LAST UPDATE | 26 Mar

THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE has published the entire text of a chat group among top US national security officials laying out plans of an imminent attack on Yemen that was mistakenly shared with a journalist.

The stunning details, including the times of strikes and types of planes being used, were all laid out in screenshots of the chat, which the officials had conducted on a commercial Signal messaging app, rather than a secure government platform.

Journalist and The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to the group chat, titled “Houthi PC small group”, by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

“PC” refers to “Principals Committee”, a group of the highest-ranking national security officials – Goldberg said he has no idea how or why he was added to this group chat.

Waltz has admitted being responsible for Goldberg being added to the group chat.

The magazine, which initially only published the broad outlines of the chat, said it was now publishing the details after the Trump administration repeatedly denied that any classified information had been included.

The scandal has rocked President Donald Trump’s administration, which for now is reacting defiantly – attacking The Atlantic and denying any wrongdoing.

The White House launched a coordinated attack in which it slammed the magazine’s journalists as “scumbags” and dismissed the story as a “hoax.”

When informed that The Atlantic was considering publishing the entirety of the Signal chain, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to repeated claims that “there was no classified information transmitted in the group chat”.

However, Leavitt added that this “does not mean we encourage the release of the conversation”.

“This was intended to be an internal and private deliberation amongst high-level senior staff and sensitive information was discussed,” said Leavitt.

“So for those reasons – yes, we object to the release.”

However, The Atlantic released the group chat chain because of “assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts”.

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes had said Monday the chain cited by The Atlantic appeared to be “authentic.”

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat – also including Vice President JD Vance and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe – right ahead of strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen on 15 March.

For reasons unknown, Goldberg’s phone number had been added to the group.

Disparaging comments were made by the top US officials about European allies during their chat, with Vance writing: “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

Hegseth replied: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

The Atlantic initially did not publish the precise details of the chat, saying it wanted to avoid revealing classified material and information that could endanger American troops.

For example, the chat contains the name of the CIA director’s chief of staff, and CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified – while this name was redacted by The Atlantic, everything else it released today is unredacted.

Yesterday, CIA director Ratcliff and other officials involved in the chat played down the scandal, testifying before Congress that nothing critical had been shared or laws broken – and that nothing discussed was classified.

‘More F-18s LAUNCH’

The Atlantic said its publication today included everything in the Signal chain other than that one CIA name.

It includes Hegseth laying out the weather conditions, times of attacks and types of aircraft being used.

The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off and two hours before the first target, described as “Target Terrorist,” was expected to be bombed.

The details are shockingly precise for the kind of operation that the public usually only learns about later – and in vague terms.

“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package),” Hegseth writes at one stage.

“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”

A short time later, Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing “Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID” and “amazing job.”

Waltz also replied with a series of emojis, such as a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji.

Responding to the transcript released today by The Atlantic, Vance sought to dismiss it as “oversold”.

“It’s very clear (Jeffrey) Goldberg oversold what he had,” Vance posted on X, referring to the Atlantic editor-in-chief who was mistakenly included in the group chat of top Trump officials discussing military plans.

“No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS,” posted National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

The Houthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US.

The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the group in response to constant Houthi attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper