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Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was mistakenly added to a private group chat on Signal comprised of several high level Trump officials, who subsequently discussed in clear detail plans for the ongoing war in Yemen.
The messages allegedly involved Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, among many others.
Titled 'Houthi PC small group' on the private messaging app Signal, the collective discussed classified plans to bomb Yemen, and plans were executed in real time as messages were sent.
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Initially The Atlantic decided against revealing the exact conversations that were discussed in the group, pointing to the potential for national security to be compromised, but they have since u-turned and disclosed a full transcript of the group's discussions, as reported by The Guardian.
"There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels," outlined Goldberg and Shane Harris in a follow up article, "especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared."
Several members that were allegedly involved in the group chat have denied that any classified information was shared or discussed, and that all communications were 'lawful', but the release of the transcript by The Atlantic has called these claims into question by many.
Shared by Brian Krassenstein on X, the lengthy chat log involves not only discussions involving complex foreign policy, but direct military commands to execute bombing strikes too.
Defense Secretary Hegseth in particular sent a detailed breakdown of planned strikes, beginning with a statement that relays confirmation from the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) that "we are GO for mission launch."
BREAKING: Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic @TheAtlantic has just released the FULL Text Message Chain.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 26, 2025
I have provided all texts in this post and the thread below:
CHECK MATE! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/UvSj4jJdHi
Five separate strikes between '1215et' and '1536' were denoted by Hegseth, with specificities given in reference to the planes (F-18s) and conditions.
"Godspeed to our Warriors," was how Hesgeth ended his detailed plan, and JD Vance followed this up with "I will say a prayer for victory."
Furthermore, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz also detailed the success of a strike on "the first target" who is designated as "their top missile guy."
In this, Waltz illustrates that "we had positive ID of [the target] walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed," to which Vance replied: "Excellent."
The Atlantic believe that, despite contradictory claims from those involved in the group, discussing the aforementioned sensitive war plans on Signal was ill advised, and could have put the lives of any Americans involved in the strikes at risk.
"If this information - particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen - had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face," The Atlantic argue.
