Current Events > Atlantic editor suggests he's open to sharing Hegseth's full war plans texts pub

(+) Yeah! (+)

Jeffery Goldberg, the top editor of The Atlantic, said he could be open to sharing more details from a Signal group chat he was mistakenly added to by top U.S. officials that contained secret war plans.
I get the defensive reaction, Goldberg said Tuesday during an interview with The Bulwark. But my obligation, I feel, is to the idea that we take national security information seriously.

Goldberg published a bombshell report Monday outlining how he was added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app that included top U.S. intelligence and military officials earlier this month relating to the U.S. governments plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.
Goldberg reported he saw in a message, sent to the group by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, specific weapons systems, human targets and other top secret information before he left the chat. He did not publish the specific information as part of his report, citing national security concerns.
The White House has denied war plans were texted to the group, and Hegseth on Monday denied the reporting as well, calling Goldberg a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist whos made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.
Maybe in the coming days, Ill be able to say, OK, I have a plan to have this materiel vetted publicly,' Goldberg told The Bulwark on Tuesday. But Im not going to say that now.
During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe contended that the Signal chat in question did not include classified information.

Trump says it wasn't classified.

Should be no problem then right?

Right?

RIGHT????

one of the members of the chat group was in Moscow at the time chatting on his personal phone.
Edit 1: Site seeing in Moscow guy: U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff
Edit 2: It gets worse
Department of Defense Official "use of unclassified mobile device applications" explicitly prohibits DoD employees from using personal devices for DoD related work... like planning military strikes on March 15th
https://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/Library/Memo-UseOfUnclassMobileApps.pdf
March 18th, 2025: The Pentagon issues a warning memorandum that both
Warns that the application Signal was compromised by the Russians
Permits Signal application usage moving forward for unclassified materials
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339801/pentagon-email-signal-vulnerability
March 25th, 2025: Trump admin declassifies the DoD Military strikes Signal planning on March 15th, and protects his henchmen who endanger our nations security every single day

I've never seen someone announce they'll be committing suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head three times but there's a first time for everything I suppose.

schrodinger's declassification: if the editor releases it and it hurts trump, then it wasn't declassified and the editor is in trouble. but if it doesn't hurt trump then it was and it's no big deal

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/

Paywall

Does he drop the whole thing?

At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, TEAM UPDATE:
The text beneath this began, TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. Centcom, or Central Command, is the militarys combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:

1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)
1345: Trigger Based F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
The Hegseth text then continued:
1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier Trigger Based targets)
1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.
MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)
We are currently clean on OPSECthat is, operational security.
Godspeed to our Warriors.

Shortly after, Vice President J. D. Vance texted the group, I will say a prayer for victory.

At 1:48 p.m., Waltz sent the following text, containing real-time intelligence about conditions at an attack site, apparently in Sanaa: VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job. Waltz was referring here to Hegseth; General Michael E. Kurilla, the commander of Central Command; and the intelligence community, or IC. The reference to multiple positive ID suggests that U.S. intelligence had ascertained the identities of the Houthi target, or targets, using either human or technical assets.

Six minutes later, the vice president, apparently confused by Waltzs message, wrote, What?

At 2 p.m., Waltz responded: Typing too fast. The first target their top missile guy we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriends building and its now collapsed.
Vance responded a minute later: Excellent. Thirty-five minutes after that, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, A good start, which Waltz followed with a text containing a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji. The Houthi-run Yemeni health ministry reported that at least 53 people were killed in the strikes, a number that has not been independently verified.

Later that afternoon, Hegseth posted: CENTCOM was/is on point. Notably, he then told the group that attacks would be continuing. Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.

We are currently clean on OPSEC

We are currently clean on OPSECthat is, operational security.

I've never seen someone announce they'll be committing suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head three times but there's a first time for everything I suppose.

What if this was intentional

"Let's look like we made a shitty accident, and show the world we're not going to backpedal. POWERRRRR"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5b6c5109.jpg

This is a solid point and needs to be pushed hard https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1c7a5fa7.jpg

This could have turned out VERY badly

This is a solid point and needs to be pushed hard https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1c7a5fa7.jpg

This could have turned out VERY badly

Funny enough, that almost makes JD look somewhat measured and competent.

I hope this atlantic journalist has a flight to get outside of the US ready asap, otherwise he's gonna be disappeared into the gitmo or el salvador gulags.

Weirdly enough, by him releasing all this I feel like it's even less likely anyone faces any consequences. It's a circular logic of "see, it's out in public now so it's not classified and no big deal!"

This editor had his receipts.

Under normal circumstances every member on that group chat would resign and be subsequently prosecuted. Won't happen of course because America is not a place of laws - at the very least the laws only apply to a certain subset of people.

I'm a healthcare professional. If I set up a group chat and started talking about patient information in non-secure channels or unapproved ways I would be FIRED.

schrodinger's declassification: if the editor releases it and it hurts trump, then it wasn't declassified and the editor is in trouble. but if it doesn't hurt trump then it was and it's no big deal

The damage control I'm seeing from the administration over this is amusing. So many contradictory statements.

"It's fake" to "okay yes it's real but there wasn't a mistake (does that mean letting an unknown number into the group was intentional?), to "everything was declassified." Can't wait to see what else they come up with next. If they call for punishment on the editor releasing all these screens then it must not have been declassified, huh?