It is a mistake worthy of a suspense political series. The Trump administration concentrates criticism in recent hours for having mistakenly disclosed a journalist from The Atlantic Sensitive information on strikes by the United States in Yemen against Houthi rebels. Detailed in the press Monday, March 24, the blunder makes the headlines in the United States, the democratic opposition denouncing a major “operational security flaw”.
“It seems for the moment that the chain of messages which the article reports is authentic, and we seek to know how a number was added by mistake,” reacted the spokesperson for the National Security Council, Brian Hughes, about this hiccup. If the White House still claims to have “the greatest confidence” vis-à-vis the officials present on the group, Donald Trump, he said “knowing nothing” on this file.
What exactly happened?
The case is incredible. Like many reporters, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor -in -chief of the American magazine The Atlanticholds a signal account. This encrypted messaging is a working tool for many journalists, who often communicate with political sources via this channel, supposed to guarantee their exchanges a certain confidentiality. On March 11, Jeffrey Goldberg was contacted by Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Nothing abnormal until then. But, in the following days, a strange invitation slips into its reception box. A group, which are most senior officials from the US administration, authorizes it to access its discussions.
Besides Mike Waltz, Jeffrey Goldberg is arrested by the profile of the 18 personalities present on the loop. We find there the American vice-president JD Vance, the Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, the boss of the CIA John Ratcliffe or the adviser of President Trump Stephen Miller. All discuss in detail of next strikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen, a group combined with Palestinian Hamas.
Several exchanges are reported by Jeffrey Goldberg in his article published on the site of his newspaper. JD Vance is thus reluctant to the bombings pushed by his Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth. “If you think you have to do it, let’s go. It’s just that I hate to come to the aid of Europeans once again,” criticizes the number two of the White House. His interlocutor defends his proposal by evoking the need to “reopen the maritime bonds” in the Suez Canal, by which the ships of American goods no longer pass because of regional instability. But the manager is still going in the direction of JD Vance, criticizing what he considers “the profiting behavior of Europeans”. “It’s pathetic”, he says in capital letters in the rest of his message.
Jeffrey Goldberg remains in shock: here he is aware, without having asked, “precise information on weapons, targets and schedules” of American strikes in Yemen. Data that he has not shared in his article, for security reasons. “The world learned shortly before 2 p.m. […] On March 15, that the United States bombed Houthi targets across Yemen, “wrote the journalist.” However, two hours before the explosion of the first bombs, I knew that the attack was imminent. I knew it thanks to Pete Hegseth’s message, the defense secretary, who had sent me the war plan at 11:44 am. “
What are the reactions in the United States?
Inevitably, the case makes a big noise across the Atlantic. How did this journalist have had so easily access to this top secret information? The White House says it conduct an investigation to understand it. In any case, Donald Trump jurors: he was aware of nothing. “You tell me for the first time,” he said on Monday, questioned on the subject by journalists. Before replicating with a projection towards the prestigious American magazine, often critical of the policy led by the Republican: “I am not a big fan of The Atlantic. It is a newspaper that will go bankrupt. “Pete Hegseth, directly implicated by the revelations of the media, has targeted the journalist, a man according to him” sly and very discredited “.
In the American press, many titles question the circumstances of this error. Cnn Recalls that “the lack of experience as an official” of Pete Hegseth had already been pointed out at the time of his taking office in the defense. Three republican senators, including the influential Mitch McConnell, joined the voices of the Democrats to try to invalidate his appointment. Finally confirmed thanks to the decisive vote of JD Vance, this ex-military and columnist of the conservative chain Fox News therefore sees this argument of illegitimacy re-emerging with this scandal.
For its part, the Washington Post Do not fail to point the irony of the incident. The Journal de la Côte Est Recalls that one of Donald Trump’s main arguments to discredit his rival Hillary Clinton during his campaign for the 2016 presidential election was his role in the “E-mails affair”. At the time, the billionaire supported the error that the Democrat had made by using a personal email address to communicate on sensitive files during his visit to the State Department. A practice prohibited by American law – which it had initially disputed. After the revelations of The Atlanticthe unhappy candidate for the White House split a tweet on her X account: “Tell me it’s a joke.”
More generally, the Democratic opposition was offended by the news. “From an operational security point of view, it is the greatest possible forage. These people cannot ensure the safety of America,” said the ex-secretary to the Pettigieg transport, one of the rising stars of the party. The president of the Democrat minority in the Senate Chuck Schumer called for a “complete investigation”, amazed by “one of the most stunning military intelligence leaks […] For a very long time, “a question has been unanswered for the moment, as the Senator of Massachusetts Elisabeth Warren has formulated:” What other highly sensitive conversations on national security are taking place on group cats? Are there other people added by mistake? “