The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg had advance notice of a recent United States military strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen because he was inadvertently sent plans for the strike in a message from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Goldberg writes that this massive security breach began on March 11th when he received a connection request on encrypted messaging app signal from a user named Mike Waltz, which just happens to be the name of President Donald Trump's national security adviser.
After accepting the request, Goldberg was then invited to join a messaging channel called "Houthi PC small group" that appeared to show administration officials coordinating plans to attack the Houthis.
Goldberg writes that he was initially skeptical that these accounts were really Trump administration officials and he worried that he had been invited to a channel set up by a hostile foreign power to spread disinformation about American foreign policy.
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"I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans," he explains. "I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president."
However, Goldberg started to realize that he was dealing with the real thing after a user identified as Hegseth sent highly detailed plans for a strike in Yemen — and then watched as bombs began dropping on the country mere hours later.
Goldberg quietly left the Signal group and then sent questions to assorted Trump officials asking them why they had given him access to top-secret war plans.
Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded to Goldberg and confirmed to him that the Signal messages were legitimate.
“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes informed Goldberg. “The thread is a demonstration of the 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.”