The Atlantic releases Signal 'chat' on Yemen attack; mentions warplane launches, bombings

The Atlantic released the entire Signal chat among Trump senior national security officials on Wednesday (March 26), showing that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timing of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen's Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne.

The disclosure follows two intense days during which Trump's senior-most Cabinet members of his intelligence and defence agencies have struggled to explain how details that current and former US officials have said would have been classified wound up on an unclassified Signal chat that included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said no classified information was posted to the Signal chat.

Hegseth has refused to say whether he posted classified information onto Signal. He is travelling in the Indo-Pacific and till date has only scoffed at questions, saying he did not reveal “war plans.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday (March 25) that it was up to Hegseth to determine whether the information he was posting was classified or not.

Why The Atlantic published text messages

The Atlantic first published the story about the huge security breach on Monday (March 24), but without giving the details of the chat.

Then Hegseth, when asked by a journalist why he shared plans about an impending attack on Yemen, denied that he or anybody else had texted about war plans on Signal.

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe and President Trump himself also asserted that no sensitive information had been leaked.

Also Read: No war plans texted on Signal, asserts US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth

It was these outright denials by senior administration officials about a major security lapse that made The Atlantic decide to publish the actual messages.

“The statements by Hegseth, (national intelligence director Tulsi) Gabbard, (CIA director John) Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” said the magazine.

Insider’s view

What was revealed was jaw-dropping in its specificity and includes the type of information that is kept to a very close hold to protect the operational security of a military strike.

In the screenshots, Jeffrey Goldberg can be seen being added to the “Houthi PC small group” by Michael Waltz on March 11.

The heads of departments and agencies then designated their representatives to be added to the group.

VP Vance’s contrarian view about attack

The screenshots show Vice President JD Vance saying he thought they were making a mistake in going ahead with the attack.

Vance’s message read further, “3 per cent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 per cent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message. But I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.”

“I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.” concluded Vance.

Also Read: Yemen war plans leak: ‘Not a serious lapse’, says Trump

Joe Kent, Trump’s nominee for National Counterterrorism Centre director, then agreed with Vance’s point of view. He also said he would send the data on BAM shipping.

“BAM shipping” supposedly referred to US operations in the region to protect international shipping lanes and the freedom of navigation.

CIA Director Ratcliffe also seemed to agree with the proposal to delay the attack.

Hegseth intervenes

Defence Secretary Hegseth then intervened and said he understood their concerns, but it was difficult to know how things would play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc.). He said they needed to focus on two things: 1) Biden failed; 2) Iran funded.

Hegseth said waiting would not “fundamentally change the calculus” and that it might make them look indecisive and Israel might act first. He said he believed they should go ahead with the attack to restore Freedom of Navigation and to Reestablish Deterrence.

The discussion carried on with inputs from various quarters, and Vance then told Hegseth that if he thought they should do it, then he should go ahead.

Also Read: Trump officials ‘accidentally’ shared Yemen war plans with journalist

“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” wrote Vance.

Hegseth said he fully shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading”.

And then they decided to go ahead with the attack, with Hegseth saying “Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet who can do this”.

Hegseth’s messages on Signal

In the group chat, Hegseth 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” — that is, operational security.

“Godspeed to our Warriors.”

Also Read: 2 killed, several injured in US airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels

The chat continued, with Waltz sharing that they had positive ID of “their top missile guy” walking into his girlfriend’s house, and “it’s now collapsed”.

Vance, Ratcliffe, Susie Wiles (White House Chief of Staff), and others applauded on hearing the news.

The conversation ended with Tulsi Gabbard writing, “Great work and effects!”

Goldberg has said he asked the White House if it opposed publication and that the White House responded that it would prefer that he did not publish.

Defence Dept had warned about Signal’s vulnerability

Signal is a publicly-available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked. It is not approved for carrying classified information.

On March 14, one day before the strikes, the Defence Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of Signal, specifically that Russia was attempting to hack the app, according to a US official who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Also Read: Houthis vow escalation after US airstrikes target rebels in Yemen

One known vulnerability is that a malicious actor, with access to a person's phone, can link his or her device to the user's Signal and essentially monitor messages remotely in real time.

Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

(With inputs from agencies)