Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday addressed a report by The Atlantic that claimed he had shared sensitive details about U.S. military strikes in Yemen on an encrypted messaging app to a group chat with other cabinet members where a reporter was accidentally added.

“Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said to a journalist after his plane touched down in Hawaii on an official trip.

. @SecDef response to the @TheAtlantic article….

“You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited “so-called journalist” pic.twitter.com/pLtcUF4ZtN

— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) March 24, 2025

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported Monday that he was added to the group chat on March 13, two days after National Security Adviser Mike Waltz requested to add him as a contact on the Signal app.

The group chat was for the purpose of coordinating between the heads of different government agencies in regards to President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen who had been targeting U.S. ships in the Red Sea since October 7, 2023.

Goldberg claimed that the morning of the strikes, on March 15, Hegseth had “texted [him] the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.” (Read more from “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Responds to Atlantic Report: ‘Nobody Was Texting War Plans’” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University anti-Israel activist whom the Trump administration has targeted for deportation, has become a darling of the left, as people who hate America so often do. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) claimed Friday that Khalil’s arrest “has created a speech-chilling atmosphere of fear,” and charges that “the Trump administration’s actions represent a dangerous escalation of the president’s attempts to choke off the free speech rights of people on American soil.” And on Sunday, Khalil’s wife attempted to blow up the entire case against him, asserting that it was “ridiculous” and “disgusting” to say that Khalil supports Hamas.

This is all-important, because if Khalil is found to be a Hamas supporter, the case against him would be nearly open-and-shut. U.S. Code § 1182 states that “any alien” who is “a representative” of “a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity” is “inadmissible.” U.S. Code § 1227 adds that such an alien “is deportable.” The Associated Press described Khalil two weeks ago as one of the “student leaders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest” (CUAD). The Washington Post reported last Tuesday that “No one disputes that Khalil was the face of Columbia University Apartheid Divest.”

Khalil was CUAD’s chief negotiator with Columbia administrators. Politico explained: “Khalil was a lead negotiator representing the student protesters to the Columbia administration during the school’s ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ last spring. The student group behind the encampment — Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD — had two main demands: that Columbia cut all its ties to Israel, including divesting and halting plans to build a ‘global center’ in Tel Aviv, and that the protesters themselves receive amnesty for their actions.”

However, apparently aware of how damaging that fact is to his case, Khalil himself disputes this. The BBC framed Khalil’s connection to CUAD as if it were merely something his opponents claimed: “Activists supporting Israel have accused Mr Khalil of being a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad), a student group that demanded, among other things, the university to divest from its financial ties to Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza. Mr Khalil has denied that he led the group, telling the Associated Press (AP) that he only served as a spokesperson for protesters and as a mediator with the university.”

It’s easy to see why Khalil would want to distance himself from CUAD. In August 2024, it posted this on Instagram, then removed it once it started getting appalled notice from saner quarters: “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.” During the anti-Israel protests at Columbia, the demonstrators screamed “Death to America.” (Read more from “Wife of Activist Trump Wants to Deport Just Tried to Blow Up the Whole Case Against Him” HERE)

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