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 important 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. Dozens of people, including many children and women, were killed in the attacks, according to Houthi officials.
In the group chat, the Hegseth account posted:
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:
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.
The article created a splash almost as soon as it was published. Questions were raised about why sensitive information was discussed on a non-government platform and whether the text messages would be preserved, as required by federal records laws.
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.”
‘Massive breach’
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.
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 with Fox on Tuesday, Waltz said he took “full responsibility”, admitting that he “built the group” on Signal.
“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” he added.
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