US Senate to question intelligence officials after war plans leak

The Trump administration's top intelligence officials face Congress this week to offer their first testimony in office about the threats facing the United States and tackle urgent questions about the security breach that unfolded when war plans were mistakenly leaked to a journalist.

FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are among the witnesses who will appear Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee and Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee in back-to-back hearings.

Tuesday's hearing will take place one day after news broke that several top national security officials in the Republican administration, including Ratcliffe and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, texted war plans for military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic.

The text chain contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing, Goldberg reported. The strikes began two hours after Goldberg received the details.

Horrified by the leak of what is historically strictly guarded information, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, Rep Jim Himes of Connecticut, said he will be demanding answers in the hearing, as will others.

The annual hearings on worldwide threats will offer a glimpse of the Trump administration's reorienting of priorities, which officials across agencies have described as countering the scourge of fentanyl and fighting violent crime, human trafficking and illegal immigration.