In a major security breach, a prominent journalist says he was unintentionally included in a group text messaging app as the country’s top national security officials discussed plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen.
The existence of the message chain was revealed Monday in a story in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the magazine. The group chat took place on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, and began on March 11. Although no one else seemed to be aware of Goldberg’s presence, 18 individuals participated in the chain, including Vice President JD Vance, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
Goldberg said he received a connection request on Tuesday, March 11 from a user on Signal identified as Waltz and accepted it. Two days later, he was added to a group chat on the platform called “Houthi PC small group.” Over the course of the following days, Goldberg told NPR in an interview that he was exposed to “operational military information,” including discussions about planned military strikes on Yemen targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. He said he was in disbelief over the security breach, noting that he was not vetted before being added to the group chat.
“I assume that I’m being hoaxed. I assume that either this is a foreign intelligence operation or an organization that tries to, you know, set up journalists or embarrass them or feed them,” Goldberg said during an interview on “All Things Considered” on Monday. “It was a chilling thing to realize that I’ve inadvertently discovered a massive security breach in the national security system of the United States.”
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