By: Sydney Umstead, News Editor
The Atlantic published an article titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” on Monday, March 24, after the publication’s editor-in-chief was placed inside a group chat led by the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Here’s what happened.
Two hours after the paper’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been accidentally added to a group chat detailing a U.S.-led bombing on Yemen, the bombs began to wreak havoc.
In the days since the original messages and article, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other members of the group have denied that the accidental text chain included war plans; however, by Wednesday, March 26, that rhetoric would be harder to maintain.
The Atlantic went on to write a follow-up article including what the text messages said in order to maintain their credibility and verification practices.
The app, Signal, which apparently did not notify any party about screenshots being taken, is a “State-of-the-art end-to-end encryption (powered by the open source Signal Protocol),” where the company cannot “read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can either,” according to the app’s website.
The Atlantic article began with the statement that, per concern for the people involved and the risk of violating national security, “As a general rule, we do not publish information about military operations if that information could possibly jeopardize the lives of U.S. personnel.” However, following reaching out to the Trump administration and again being told the information was “not classified,” they have published the unredacted messages.
The Atlantic writes, in regard to the messages and them being “not classified,” “[the] Signal message shows that the U.S. secretary of defense texted a group that included a phone number unknown to him – Goldberg’s cellphone number – at 11:44 a.m.” Further, “If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media—the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds,” which would have been “catastrophic” for the pilots.
One of the texts read, “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).” Later, after the intended target was murdered, one of the participants sent an American flag and a fire emoji.
The end of the article features multiple screenshots of the text group chat, one being when Michael Waltz, U.S. National Security Advisor, added Goldberg into the group. Before the messages were published, Waltz stated he would be investigating this matter, unsure of how Goldberg was there in the first place.