The Atlantic has announced that it was a “plan of attack” against Yemeni Hooti rebels. This was shared by a US government official in a group chat that mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of a media outlet.
Wednesday’s release comes after US President Donald Trump tried to downplay the importance of text shared on signal messaging apps, according to the Atlantic.
The most important message of the newly released message appears to have been sent on March 15 by an account that appears to belong to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses.
They include early reports of the time of the strike, the type of aircraft used, and how effective an attack on Houthis is. Dozens of people, including many children and women, were killed in the attack, according to officials at Houthi.
Posted by your Hegseth account in group chat.
“1215ET: F-18S Launch (1st Strike Package)” “1345: ‘Trigger Base” F-18 First Strike Window begins (target terrorists are known locations. Target) “1536 F-18 Second Strike begins. [operational security]. “God Speed to Our Warriors.”
Later, US national security adviser Mike Waltz sent a text containing real-time intelligence on conditions at attack sites believed to be in Sanaa, Yemen, according to the Atlantic.
“vp. Building collapsed. Multiple positive IDs. General Michael E. Kurira, Central Commander. And Intelligence Community, or IC.
An account that appears to belong to the obviously confused Vice President of the US JD Vance writes, “What?” The Waltz account responded:
“Major Violation”
The publication of The Texts transcript comes two days after the Atlantic published an article from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, where he details how high-level government officials were added to the group chats discussing military action against Houthis.
Monday’s report provided a large explanation of what happened in the chat. “The information they contain could have been used to injure American military and intelligence personnel if they had been read by US enemies,” Goldberg wrote.
This article created a splash as soon as it was published. Questions have been raised about why sensitive information was discussed on non-government platforms and whether text messages will be saved as required by federal government records laws.
However, on Tuesday, US officials tried to take the scandal aside, repeatedly denying that the chat included classified information.
“As I understand, there was no classification information,” Trump said at a meeting of the US ambassadors. “We’ve mostly considered it. It’s very simple, to be honest. It’s just something that can happen.”
White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday denounced the Atlantic for the latest report, claiming that “the classified material was not sent to the thread.”
“This whole story was another hoax written by Trump asshole famous for his sensational spin,” she wrote to X on Wednesday.
However, Democrats renewed their appeals to Hegus and other top Trump administration officials and resigned from leaked chats.
“The signal incident is what happens when we have the least qualified Secretary of Defense we’ve ever seen,” Sen. Mark Kelly wrote on social media. “Fortunately, the military did not take their own life, but for the safety of the military and our country, Secretary Hegses must resign.”
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost said the latest report from the Atlantic “discloses this as a major violation of our national security.”
“If this very specific plan had been put into the wrong hands, the Americans would be dead now. Waltz and Heggs must be fired immediately,” he wrote to X.
In an interview with Fox on Tuesday, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” and admitted that he “builds the group” on the signal.
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” he added.
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