'No names, no targets, no locations': US Defence secretary on credibility of leaked chats on Yemen

The attack was carried out on the Houthis in Yemen on March 15.

After US President Donald Trump dismissed a scandal over leaked plans for Yemen air strikes as a “witch hunt”, the White House said that no classified information was shared in the messaging group discussing plans of an attack on the Houthis in Yemen on March 15.

The Atlantic Magazine published the transcript of messages accidentally shared with its editor in a chat group of senior US officials on Signal, a commercially available messaging app.

According to the Atlantic, this information which came as the US aircraft were taking off for Yemen, would have exposed American pilots and other personnel to "even greater danger" if they had fallen into the wrong hands.

The Atlantic's Editor In Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was reportedly  inadvertently invited to the group chat on the Signal messaging app in which the bombing plans were being discussed. The chat reportedly included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio, Director Of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others.

The magazine initially withheld the details of the attack plans but finally published them on Thursday after the White House had insisted that no classified details were involved.

The White House and a string of officials involved in the chat denied the story as the pressure mounted. Hegseth, Hawaii, himself said the exchange on March 15 involved “No names. No targets.”

"So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called “war plans” and those “plans” include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,"  Hegseth said on X. "Those are some really shitty war plans".

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed details in the chat including the times of strikes on Iran-backed Huthi rebels and the type of aircraft, missiles and drones used, before the attacks actually happened, according to The Atlantic.

“Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” Trump said when asked by AFP in the Oval Office whether Hegseth should consider his position over the scandal. “How do you bring Hegseth into this? Look, look it’s all a witch hunt,” he said.

Meanwhile, the magazine said it withheld specific information in an earlier report on weapons and the timing of the attack in keeping with its general rule to avoid publishing information about military operations that could impact the lives of US personnel.

"The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump - combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts - have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions. There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in non secure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared," the magazine said.

The Atlantic also said it asked various officials whether they objected to the full text of the chat being shared. According to the magazine,  it got a response from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who reiterated that no classified information was shared but that does not mean "we encourage the release of the conversation".

"This was intended to be an (sic) internal and private deliberation amongst high-level senior staff and sensitive information was discussed. So for those reason (sic) - yes, we object to the release," the report quoted Leavitt as responding.

The Atlantic said experts had repeatedly warned it that using a Signal chat for such sensitive discussions "poses a threat to national security".