Atlantic on Wednesday published a new article that detailed the information recognized about the new American attacks in Yemen said accidentally distributed to journalists through signals by senior members of the National Security Council President Donald Trump.
The follow -up article in the Atlantic Dispute Administrative Claims that no secret information is shared in the group, which added by Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg accidentally. Officials in the government “try to reduce the importance of the message shared,” said the article.
The article suggested that the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth updated the “Houthi PC Small Group” signal member of the “Profitable” weather conditions before the planned air strikes on Houthi leaders and other targets in Yemen.
The article said Hegseth also told a group of time planned for F-18 Aircraft Strike flights, MQ-9 Reaper Drone and Tomahawk Cruise Missiles which were launched for the mission.
“This is when the first bomb will definitely go down, waiting for the target ‘based on the previous trigger,” wrote Hegseth before the operation, referring to the time stamp “1415,” or 2:15, according to Atlantic.
The US Central Command confirmed the details on the strike day by releasing recordings and other images that show the F-18 Navy take off from the USS Harry S Truman Carrier in the Red Sea.
Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief, Atlantic, spoke during the Milken Institute of Global Conference on May 3, 2022 at Beverly Hills, California.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty Images
The White House has insisted that communication in group chat is not a war plan, that the information was not classified and criticized by Atlantic journalists who detailed the account – although it had not yet denied the authenticity of the message.
“There is no location. There is no source & method. There is no war plan. Foreign partners have been told that the strike is close. The point: President Trump protects America and our interests, “Michael Waltz’s national security adviser Posted on x.
“Nobody sent an SMS war plan,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. “I noticed that this morning something did not look like a war plan. And in fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they knew it was not a war plan.”
“It is very clear that Goldberg Oversold what he has,” Vice President JD Vance Posted to x.
Goldberg, during an interview with anchor directly ABC News Kyra Phillips, responded to the administrative pushback.
“They have decided clearly, instead of just saying, ‘Yes, we have security violations and we will try to connect the violation and do better at another time,’ they have decided to blame the man they invited into the conversation,” Goldberg said.
“This is a little strange behavior, honest,” continued Goldberg. “I don’t know why they act like this, except to think that they know how serious the national security violations are and they have to turn it on and push it to that man, once again, they are invited into the chat, namely me.”
Goldberg criticized the administration for pursuing Atlantic’s description of chatting as a war plan, calling it “semantic game.”
“They threw away all the smoke veils to avoid being asked about why they were so careless that they had sensitive conversations like this in signals and why they invited a journalist and did not even know that a journalist was there,” he said.
State Secretary Marco Rubio admitted on Wednesday that “explained someone made a big mistake,” but insisted that the whole mission was never threatened.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke at the Defense Personnel Agency at the Joint Pearl Harbor-Hickam Base, Hawaii, March 25, 2025.
Senior pilot Madelyn Keech/Dod
ABC News Contributor Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official and CIA officer, said the information shared in commercial applications seems to specify the ongoing operation that should not be shared publicly.
In Mulroy’s opinion, “This is highly classified and protected. Disclosure will endanger the operation and endanger lives. In addition to nuclear operations and the secret of this information is the most protected.”
The initial story in Atlantic only illustrates the operational part of the message chain, but does not divulge specifically.
According to the article, Hegseth then sent a message to the group with an update after the action, notifying the members that certain Houthi leaders had been found and identified immediately before the strike at their location.
Democrats demanded an answer after the accident because they expressed worry about the handling of government national security information.
Democratic representative Jim Himes, a member of the DPR Intelligence Committee, criticized leading intelligence officials when they appeared for a hearing on Wednesday.
“I think it is with the extraordinary grace of God that we did not mourn at that time,” said Himes. “Two general officers sitting at the table and people who work for you all know that if they arrange and participate in a signal chat, they will leave, and they know that there is only one response to this kind of mistake.”
“You apologize, you have it and you stop everything until you can find out what’s wrong, what is wrong, and how it might never have happened again. Not that happened,” said Himes.