DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Details released by media outlet include the times of US strikes and the types of aircraft being used against the Houthis.
The Atlantic has published what it said were “attack plans” against Yemen’s Houthi rebels that top United States government officials shared in a group chat that inadvertently included the media outlet’s editor-in-chief.
The release on Wednesday came after the administration of US President Donald Trump sought to downplay the significance of the texts shared on the Signal messaging app, according to The Atlantic.
The most import of the newly published messages appear to have been sent on March 15 by an account seeming to belong to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
They include the times of strikes and the types of aircraft being used, as well as early reports about how effective the attacks against the Houthis were.
In the group chat, the Hegseth account posted:
- “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
- “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
- “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
- “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
- “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
- “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
- “We are currently clean on OPSEC” [operational security].
- “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
Later, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz sent a text containing real-time intelligence about conditions at an attack site that is believed to be in Yemen’s capita, Sanaa, according to The Atlantic:
“VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job,” the message read, in an apparent reference to Hegseth; General Michael E. Kurilla, the commander of Central Command; and the intelligence community, or IC.
An account seeming to belong to US Vice President JD Vance, apparently confused, wrote “What?”, to which the Waltz account responded: “Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
‘Massive breach’
The publication of the texts’ transcript comes two days after The Atlantic published an article from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, in which he detailed how he had been added to a group chat where high-level government officials were discussing military actions against the Houthis.
Monday’s report offered a broad-strokes description of what transpired in the chat. “The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel,” Goldberg wrote.
But on Tuesday, US officials sought to wave the scandal aside, repeatedly denying that any classified information had been included in the chat.
“There was no classified information, as I understand it,” Trump said at a meeting of US ambassadors. “ We’ve pretty much looked into it. It’s pretty simple, to be honest. It’s just something that can happen.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who on Tuesday insisted “no classified material was sent to the thread”, slammed The Atlantic for its latest report.
“This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” she wrote on X on Wednesday.
Democrats, however, renewed their calls for Hegseth and other top Trump administration officials to resign over the leaked chat.
“The Signal incident is what happens when you have the most unqualified Secretary of Defense we’ve ever seen,” Senator Mark Kelly wrote on social media. “We’re lucky it didn’t cost any servicemembers their lives, but for the safety of our military and our country, Secretary Hegseth needs to resign.”
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost said the latest report from The Atlantic makes “clear that this was a massive breach of our national security”.
“Had this very specific plan gotten in the wrong hands, Americans would be dead right now, Waltz and Hegseth must be fired immediately,” he wrote on X.
In an interview on Fox on Tuesday, Waltz said he took “full responsibility”, admitting that he “built the group”.
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” he added.
