New leaks from US secret chat: The Atlantic unveils plans for Yemen strike
Illustrative photo: The United States attacked Yemen (Getty Images)
The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, has published new messages from a secret chat involving US officials. These messages concerned US plans for an attack on Yemen, The Atlantic reports.
According to screenshots provided by the publication, just half an hour before the start of the US operation on March 15, a conversation began in the secret Signal chat of top US officials, where Goldberg had been mistakenly added. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth wrote about detailed American plans regarding the takeoff of F-18 fighter jets, deployment of MQ-9 drones, and the use of Tomahawk missiles.
Photo: screenshots of correspondence between US officials (theatlantic.com)
According to the screenshots, the US Secretary of Defense wrote that fighter jets were scheduled to take off at 12:15 Eastern Time (18:15 Kyiv time), and by 13:45 (19:45 Kyiv time), strike drones were expected to be launched.
The Atlantic states that if such information had fallen into the hands of enemies or an irresponsible individual, the Houthis would have had the opportunity to prepare for the attack, and the consequences for American pilots could have been "catastrophic".
At the same time, US President Donald Trump considers this situation merely a "misstep", while the White House and CIA Director John Ratcliffe insist that no classified information was disclosed in the chat.
Signal chat scandal
It was recently revealed that US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had accidentally added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a secret chat involving top officials in the field of national security.
In this chat, officials were discussing their plans for strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Following the incident, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt assured that American military plans were supposedly not discussed in the chat.
