The Atlantic publishes entire text chat about U.S. attack on Yemen shared with its editor

The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday released the entire text chat involving senior U.S. national security officials about recent strikes against Yemen’s Houthis, a top-secret conversation that had accidentally included the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

The full-length disclosure follows two intense days during which senior members of the U.S. intelligence and defence agencies have struggled to explain how details that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified wound up on an unclassified chat on the texting app Signal and included Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.

The magazine’s publication of the whole chat showed that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact times of warplane launches, strike packages and targets — before the men and women flying those attacks against the Houthis earlier this month on behalf of the U.S. were airborne. 

Hegseth has refused to say whether he posted classified information on Signal. He is travelling in the Indo-Pacific region and to 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 that it was up to Hegseth to determine whether the information he was posting was classified or not. 

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

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.”

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

WATCH | Trump officials deny classified information was shared: 

Trump officials deny classified information was shared in group chat

In testimony to Congress on Tuesday, top officials from the Trump administration denied sharing classified information about the Yemen airstrikes in a group chat on the Signal messaging app where a journalist was mistakenly added.