US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth texted the start time for a planned killing of a Houthi fighter in Yemen on March 15 as well as other details of imminent waves of US strikes, according to a screenshot of a text chat released by The Atlantic on Wednesday.
Hegseth repeatedly denied texting war plans as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to contain the fallout from revelations that it included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a group chat on encrypted messaging app Signal with Trump’s most senior national security advisors to coordinate on Yemen.
Trump’s administration said on Tuesday that no classified information was shared in the chat, bewildering Democrats and former US officials, who regard targeting information as some of the most closely held material ahead of a US military campaign.
Goldberg, who had initially declined to publish the chat details, did so on Wednesday.
Hegseth’s text included these details, according to The Atlantic: 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package) 1345: Trigger Based F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
Senior US national security officials have classified systems that are meant to be used to communicate secret materials.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified on Tuesday that Security Advisor Mike Waltz set up the Signal chat for unclassified coordination and that teams would be “provided with information further on the high side for high-side communication”.
