The Pentagon, which recently promised to put employees through polygraph tests in an investigation into leaks of classified information, is now the source of its own leak.
On March 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed real-time information about a military strike and its aftermath in a group chat on Signal, a messaging app, that included several other top administration officials and — wait for it — Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
Although defense officials have repeatedly stressed they are committed to being the “most transparent” in history, it is unlikely that this is what they meant.
Goldberg wrote on Monday that he was invited to the chat group earlier this month, and was privy to a March 15 message from Hegseth that included operational details of planned strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hegseth sent the group battle plans of the strike two hours before it occurred. He and CIA Director John L. Ratcliffe, who was also on the chat, appear to have also shared details of intelligence-collecting methods used before the strike.
It is not exactly clear why Goldberg was added to the group. Goldberg wrote that he received a connection request from National Security Advisor Michael Waltz on March 11, but no one on the group seemed to notice his presence until he voluntarily left it.
The March 15 post from Hegseth provided operational details about how the U.S. military would attack the Houthis, including “information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
The good news is that keeping the chat secret was, apparently, on Hegseth’s mind during the exchanges. He texted the group that “I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC,” and later wrote that “We are currently clean on OPSEC.”
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes indicated on Monday that Goldberg’s reporting is accurate.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes wrote in the statement to Task & Purpose. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”
OPSEC, or operational security, refers to not releasing any information that could compromise military operations or put troops in danger. It’s also a subject of numerous mind-numbing briefings and makes a frequent appearance in the comment section of stories on military news — often posted by someone who doesn’t fully grasp what OPSEC actually means.
Goldberg’s revelation comes after the New York Times first reported that Elon Musk, a top ally of President Donald Trump and head of the Department of Government Efficiency Team, would be briefed on the U.S. military’s war plans for China when he visited the Pentagon on March 21.
Trump denied the story, and the New York Times subsequently reported that the planned briefing had been called off. Afterward, Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper announced an investigation that would refer people who leak classified national security to law enforcement agencies for criminal prosecution.
“The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” Kasper wrote.
It is unclear if the Defense Secretary will have to be subjected to a polygraph the next time he logs into Signal.