The Atlantic has released the entire Signal chat among Trump senior national security officials. It shows that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact times of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen's Houthis this month on
  • cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    15·
    6 days ago

    At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, “TEAM UPDATE:”

    The text beneath this began, “TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:

    • •“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
    • •“1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”

    Let us pause here for a moment to underscore a point. This Signal message shows that the U.S. secretary of defense texted a group that included a phone number unknown to him—Goldberg’s cellphone—at 11:44 a.m. This was 31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched, and two hours and one minute before the beginning of a period in which a primary target, the Houthi “Target Terrorist,” was expected to be killed by these American aircraft. If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media—the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.

    The Hegseth text then continued:

    • •“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
    • •“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
    • •“1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
    • •“MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
    • •“We are currently clean on OPSEC”—that is, operational security.
    • •“Godspeed to our Warriors.”