Top national security officials from President Donald Trump’s administration, including the Secretary of Defense, mistakenly shared war plans for upcoming military strikes on Yemen in a group chat via a secure messaging app, which included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, the publication reported today.
The National Security Council stated that the communication appears to be authentic.
The message sent to the group contained operational details for the upcoming attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen, supported by Iran, including information about targets, weapons to be used, and the sequence of strikes, said The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
It is not immediately clear whether these specific details of the military operation were marked as classified, but they often are and are typically kept secure to protect military personnel and operational security, according to AP.
The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes on the Houthis since the militant group began targeting commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in November 2023.
Only two hours after Goldberg received the attack details on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
The National Security Council has said it is reviewing how a journalist was added to the group on the Signal app. U.S. government officials use Signal for organizational messaging, but it is not a classified network and can be hacked.
This information leak comes at a time when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegset has announced plans to crack down on sensitive information leaks, including potentially using polygraphs for Defense Department staff to determine how journalists obtained the information.
So far, a spokesperson for Secretary Hegset has not responded to an AP request for comment on why the Secretary of Defense was writing about operational war plans on an unclassified app.
