Maybe I have a warped sense of humour, but I still find this passage from the chief editor of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, among the funniest in the annals of US journalism. “The world found out shortly before 2pm eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen,” he wrote. “I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defence, had texted me the war plan at 11.44am. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing.”
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Needless to say, defence officials are supposed to use secure channels to communicate. Such a failure would have been a career-ending moment for any US general or admiral, or rather, any US personnel in military uniform, if not worse.
But in the world of US President Donald Trump, normal professional standards and international norms don’t apply, and Hegseth suffered no serious consequences for a potentially fatal mistake.
The Trump administration has publicly praised the US press for withholding reports ahead of the Caracas raid, as several newspapers apparently knew about it beforehand. Did someone leak the plan, again?
