and a CBS News source told CBS. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday first reported that Israelis complained to U.S. officials about Mike Waltz, President Trump’s national security adviser, who created the group chat and apparently mistakenly added Goldberg. The group spent several days earlier this month exchanging messages about possible plans to strike Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, who have repeatedly fired missiles at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea.
CBS News reached out to the National Security Council and the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. for comment on Friday, but did not receive a response.
On March 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent messages to the group, made up of what is known as the core committee, the highest level of the National Security Council, which includes cabinet members and other senior American officials.
According to Goldberg's report, one of Hegseth's messages read: "1st Strike F-18 'Based' on 'Trigger' (Targeted Terrorist is @ His Known Location, so should be on time - also, launch of Strike drones (MQ-9s)
The senior US intelligence official told CBS News that in this context, "Trigger Based" refers to an operation that is contingent on a specific condition or event - essentially, a decision to launch an airstrike based on confirmation of the target's presence.
That day, Navy F/A-18F Super Hornets launched from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman stationed in the Red Sea, while MQ-9 Reaper drones flew from bases in the Middle East.
US Central Command said in a statement that they had launched an operation which consisted of "precision strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi targets throughout Yemen in order to restore freedom of navigation".
After US airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthis began, Waltz addressed Vice President JD Vance on the group chat to say that the building had collapsed and that US military forces had "multiple positive identifications," indicating positive identification of the Houthi member or members they intended to kill.
Waltz added: "The first target - their boyfriend - we had positive ID of him entering his girlfriend's building and now it's collapsed."
While a barrage of criticism spread this week towards those involved in the Signal chat, senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly said that the information was not classified and that no sources or methods were compromised.
"There is no location. There are no resources and methods. There are no war plans," Waltz wrote in X on Wednesday, adding that "foreign partners had already been notified that attacks were imminent."
But sources who spoke to CBS News say Israeli intelligence is angry that the intelligence they gave the U.S. was leaked. It is unclear what the fallout, if any, will be between the U.S. and Israel over the situation.
CBS News reported Thursday that President Trump has privately expressed his frustration over the Signal leak and is closely monitoring the news to see if the fallout will be minimized.
On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, both of whom were on the Signal group chat, testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
“There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal conversation,” Gabbard told lawmakers. The next day, testifying before a House panel, Gabbard acknowledged that the conversation was “sensitive,” but again denied that classified information was shared in the conversation. “There were no sources, methods, locations or war plans that were shared,” she said.
Multiple U.S. intelligence officials and members of the U.S. military who spoke to CBS News this week claimed that this type of information is always classified, but even if the information were somehow unclassified, it would still be a violation of cybersecurity and operational security protocols.
CBS News on Tuesday published unclassified internal documents from a National Security Agency bulletin that warned of vulnerabilities in using the Signal app, even though it is encrypted. The NSA bulletin was widely distributed to NSA employees a month before Waltz created the Signal group.
The bulletin also highlighted to NSA employees that third-party messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp are permitted for some "unclassified accountability/return exercises," but not for communicating more sensitive information.
NSA employees were also warned not to send "anything compromising over any social media or internet-based tool or application" and not to "establish connections with people you don't know." /Pamphlet adapted from CBN/
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