Latest news with #ofNavigation
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pete Hegseth Runs Away When Asked About War Plans Group Chat
The man whose word the Trump administration is swearing by refuses to speak. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth still refuses to give a straight answer on when exactly he declassified the plans he shared in a Signal group chat to attack Yemen. Full text messages from the group chat, which included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, were released Wednesday and showed sensitive government information was shared, including timing of the airstrikes on Yemen. 'Mr. Secretary, did you share strike plans before they launched? Mr. Secretary, how do you square what you said with what your messages show?' a reporter asked Hegseth Wednesday afternoon. He walked away silently. 'Did you share classified information? Did you declassify that information before you put it in the chat?' Hegseth continued to ignore the questions. Hegseth's refusal to answer comes just hours after Representative Johnny Gomez asked CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard if Hegseth—whom he referred to as 'the main person involved in this thread'— was drunk when he sent the messages regarding Yemen in the chat. On Monday, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that Mike Waltz had added him to a Signal chat with Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple other defense Cabinet members. Hegseth called Goldberg a 'deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist' when asked about it on Monday. 'We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should,' Hegseth wrote in the chat. 'This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered.' If these attack plans—which Republicans are framing as just a chill, regular conversation—were truly unclassified long ago, the defense secretary should have no issue saying that plainly.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump vows to hold Iran responsible after fighting escalates between U.S., Houthis
March 17 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump vowed Monday to hold Iran responsible after fighting between the United States and Houthi militants escalated following U.S. airstrikes over the weekend. "Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran, and Iran will be held responsible and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire," Trump warned Monday in a post on Truth Social. "They're dictating every move, giving them weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated military equipment and even so-called 'intelligence,'" the president added. "Any further attack or retaliation by the Houthis will be met with great force and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there." On Sunday, National security adviser Mike Waltz confirmed that weekend airstrikes took out "multiple Houthi leaders." The Houthis have been targeting military and commercial shipping for the past two years in the Red Sea, a critical route for global commercial trade. Waltz has said he would not rule out military action against Iran over its backing of the Houthis or its nuclear aspirations. On Saturday, Trump warned Houthi terrorists, "Your time is up." "The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective," Trump wrote in a statement. "The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important waterways of the world, grinding vast swaths of global commerce to a halt and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which international trade and commerce depends." "To all Houthi terrorists," Trump added, "Your time is up and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don't, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before!" President Trump ordered the U.S. military attack on Saturday. "I have ordered the United States military to launch decisive and powerful military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen," Trump said. "They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism against American and other ships, aircraft and drones," he added. "President Joe Biden's response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going." On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Houthi-led Yemen health ministry said in a statement that 53 people, including five children and two women, had been killed in the Yemen airstrikes. The Houthis later claimed they had targeted the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the northern Red Sea with drones and missiles, according to Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree. It is unclear if any of the Houthi strikes hit the carrier.
