Washington:
The United States witnessed one of the most shocking national security indiscretions in years when a journalist was inadvertently added to a group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and other top officials discussed upcoming strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Though the strike was announced by President Donald Trump on March 15, The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg claimed that he had hours of advance notice via the group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
“The message thread that was reported (by Goldberg) appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.
Timeline Of Leaked Chats
Goldberg wrote that he received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz on March 11. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering.
The journalist said had doubts about the identity of the sender but accepted the request assuming the sender was National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
According to Goldberg, he was added to the group chat two days earlier and received messages from other top government officials designating representatives who would work on the issue.
On March 14, a person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Houthi attacks on shipping than the United States.
Goldberg wrote that Hegseth sent information on the strikes, including “targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” to the group chat at 11:44 a.m, around two hours before the attack.
“According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 pm Eastern time,” Goldberg wrote — a timeline that was borne out on the ground in Yemen.
Group chat contributors identified as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Hegseth both sent messages arguing only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the latter official saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
And a person identified as “S M” — possibly Trump advisor Stephen Miller — argued that “if the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
The leak could have been highly damaging if Goldberg had publicized details of the plan in advance, but he did not do so even after the fact.
Pete Hegseth Slams Goldberg
As he spoke to reporters Monday Hegseth dodged questions about the leak, in which highly sensitive material was not only shared with a reporter but also on a commercial app rather than in secure military channels reserved for such communications.
The former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, took no responsibility for the security breach as he spoke to reporters late Monday.
He instead attacked Goldberg and insisted that “nobody was texting war plans,” despite the White House confirming the breach.
Meanwhile, the White House said President Trump “continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team,” after the US president earlier said he did not “know anything about” the issue.
Houthi Attacks
The Houthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.
They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Houthis’ campaign crippled the vital route, which normally carries about 12 per cent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
The US began targeting the Houthis in response under the previous administration of president Joe Biden, and has launched repeated rounds of strikes on Houthi targets, some with British support.
Trump has vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” citing the Houthis’ threats against Red Sea shipping, and US strikes have continued over the past 10 days.