THOSE War Plans? Pete Hegseth Didn’t Know You Meant THOSE [hic] War Plans
NOBODY WAS TEXTING ... oh.
Well, that was fast.
Yesterday and the day before, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth angrily told reporters that “NOBODY WAS TEXTING WAR PLANS,” and Director of National Intelligence (LOL) Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate and insisted that “There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group.”
More than the obvious lying, people from the top of the Trump administration on down and their affiliated media smear machines were vilifying Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg with every mean name and insinuation they could think of, even though it certainly wasn’t Goldberg who accidentally added himself to a chat thread on Signal so all the Trump regime’s top players could plan the Yemen bombings and watch them together on an unsecured channel.
By last night, the situation was becoming untenable, and Goldberg, who has been far more careful with classified information than any member of the regime, was considering releasing the text thread in full, including the parts he had only previously described, so that people could see whether or not Pete Hegseth was sharing war plans and if it was classified.
Welp, fuck around and find out, as they often say in 2025 to people foolish and/or fascist enough to elect Donald Trump their Dear Leader.
Goldberg hit “publish” this morning on all his receipts.
Does this look like classified war plans to you?
Huh. Well, that doesn’t look like recipes, unless they’re very specific recipes for airstrikes in Yemen.
As we noted yesterday during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Worldwide Threats hearing starring Gabbard and CIA Director Ratcliffe, at one point the numbnuts who had been present on the Signal thread (i.e. those two) seemed to be trying to zhuzh their testimony midstream, to start insisting that when they said there was no classified intel on the thread, what they meant was that from their end there was no classified intel, and they started deferring to Hegseth, who they said has original declassification authority for such things, as the chief of the Pentagon.
But alas, and to be clear, what Tulsi Gabbard said under oath, multiple times, was that there was no classified intel on that text thread. Ratcliffe testified the same.
And oh, Pete was so angry when he denied war plans were discussed! “Nobody was texting war plans! And that’s all I have to say about that!” OK, bud, if your drink is empty, get a new one! No need to yell about it.
And of course, Donald Trump has been lying and saying there was no classified information — you know, the kind of information that could put troops in immediate danger if it got into the wrong hands.
So here are those texts. You saw Secretary Brewery’s battle plans above. These are the texts that came immediately after, between JD Vance and Michael Waltz:
Love the prayer hands emojis on jD Vance’s prayer text. Because these are grownups.
Before Goldberg released them, he says he spent yesterday reaching out to the White House and other various departments and entities to see if they’d have any problem with him sharing the screenshots, especially if they weren’t classified or anything. After hearing mostly nothing, last night here’s what he heard from White House Nazi Barbie spokesliar Karoline Leavitt:
“As we have repeatedly stated, there was no classified information transmitted in the group chat. However, as the CIA Director and National Security Advisor have both expressed today, that does not mean we encourage the release of the conversation. This was intended to be a 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.”
She should really check her grammar while she’s lying. All those errors make her look even more unqualified than usual.
The Atlantic emphasizes why this conversation is so important, and why it’s so dangerous that he, a journalist, was on this thread and learning about highly specific Yemen attack plans two hours before they happened, because these dumbfucks were talking about it on an unsecured line. They quote Hegseth’s battle plans, and then interject:
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.”
CURRENTLY CLEAN ON OPSEC, YOU GUYS! (Pete Hegseth said on Signal, to the editor of the Atlantic, but he didn’t know it, because he didn’t think to check, because he’s a loser and a stupid son of a bitch.)
During that Senate hearing yesterday, John Ratcliffe, an absolute moron, insisted it was fine that he shared the name of a CIA officer in that thread, since that person is not undercover, therefore no bigs! But the spox for the CIA asked the Atlantic to continue withholding that name, because Ratcliffe might not know this — inexperienced dimwit, way in over his head — but sharing CIA officers’ names in public is simply not done. So the Atlantic is still withholding that name, continuing to be more careful about American national security than any talking dildo in the Trump administration.
There was more specific battle detail shared in the group, too. Just after all Pete’s battle plan vomit, and after JD Vance said he would say a prayer and his fellow serious people prayer-hand-emoji-ed him in return, NSA Waltz breathlessly updated on what happened when the bombs went boom:
At 1:48 p.m., Waltz sent the following text, containing real-time intelligence about conditions at an attack site, apparently in Sanaa: “VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.” Waltz was referring here to Hegseth; General Michael E. Kurilla, the commander of Central Command; and the intelligence community, or IC. The reference to “multiple positive ID” suggests that U.S. intelligence had ascertained the identities of the Houthi target, or targets, using either human or technical assets.
JD Vance was confused. (It’s hard to figure out what’s happening sometimes, in the fog of group texts!)
Six minutes later, the vice president, apparently confused by Waltz’s message, wrote, “What?”
At 2 p.m., Waltz responded: “Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
Vance responded a minute later: “Excellent.” Thirty-five minutes after that, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, “A good start,” which Waltz followed with a text containing a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji.
Only the best emojis.
What do you bet there are already a hundred highly in appropriate text threads like this? How many of them have directly put American lives in danger? How many have Russia and China read? How many are they preparing to use to blackmail folks, when the time comes?
Every buffoon in the Trump administration should resign, you incompetent motherfuckers, resign. It’s literally a national security issue.
[Atlantic]
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