WASHINGTON – The Atlantic magazine published on March 26 details of plans for US airstrikes in Yemen that were mistakenly shared by Trump administration officials with its editor-in-chief, Mr Jeffrey Goldberg, on the commercially available messaging app Signal.
When asked by Reuters to comment, the White House referred to an X post on March 26 by national security adviser Mike Waltz, who wrote: “No locations. No sources and methods. NO WAR PLANS.” The Atlantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Here are excerpts:
‘We are a go for mission launch’
On March 11, Mr Goldberg received an invitation to the group chat from Mr Waltz.
Also on the Signal chat were other administration officials including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice-President J.D. Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard. They were discussing a forthcoming US attack on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
On March 15, the day of the attack, Mr Goldberg says the chat turned operational.
At 11.44am Eastern Time (11.44pm Singapore time), Mr Hegseth posted in the chat a “TEAM UPDATE.”
The text continued, “TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/Centcom we are a GO for mission launch.”
Centcom, or the US Central Command, oversees troops in the Middle East.
The text from Mr Hegseth continued:
“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)”
This was 31 minutes before Mr Hegseth said the first US jets would be launched and two hours and one minute before the window of time the attack would begin.
The text from Mr Hegseth then continued:
“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)” * “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRSTBOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’targets)” * “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-basedTomahawks launched.” * “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)” “We are currently clean on OPSEC” “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
Opsec refers to operational security, which means ensuring safety and security of an operation is not violated ahead of its execution.
A screenshot of a Signal group chat during a hearing on global threats before the House Intelligence Committee in Washington on March 26.PHOTO: KENNY HOLSTON/NYTIMES
Girlfriend’s building has collapsed
At 1.48pm, Mr Waltz said: “VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.”
IC refers to the Intelligence Community. Army-General Michael “Erik” Kurilla is the head of US Central Command.
Mr Vance replied, “What?”
At 2pm, Mr Waltz 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.”
Mr Vance responded: “Excellent.”
Thirty-five minutes after that, Mr Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, “A good start,” which Mr Waltz followed with a text containing a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji.
Later that afternoon, Mr Hegseth posted: “Centcom was/is on point.”
Mr Hegseth added, “Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.” REUTERS
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