Topics: Politics, US News, Donald Trump, World News, Technology
Defence officials in the Trump administration discussed the US' war plans on a group chat, unaware that a journalist had accidentally been added to the messaging chain - and now it's been leaked.
According to a report in the Atlantic published Monday (24 March), the outlet's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited into a Signal chat group with over a dozen senior Trump administration officials including the Vice President JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, and several others.
Goldberg said he received the Signal - an open-source encrypted messaging service - invitation to 'Houthi PC small group' from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.
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The material in the text chain 'contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing', Goldberg reported.
"The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen," he wrote. "I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming.
"The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defence, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m."
Screenshots from the group chat see Vance questioning whether Americans would understand the importance of strikes that came with the risk of 'a moderate to severe spike in oil prices' and if the timing of the operation might be a 'mistake'.
"I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself," he argued. "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."
Vance also claimed that Europe would benefit much more than the US by the action aimed at eliminating the Houthis and securing Red Sea shipping lanes.
In a back-and-fourth with Hegseth, the VP said: "If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again."
"I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC," Hegseth replied before later adding: "I think we should go."
The White House has since confirmed the leak with national security council spokesperson, Brian Hughes, telling the Guardian: "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."
However, the White House did make an attempt to defend the communications, with Hughes describing the messages as an example of 'deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials'.
"The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security," he added.
Outrage was sparked following Goldberg’s exposé but President Trump initially told reporters he wasn’t aware that the highly sensitive information had been shared.
"I don’t know anything about it," the 78-year-old Republican said at first. "You’re telling me about it for the first time."
Trump also added that The Atlantic was 'not much of a magazine' and appeared to be jokingly brushing it aside later in the day.
Senator Mark Warner, who sits at the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, wrote on social media: "This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe."
Meanwhile, House Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said the leak was 'completely outrageous and shocks the conscience' with Republican Senator, John Cornyn, adding that it was a 'huge screw-up'.
