US officials accidentally leaked Yemen attack plans in Signal chat shared with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
The Atlantic magazine has published US attack plans against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, mistakenly shared in a group chat that included its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
The release on Wednesday came after US President Donald Trump sought to downplay the significance of the texts shared on the Signal messaging app, calling them “not a big deal”.
Some of the most crucial of the published messages appear to have been sent on March 15 by an account seeming to belong to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the US military prepared to carry out its attack on Yemen.
Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, purportedly White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller (SM) and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (TG) were among those present in the chat.
Here is a detailed transcript of the senior US officials discussing the strikes on the day they took place:
March 15
Hegseth (11:44 am ET):
- TEAM UPDATE.
- TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVOURABLE . Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.
- 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)
- 1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
- 1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)
- 1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.
- MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)
- We are currently clean on OPSEC
- Godspeed to our Warriors.
Vance (12.13pm ET):
- I will say a prayer for victory.
Waltz (13:48pm ET):
- VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.
Vance (13.54 pm ET):
Waltz (14.00pm ET):
Vance (14.01pm ET):
Ratcliffe (14.36pm ET):
Waltz
Rubio (17:14pm ET):
- Good Job Pete and your team!!
Waltz (17:15pm ET):
- The team in MAL did a great job as well.
Stephen Miller (17:18pm ET)
- Great work all. Powerful start.
Hegseth (17:20pm ET):
- CENTCOM was/is on point. Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.
Wiles (17:21pm ET)
- Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless.
Steve Witkoff – Middle East special envoy (17:47pm ET)
Gabbard (18:35pm ET)
Below are parts of the transcript revealing the buildup to the attacks:
March 13
Waltz (16:28pm ET):
- Team – establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours.
- My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.
- Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.
Marco Rubio (16:29pm ET):
JD Vance (16:29pm ET):
Tulsi Gabbard (16:30pm ET)
Scott Bessent (16:39pm ET)
Pete Hegseth (16:53pm ET)
Brian (18:34pm ET)
March 14
Waltz (08:05am ET):
- Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance this morning in your high side inboxes.
- State and DOD, we developed suggested notification lists for regional Allies and partners.
- Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days and we will work w DOD to ensure COS, OVP and POTUS are briefed.
Vance (08:16am ET):
- Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.
- Three percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary.
- The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message. I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.
- I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. 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.
Joe Kent – Gabbard chief of staff (08:22am ET):
- There is nothing time sensitive driving the time line. We’ll have the exact same options in a month.
- The Israelis will likely take strikes and therefore ask us for more to replenish whatever they use against the Houthis.
- But that’s a minor factor. I will send you the unclass data we pulled on BAM shipping.
Ratcliffe (08:26am ET):
- From CIA perspective, we are mobilizing assets to support now but a delay would not negatively impact us and additional time would be used to identify better starting points for coverage on Houthi leadership.
Hegseth (08:27am ET):
- VP (Vance): I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS.
- Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc).
- I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what – nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded. Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus.
- Two immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms. We can manage both.We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should.
- This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered.
- But, we can easily pause. And if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100 percent OPSEC. I welcome other thoughts.
Waltz (08:32am ET):
- The trade figures we have are 15 percent of global and 30percent of container. It’s difficult to break that down to US.
- Specific because much of the container either going through the red sea still or around the Cape of Good Hope our component going to Europe that turns into manufactured goods for transatlantic trade to the United States.
- Whether we pull the plug or not today European navies do not have the capability to defend against the types of sophisticated, anti-ship, cruise missiles, and drones the Houthis are now using.
- So whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes. Per the president’s request we are working with DOD and State to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans.
Waltz (08:42am ET):
- As we stated in the in the first PC we have a fundamental decision of allowing the sea lanes to remain closed or to re-open them now or later, we are the only ones with the capability unfortunately.
- From a messaging standpoint we absolutely ad this to of horribles on why the Europeans must invest in their defense.
Vance (08:45am ET):
- @Pete Hegseth if you think we should do it let’s go.
- I just hate bailing Europe out again.
Vance (08:46am ET):
- Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here.
- And if there are things we can do upfront to minimise risk to Saudi oil facilities we should do it.
Hegseth (08:49am ET):
- VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.
- But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.
- Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.
SM (09:35am ET):
- As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return.
- We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what?
- If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.
Hegseth (09:46am)
