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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
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:15PM (8 children)
You obviously missed the subtle differences between a mere secretary, and a Commander in Chief. You missed another subtlety, as well. The bit about protocols - Trump obviously holds the authority, but did he observe protocols? But, when you're a partisan, shooting from the hip, you can't be expected to notice subtleties, can you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:02PM (6 children)
Trump receives TS-SCI information in a SCIF during a classified briefing from the national security council and blurts it out to top russians in person during a fit of braggadocio.
Clinton is sent unmarked TS-SCI information from a program she is not read on to in email, over the internet, from a civilian who holds no clearance himself and forwards it to other people in the department of state who have a working interest in the information.
The differences sure are subtle.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:18PM (3 children)
Need the ROFLcopter for this one! You partisans sure have helluva imaginations. Anonymous fucks on the interwebs don't email classified shit to secretaries of state.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:22PM (2 children)
> Anonymous fucks on the interwebs don't email classified shit to secretaries of state.
I never said he was anonymous.
It was Sidney Blumenthal. [breitbart.com]
> You partisans sure have helluva imaginations
I'm sure it comforts you to believe your ignorance is actually knowledge.
Nonetheless you are totally fucking ignorant of what you are talking about.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
Actually, it was Hillary who was totally fucking ignorant - but if it makes you feel better, you can have the last word in this joke of a conversation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:46PM
> Actually, it was Hillary who was totally fucking ignorant
Nope. Its you.
> you can have the last word in this joke of a conversation.
You are the one who started the idiotic joke, its only fitting that I'm the one to end it.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:46PM (1 child)
IIRC, the information *was* marked as confidential...but the marking wasn't blatant. When I saw a report (On SoylentNews: how accurate?) at the time my thought is that *I* would have thought it meant copyright.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:34PM
> IIRC, the information *was* marked as confidential...but the marking wasn't blatant.
That was a separate incident.
A line item was marked (C) (for classified) in error because it had been declassified. A couple of marking slipped through. It happens because people are fallible and if you do enough documents you will eventually miss a couple of markings.
It was her call sheet and call sheets are kept classified in case the SecState decides not to make the call, the fact that she cancelled a call might be embarrassing for the cancelled callee. But once the call is made its declassified as a matter of routine because the fact that the call happened is a matter of public record.
You can verify that the documents in question are declassified because the Dept of State released them in response to a FOIA. The government never publishes classified documents and being leaked does not cause them to be declassified.
https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_Jan29thWeb/O-2015-08637HCE10/DOC_0C05796118/C05796118.pdf [state.gov]
https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_NovWeb/267/DOC_0C05791537/C05791537.pdf [state.gov]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:35PM
You obviously missed the subtle differences between a mere secretary, and a Commander in Chief.
Did I? Because you seem to have had a problem when Obama allegedly did it. [soylentnews.org]