By A recent U.S. military operation aimed at Houthi militants in Yemen has sparked controversy after highly sensitive details were unintentionally exposed in a private messaging group prior to the strikes. According to The Atlantic, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accidentally shared classified war plans—including targets, timing, and weapon systems—via the encrypted app Signal. The group included top Trump administration officials and, mistakenly, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.
The breach took place just two hours before the March 15 airstrikes, when Goldberg observed senior officials discussing what began as routine policy but quickly evolved into operational details. Though he withheld the sensitive content from publication, Goldberg admitted the experience deeply unsettled him. Hegseth reportedly messaged the group stating that strikes would begin at 1:45 p.m. Eastern, and the attacks followed shortly after, targeting locations in and around Sana’a—territory long controlled by the Houthis.
The magazine reported:
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] 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.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
Reuters reported the next day that “U.S. President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days.
Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, ‘America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!'”
During an interview that week, Waltz accused Iran of directly supporting Houthi efforts to disrupt U.S. naval operations and global shipping. He cited a dramatic shift in global trade, with 70% of maritime traffic now rerouting around South Africa to avoid Houthi-controlled zones, contributing to increased shipping costs and supply chain problems.
Despite the strikes, the Houthis launched a retaliatory attack on March 16. Although U.S. officials reported that no American vessels were hit, the Yemeni Armed Forces claimed they successfully attacked the USS Harry S. Truman using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. Their statement also alleged that they had disrupted an offensive being planned by the U.S., though this claim remains unverified.
The Pentagon has come under fire for allowing operational information to circulate over a commercial platform. Anonymous officials warned that this could violate the Espionage Act and compromise national security. Senator Jack Reed condemned the leak, calling it a gross failure of operational security.
The National Security Council confirmed the messages were real and stated that an internal review is ongoing. Though NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes called the chat part of a “thoughtful policy coordination,” he acknowledged Goldberg’s inclusion was an error.
As the fallout continues, Secretary Hegseth has left for a diplomatic tour of Asia while liberals have complained about Trump’s previous attacks on Democrats for mishandling classified material.
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