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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


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:18PM (6 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:18PM (#511235) Journal

    How many times now have the people voted for a complete change of government? Bush senior to Clinton. Then Clinton to Bush. Then Bush to Obama. Then Obama to Trump.

    Say whaaaa? Change? Where? They see-sawed between two factions of a single party. Real change would require dropping the reelection rate below 70%. And it will also require removal of the dem/rep monolith that is monopolizing the narrative so successfully.

    All people have to do is be conscious when they vote. This automatic *one or the other* will just keep dragging us down.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:54PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:54PM (#511254) Journal

    Have you looked at either the Libertarian Party or the Greens? This last election convinced me that they were both as bad, or worse, then the Democrats, if not in quite the same way. I dislike the Republicans more because they don't give two shits about what happens to most people, where the Democrats at least make a half-hearted attempt to make things better, even if that's not their main interest. And a few Democrats actually seem to spend most of their time working for the public good...not the powerful ones, but some. (I haven't really followed Bernie Sanders. He might be OK, but he also doesn't have real hold of the levers of power.)

    --
    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, @06:26PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:26PM (#511279)

      > Have you looked at either the Libertarian Party or the Greens?

      The libertarians have a nazi problem. [twitter.com]

      I gave Ron Paul a pass when he published those newsletters that had a couple of racist columns [washingtonpost.com] in them because he wasn't the author and they probably had a shoe-string budget which makes it easy for things slip by. But not any more. Combine that with the party being a tool of the Koch's [blogspot.com] and no thank you.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:54PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:54PM (#511255) Journal

    You correctly identify the problem, as I pointed it out. The people voted for change, because they believed it could happen. You and I point out that no change has happened. What you conclude should be obvious that we have a two headed monster that dominates the narrative and keeps the people divided. And divide is getting more bitter. At some point maybe even violent. I had suggested that maybe people might wake up and recognize their vote seems to change nothing.

    It is a nice fantasy of people being conscious when they vote. Just thinking about statistics, in any large group of many millions of people, half will be below average intelligence. Also, there are plenty of people who are ignorant and proud of it. People are not going to think outside the box. The box was constructed for them to feel safe voting for one or the other.

    Don't try to think outside the box, for that is impossible. Only try to realize the truth. There is no box.

    So I don't know. Will people eventually figure out how to change things? One big problem is Lesterville. (Google for: lawrence lessig lesterville ted talk) So how do you fix that? Can it be fixed? I think not, sadly.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:40PM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:40PM (#511291) Journal

      Correction: The box was constructed [by] them to feel safe voting for one or the other.

      So how do you fix that? Can it be fixed?

      Start by recognizing that the woulds are self inflicted. But that won't happen either. The human path is evolutionary, not revolutionary. All the old natural instinctive forces still dominate. All our fancy tech and 'philosophy' do not belie our most basic animal motivations, on the contrary, it is all done to fortify and rationalize them.

      Solution? Try not to think about it :-)

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:43PM

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:43PM (#511294) Journal

        woulds?

        Let me come in again

        wounds...

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:07PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:07PM (#511340) Journal

      Just thinking about statistics, in any large group of many millions of people, half will be below average intelligence.

      Well, are you talking median or mean? 'Cause if it's the latter, it could be a few really stupid people skewing the results. In my home state, we call them, "North Dakotans." (I kid! I kid!)

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.