Yasin Yorgancı and Zeynep Katre Oran
27 March 2025•Update: 27 March 2025
ANKARA
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity and familiar with military operation plans for Yemen, told CNN about a US journalist being added to a Signal group where war plans were discussed.
The report, published Wednesday, revealed that the information shared by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Signal chat with top national security officials of the Trump administration was ‘highly classified’ at the time, as the operation had not yet begun.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported Monday that he had been mistakenly added to the "Houthi PC small group" chat on March 13, after receiving a connection request from an account bearing US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz's name two days prior.
A defense official described the information shared as "operational plans that are highly classified in order to protect service members," according to the CNN report.
Emphasizing that such sensitive information is not shared on unclassified channels to protect the lives and safety of service members involved in the strikes, the official called it “irresponsible," adding that “even junior analysts” are trained not to disclose such information.
“It is safe to say that anyone in uniform would be court-martialed for this,” the anonymous defense official told CNN.
A third source familiar with the situation said Pentagon documents marked as classified contained the same details Hegseth shared in the chat, including specifics about weapons platforms and the timing of the operation, adding: “It was classified when it was shared below the principal level.”
On Wednesday, The Atlantic published additional messages from the group chat, shedding light on the extent of the security breach.
Among the messages, Hegseth was quoted as saying: "Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch."
Despite growing scrutiny, US President Donald Trump and his team have downplayed concerns about the sensitivity of the information, denying that classified war plans were disclosed.
