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posted by on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the leakers-are-everywhere dept.

President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation, two U.S. officials said on Monday, plunging the White House into another controversy just months into Trump's short tenure in office.

The intelligence, shared at a meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, was supplied by a U.S. ally in the fight against the militant group, both officials with knowledge of the situation said.

The White House declared the allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, incorrect.

[...] One of the officials said the intelligence discussed by Trump in his meeting with Lavrov was classified "Top Secret" and held in a secure "compartment" to which only a handful of intelligence officials have access.

After Trump's disclosure of the information, which one of the officials described as spontaneous, officials immediately called the CIA and the National Security Agency, both of which have agreements with a number of allied intelligence services around the world, and informed them what had happened.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKCN18B2MX

Also at The Washington Post and The New York Times.

[Update.] According to Ars Technica, President Trump then proceeded to Tweet information about this meeting:

Statements from President Trump on Twitter and from White House National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster did not directly contradict details initially reported by the Washington Post late on Monday. McMaster said that no sources or methods were exposed in the conversation. However, the unnamed officials cited in the Post report were concerned that Trump's citing of the exact location "in the Islamic State’s territory where the US intelligence partner detected the threat" could expose the source. Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted:

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

Trump also lashed out at the intelligence community for leaking about his actions:

I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:35PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:35PM (#511036)

    Fuck you.
    Seriously.

    Assange was a huge richard for starting that conspiracy theory - which he was shamed into retract.
    And then Fox news was an entire bag of richards when they made up everything.

    But Tuesday afternoon, Wheeler told CNN he had no evidence to suggest Rich had contacted Wikileaks before his death.

    Wheeler instead said he only learned about the possible existence of such evidence through the reporter he spoke to for the FoxNews.com story. He explained that the comments he made to WTTG-TV were intended to simply preview Fox News' Tuesday story. The WTTG-TV news director did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    "I only got that [information] from the reporter at Fox News," Wheeler told CNN.

    Earlier Tuesday, Brad Bauman, a spokesman for the Rich family, released a statement in which he said the family had "seen no evidence" to suggest Seth Rich had been in contact with Wikileaks.

    Bauman told CNN the outlets that had run with the story "have shown over and over again that they are willing to lie and manipulate the facts" to further "their own political end."

    "I think it's important for everyone at Fox News to be careful with this information and how this story breaks because using the legacy of a murder victim in such an overtly political way is morally reprehensible," he said.

    http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/16/media/seth-rich-family-response-claims-of-wikileaks-contact/index.html [cnn.com]

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:39PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:39PM (#511289)

    Right now Soylentnews has a story submission claiming that the "family" has denied things. Here is what wikileaks has to say about the "family" representative, and it is damning:

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/763852003093217280?lang=en [twitter.com]

    The actual family has not denied anything. (Know any soylentnews editors? We don't need to parrot the DNC's emergency PR spin.)

    Everything looks really suspicious: shot in the back, nothing taken but declared a robbery, was talking but then dies in the hospital (a 5% chance for similar injuries who arrive with a heartbeat), FBI grabs his laptop within hours (not normal for a shooting on the street), the DC police are told to stand down from the investigation, in the past 9 years Seth is the only person killed within 1500 feet of that spot, he had enemies (having leaked DNC email to wikileaks), and... here is a particularly relevant email from Podesta, Hillary's campaign manager:

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/792875315920048128 [twitter.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:20PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:20PM (#511397)

      > Here is what wikileaks has to say about the "family" representative, and it is damning:
      > The actual family has not denied anything.

      Check the date. Wikileaks made that claim almost a year ago. He's still speaking for the family.
      Your conspiracy freak shit is tiring as fuck.

      But thanks for giving me one more reason to distrust wikileaks.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:54PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:54PM (#511414)

        The guy is paid to do emergency crisis public relations for the democrats.

        Maybe the family still likes democrats, maybe they fear for their lives, maybe they are getting paid... whatever. Isn't it odd that he is involved?

        It's as if the democrats really do have something shady to cover up, and are willing to pay money to do so.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:41PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:41PM (#511431)

          > Maybe the family still likes democrats, maybe they fear for their lives, maybe they are getting paid... whatever. Isn't it odd that he is involved?

          No it is not odd at all. Seth Rich worked for the DNC. A murder is not a common event. It is reasonable that the DNC would take it seriously and wikileak's attempt to spin it into a conspiracy made a horroble situation into a crisis for the family because of all the assholes LIKE YOU who came out of the woodwork in response. The last thing the family needs is to get pizzagated.

          Stop being a fucking tool.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @03:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @03:50AM (#511532)

      > The actual family has not denied anything

      SETH RICH'S BROTHER HAS DENIED EVERYTHING

      Aaron Rich, Mr. Rich’s brother, said in an email Wednesday that Mr. Wheeler had “discredited himself as an objective investigator” and had lost the confidence of the family. He said that the politicization of his brother’s death had been “painful” and “debilitating.”

      “Why everyone feels the need to use his death for their own motives is beyond us,” he wrote. “We simply want to find his killers and grieve. Instead, we are stuck having to constantly fight against non-facts, baseless allegations, and general stupidity to defend my brother’s name and legacy.”

      He continued, “This only prevents us from moving forward in our grieving and distracts from answering the only question that matters — Who murdered my brother and my parents’ son, Seth?”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/seth-rich-dnc-wikileaks.html [nytimes.com]

      > FBI grabs his laptop within hours

      THE FBI DID NOT TAKE HIS LAPTOP AND WAS NEVER INVOLVED

      Speaking with Newsweek on Wednesday, Braud Bauman, the family’s representative, says he also has knowledge that the FBI is not investigating Rich’s murder. “We have said all along that the fundamental facts that underline yesterday’s story were false, including the FBI’s investigation, which does not exist, and their role in ever having, seeing or otherwise possessing computer equipment or other equipment that belonged to Seth Rich, either in a personal or professional capacity,”

      http://www.newsweek.com/seth-rich-dnc-staffer-wikileaks-leaked-emails-fbi-610383 [newsweek.com]

      > the DC police are told to stand down from the investigation,

      THE DC POLICE WERE NOT TOLD TO STAND DOWN AND ARE STILL INVESTIGATING

      an investigation by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department remains active, according to the department. “We continue to work with the family to bring closure to this case, as we do with all homicide investigations,” a police spokesperson said in a statement.

      http://www.newsweek.com/seth-rich-dnc-staffer-wikileaks-leaked-emails-fbi-610383 [newsweek.com]

      > having leaked DNC email to wikileaks

      HE DID NOT LEAK ANYTHING TO WIKILEAKS

      WikiLeaks backed off the claim, saying his statement "should not be taken to imply that Seth Rich was a source for WikiLeaks," nor that his death was connected to the leaked emails.

      https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexcampbell/seth-rich-family-refutes-report [buzzfeed.com]

      > here is a particularly relevant email from Podesta, Hillary's campaign manager:

      THAT EMAIL SAYS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT SETH RICH