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The White House confirmed Monday that a journalist was mistakenly included in a private text group where US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials were discussing military strikes in Yemen.
“We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.
A Shocking Revelation
The mistake was brought to light by The Atlantic magazine’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who detailed the incident in a published story.
“US national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling,” wrote Goldberg.
His article described how, two hours before the first attack, he had already received details of the strike plan.
“I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,” Goldberg further stated in his report.
Initial Doubts and Growing Suspicion
Goldberg initially doubted the authenticity of the message he received via Signal from someone claiming to be Michael Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. The text stated that a high-level government group was being formed to coordinate military action against the Houthis in Yemen.
Given the Trump administration’s often hostile stance toward journalists, Goldberg considered the possibility that the message was a prank or an impersonation attempt. The idea that senior officials would discuss sensitive military operations over a commercial messaging app rather than secure government channels also raised skepticism.
A Costly Mistake with Real Consequences
As the conversation continued, it became clear that Goldberg had, in fact, been inadvertently included in a real-time planning discussion among top US officials. The mistaken inclusion led to a major security breach, exposing details of an impending attack.
The strikes, which marked the first US military action against Yemen’s Houthis under Trump’s presidency, resulted in 31 casualties on March 16. Following the attack, Trump issued a stern warning, declaring that “hell will rain down upon” the Iran-backed group if they continued their assaults on shipping vessels.
The Houthis, who have been targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping during the ongoing Gaza war, claimed that among those killed were children.
This highly embarrassing incident has raised serious concerns about the security measures in place within the US national security apparatus and how such a glaring mistake could have occurred.
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