Yemen US secret chat: magazine publishes all the news
US President Donald Trump's administration is coming under increasing pressure in the secret chat affair.
26.03.2025, 16:49
SDA
After Trump's team denied all accusations and questioned the integrity of the whistleblowers, the US magazine "The Atlantic" has now published the entire chat history. It reveals that about half an hour before the start of a US military operation against the Huthi militia in Yemen in mid-March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the timetable, the exact sequence of the bombing and the weapons systems used in detail in the chat group.
The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been invited - probably by mistake - to the group chat of high-ranking members of the government and was able to read the plans for the upcoming US military action in Yemen live. He later publicized the dramatic security failure in a long article. Since then, the Trump administration has been in need of an explanation - which is only exacerbated by the new details.
Security failure of immense proportions
The members of the group chat were the top US national security leaders: in addition to Hegseth, they included Trump's deputy J.D. Vance, Trump's National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, the head of the US foreign intelligence agency CIA, John Ratcliffe, and the intelligence coordinator Tulsi Gabbard. Waltz had set up the group, adding journalist Goldberg.
The fact that high-ranking members of the government exchange sensitive information at all via the commercial app Signal is already a breach of the usual security standards. The fact that details about an imminent military strike were discussed there - in front of a reporter whose presence no one was aware of - is considered a security failure of immense proportions.
Trump administration: no confidential information at all
The Atlantic magazine initially only quoted excerpts from the chat, but omitted the military details out of consideration for the safety of US soldiers. However, Trump, Waltz and others involved and leading members of the government publicly claimed in unison that no confidential information had been shared in the chat. Hegseth also vehemently denied having transmitted "war plans". Instead, they discredited The Atlantic and its editor-in-chief.
The magazine therefore decided to publish even the sensitive military passages. "There is a clear public interest in revealing the kind of information that Trump advisers exchanged in insecure channels of communication," the magazine wrote as justification - especially because the Trump administration is trying to play down the significance of the messages. Various members of the government were asked before publication whether they had any objections. Most of them did not respond. The White House was against the publication.
Weather, fighter jet take-off times, order
The messages are quite something. Screenshots of the chat history show that on March 15, shortly before the start of the US military strike in Yemen, Hegseth posted details of the planned course of events in the signal chat - including the weather, take-off times of F-18 fighter jets and drones and the sequence of attacks. It literally reads, among other things: "Target terrorist is at his known location." He did not specify the exact locations of the military actions in his message.
Trump's security advisor Waltz once again played this down, writing on the X platform about the new revelation: "No locations. No sources or methods. No war plans." In addition, foreign partners had already been informed in advance of the impending attacks.
US soldiers in mortal danger?
Democrats and experts consider the dissemination of such concrete information about an imminent military strike via a messenger service that does not even begin to meet the security standards for the exchange of such information to be a complete breach of taboo that put the lives of those soldiers involved in the operation in danger.
For example, a former Defense Department spokeswoman from Democrat Joe Biden's tenure, Sabrina Singh, wrote on X that Hegseth had disclosed the course of the entire operation and the types of aircraft before the operation even took place. "He put the lives of our fighter pilots at risk. Details like this are classified. I am absolutely stunned."
The US military had attacked Huthi militia positions in Yemen on a massive scale in mid-March on Trump's orders. The military strikes against the Huthi have continued since then. The militia controls large areas in the region, particularly in Yemen. After the outbreak of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, it began attacking the Jewish state with missiles and drones in solidarity with the Islamist terrorist organization. It also began attacking ships - especially those with alleged links to Israel - traveling along the coast of Yemen on one of the most important shipping routes for global trade.
Internal discussion about the external presentation of the attacks
The high-ranking members of the government also had a heated discussion in the chat about how the attacks against the Houthis should be presented to the outside world - and whether Europe would not benefit most for its trade if the shipping routes in the region were made safe again.
Vance wrote: "I just hate to bail Europe out again." Hegseth replied: "I fully share your disgust at European parasitism. It's pathetic." Elsewhere, Vance openly questioned whether his boss Trump was aware of how the action would be received in light of his other course on Europe: "I'm not sure the president is aware of how much this contradicts the current messages on Europe."
