A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location after US President Donald Trump ordered escalation of the United States military aggression towards Yemen on March 15, 2025. (Via Reuters)
Senior officials within the administration of US President Donald Trump are reported to have inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the American magazine, The Atlantic, in a confidential group chat discussing imminent military aggression against Yemen.
As outlined by Goldberg, the outright divergence from security standards that was widely reported on Tuesday saw him receive an unexpected invitation to a Signal group named "Houthi PC small group" on March 11, Houthi referring to Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement.
Despite being initially skeptical about the authenticity of the invitation, the journalist was reportedly added to the conversation two days later, where he observed discussions detailing planned bombings on Ansarullah’s positions.
The group chat, he has said, comprised high-ranking officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Within this forum, they deliberated over specifics such as weapons deployment, target selection, and timing of the aggression, Goldberg has noted.
He said he had realized that the officials appeared to be unaware of his presence in the chat, as they continued to share apparently sensitive information without caution.
The reported breach has ignited bipartisan concern, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer condemning it and calling for accountability.
Hegseth has denied that war plans were texted, but did not refute the specifics reported by The Atlantic.
The National Security Council says it has confirmed the authenticity of the messages and initiated an investigation.
The report comes amid US deadly and devastating indiscriminate assaults on Yemen. Most recently, American warplanes conducted fresh bombings against Yemen’s lifeline western port city of al-Hudaydah, the northwestern province of Sa’ada, and the central province of Ma’rib.
Trump has said he would "annihilate" Ansarullah, which has been contributing essentially to formidable regional resistance operations in the face of the ongoing war of genocide against the Gaza Strip and escalated deadly aggression towards Lebanon by the Israeli regime, Washington’s most cherished regional ally.
He ordered intensification of the US’s attacks on the Arab Peninsula nation earlier this month. The aggression, though, has been taking aim at purely civilian targets so far.
In response to the American escalation, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, Ansarullah’s leader, has characterized a decision by Washington to deploy a second aircraft carrier off Yemen’s coastline as an admission of its disastrous failure in the face of his country’s steadfast defensive maneuvers.
Observers, meanwhile, say the reported disclosure of military plans to Goldberg underscores significant vulnerabilities within the Trump administration's handling of sensitive information, raising questions about operational security and the potential implications for ongoing military aggression towards the broader West Asia region.
