Entire Signal chat about Yemen attacks are published after Trump team denied it

Entire Signal chat about Yemen attacks are published after Trump team denied it included classified information

Messages from Pete Hegseth contain detailed timeline of when U.S. forces would strike in Yemen and type of weapons they would use

Newly published texts reveal a minute-to-minute breakdown of “war plans,” weapons and targets in Yemen as Trump administration officials and military leaders discussed the operation with a journalist privy to the entire conversation.

The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to the Signal group chat discussing sensitive military operations, has published the messages after the White House and senior officials repeatedly claimed the chat did not contain classified information.

The messages from Hegseth, sent on the day of the attack, March 15, contain a detailed timeline of when U.S. forces would strike Houthi targets in Yemen. “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME,” one of the messages Hegseth wrote that day said.

After the messages were published, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued another denial: “The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,’” Leavitt said in a post on X. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

Hegseth shared the plan approximately two hours before the bombs dropped in Yemen, The Atlantic reported. Some 53 people, including children, were killed in the attacks.

Those included in the chat included Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Vice-President JD Vance, all of whom were among those interacting with Hegseth when he shared the plans. There were 19 members in the group chat, according to the screenshots published by The Atlantic. The outlet said it has redacted the name of a CIA official who is named in the messages by Ratcliffe.
“The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic,” the report adds.

In a statement to The Atlantic, the White House said it objected to the release of the messages.

Screenshots of the messages were published by The Atlantic and show a contact named “Michael Waltz” added Goldberg to the group. It also showed that messages in the end-to-end encrypted app were initially set to disappear after one week. After Hegseth sent the plans, the settings were changed by Waltz so that messages would disappear after four weeks.

Waltz said he took “full responsibility” and that he was investigating how Goldberg had gained access to the chat.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2721905.html