by The top editor of the Atlantic Magazine announced on Monday that he knew in the Yemen hours before it was refreshed by US air strikes against Houthi rebels, since he was added to a chat from the Signal Messaging app group, in which members of the Trump administration seemed to be about such war plans.
Editor -in -chief Jeffrey Goldberg said that on March 11th he received a signal connection request from someone he believed that he was National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. Two days later, he said that he had been added to a conversation with the title “Houthi PC Small Group” with 18 members of the administration, including Defense Minister Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, where they spoke about plans for bombing Yemen.
Us Air and Naval Assets reached several Houthi goals in Yemen on March 15. The Houthi rebels are a terrorist organization supported by Iran, based in Yemen, which has announced that, according to Associated Press, their attacks should help end the war to Gaza Strip.
Goldberg broke details of the conversation between people who are involved in the signal group, including “JD Vance”, “Mar” (the initials of Foreign Minister Marco Antonio Rubio) and “TG” (of which Goldberg, Tulsi Babbard, the director of the National Intelligence, are).
Goldberg, an experienced reporter for foreign matters, said that he has trouble believing that this chat of the signal group was real. “I had very strong doubts that this text group was real because I could not believe that the management of the United States’ National Security would communicate through impending war plans,” he wrote.
“I have never seen such a violation. It is not unusual for officials to communicate National Security via Signal,” wrote Goldberg. “But the app is mainly used for meeting planning and other logistical matters – not for detailed and very confidential discussions about a pending military action. And of course I have never heard of a case in which a journalist was invited to such a discussion.”
President Trump said reporters on Monday that he “knows nothing about it” when he was asked about the report in the Atlantic. The spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, Brian Hughes, said in an explanation that the news thread described in the article seems to be “authentic”.
“We check how an unintentional number was added to the chain,” continued the statement. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful political coordination between high -ranking civil servants. The continuing success of Houthi surgery shows that our soldiers or our national security had no threats.”
What is signal?
Signal is a private, safe messaging app that was introduced in 2018. It was increased to more than 40 million users worldwide in 2021 after it was popular for its end-to-end encryption of messages that were sent and received via the app, similar to other popular encrypted messaging apps, WhatsApp and telegram. WhatsApp belongs to Meta, while Signal belongs to the Signal Foundation and is operated by a non -profit organization that was co -founded by the creators of the app.
End-to-end encryption measuring apps only make it possible for the sender and the selected recipient to read the messages exchanged via the platform. Signal also offers end-to-end-encrypted video and language calls.
Nothing is saved on the Signal servers – not even Signal employees can read one of the messages that are shared via the platform they have carried out. And just like in virtual private networks or VPNs, Signal has no access to something that users exchange with its platform.
The app also offers an option to activate blemish messages where users set a timer for certain messages to automatically delete and manage all conversation stories.
Government employees must not share Classified information too Such apps
“According to the records that are applicable to the White House and the federal authorities, all government employees are prohibited from using electronic applications such as signal for official business, unless this news will be forwarded immediately or copied to an official government report,” said Jason R. Baron, professor at the University of Maryland and the former director of Litigation in the administration of the national archives and Record, with, said AtlantortexoTorts, atlantort location location location location reporter.
Several former US officials informed Goldberg and Harris that they had used signal in the past to “share not classified information and to discuss routine matters, especially if they travel to overseas without access to US government systems”.
Some members will therefore occasionally use signal on abroad, since the government has its own communication system to exchange classified information either through state -approved devices or in a sensitive, professional information facility or SCIF that, according to Atlantic, have installed most civil servants at cabinet level in their houses.
“They knew that they should never pass on to the app classified or sensitive information,” said Goldberg about the former officials and signal. “Waltz and the other civil servants at the cabinet level may already violate government policy and the law by writing each other about the operation.”
In addition to the non -proper discussion about classified information and added, but also accidentally adding a journalist in the group chat, also accidentally creates new security and legal issues: Provision of classified information to someone who has not been approved to maintain reception.
“This is the classic definition of a leak, even if it was unintentional, and even if the recipient of the leak did not believe that it was a leak until Yemen got American attacks,” emphasized Goldberg.
The congress reacts: “Heads should roll”
Shortly after the Atlantic report had been published, Congress Democrats called for an investigation by the national security officers who were involved in the signal discussion.
“This is an outrageous national security violation and the heads should roll,” Pennsylvania, Chris Deluzio, told the committee for armed forces, to Axios. “We need a complete examination and hearing.”
“We cannot creep this into a simple mistake,” said another Democrat, California Member of Sara Jacobs, to the outlet. “People should be released for it.”
The Senator of Virginia, Mark Warner, the top democrat in the Senate’s secret service shot, said on X: “This government plays quickly and easily with the classified information from our nation and makes all the Americans less secure.”
The New York MP Pat Ryan, a Democrat who also sits on the armed for armed forces, posted on X: “If the Republicans of the house do not stop hearing about how this happened, I will do my damn self.”
The Rep. Don Bacon, Republican in the Broadening Services Committee, told Axios that he had “accidentally sent a text to the wrong person”, which “sent this information about non-social networks”.
“None of this should be sent to non-security systems,” said Bacon.
